Pandarific!!

Dawn came and the view from the hotel in Sorrento was wonderful as we were situated on top of the hill and you know you’re gonna get a nice view from heights like that. It was also good that the sky was clear, but just such a shame that we didn’t get to stay in Sorrento for long. Breakfast was simple and we met a group that came from Singapore that was kinda cool as we got to see some people from our side of the world for a while.

We had to leave early because we were going to the medieval town of sienna. And that was around 400 plus kilometres to travel in one day! Now skipping the very long journey, we reach our destination.

It is a nice little place where you’ve got lots of windy streets, and it’s on elevated ground so we have lanes that you can just run downhill or uphill, whichever way you’re coming from. This was also the first place we encountered toilets where you had to pay, yeah shocking because all the gas stop toilets were free and we were getting pretty used to that, haha.

The landmark we first went to was the square, which is kind of ironic because it is not a square, more like a circle really or a semicircle. But the point is, just imagine an amphitheatre semi circle, and you have it higher ground to lower ground. They have their major celebrations there which I imagine would be beautiful. The shops around the area were really nice as the restaurants have tables outside where the customers can just have their food and relax, chat and enjoy the ambience of the old town.

Right after that and some gelato, which I now regret not taking, we headed to the church. The unique thing about this church is that the walls are made of black and white marble. Normally churches just use white marble, the old one, but this was like a layered cake. The carvings on the front were absolutely detailed as usual. I tell you, I tried doing these carvings justice through my photos and videos but it is just not good enough, you need to see it for yourself, and I wish I could just touch it and look up close.

At the end of the day, we headed to our hotel, which is really an estate on the hills just 30 minutes away from Florence overlooking the vineyard and we stayed in apartments. This was a good change as we had been staying in typical hotel rooms for the past few days and this place just felt like a home. There was a kitchen, a living room, 2 bedrooms and it was really well furnished. We were also given the honour of dining with the owner of this estate and wow his house is so huge. The really Italian kind of home where you would see in period dramas. The whole dining experience was really good too as I’ve never done the whole formal dinner thing. I was a bit tired from all the travelling, but it was a really nice time. And that concludes day 4, nothing much compared to the other days because we spent so much time on the road. More to come on the day 5!

Although Rome was not built in a day, we had to tour it in one. So today we sadly left Rome, I admit I was a little surprised we spent so little time here after all I wanted to walk through the ancient forums, and I also did not check the itenary so that gave me a little surprise. As I said, I did not read the itenary and did not know we were going to visit Pompeii or how long it would take, when we reached Pompeii I was shocked as it looked pretty much intact. That was just the outside of the excavated area of course but being blur I didn’t know. As we walked to the entrance I could see more of it and got a better picture. Being tourists, we asked the guy if there were any discounts and to our surprise we got quite a good deal as certain age groups need not pay the full price. Can’t remember it right now but I know I just paid half price. The thing that surprised me was the tickets because there were prices for a 3 day pass and I was thinking, “Wow, why a three day pass, this is not Disneyland.”

The Fast Food Shop

I learnt later that you do need a three day pass if you a. went to every point of interest in the area. B. Wanted to read and really absorb all that was going on. C. A huge fan of the place (history lovers/ archaeologist enthusiasts, etc.) d. Did not figure out the map in the first few hours and thus wasted a lot of time getting lost (no I just made that one up). Seriously though, we thought we would just nee 1 hour, in the end we took 2 and a half hours and it was a good time for me because I just fell in love with the place. After a while you do get used to seeing just ruined buildings, but I felt it was just so magical and wonderful to walk down these streets where a whole bustling community was once situated. I tried to imagine how the buildings would look like when they weren’t destroyed and people actually walking around doing their daily chores and errands.

Bakery

Oven

Painting on a wall still very visible

Some highlights of the place that I must mention, places we went would be the bath house, this was in really good condition and if you get a tour guide, they’ll explain to you how the hot and cold bath works. We didn’t, we just depended on video’s we watched before and the audio guide we downloaded. The forum, the fast food shop, and yes I am serious. The bakery, the brothel, which by the way was still standing, with roof and all. The house of Faun, the mansion in this city because it was huge, it had a garden inside, loads of rooms, but the thing is there is just walls, no roof so that’s kind of sad. But on the bright side, the nice and beautiful mosaics on the wall and floors, some paintings were still visible even after all these years and many volcano eruptions. We of course saw some plaster moulds of the victims. This is done as the place where the body was would be hollow under the hardened magma. Why? Because the bones and flesh would have detiorated after all these years, so all they do is fill it up with plaster and when it hardens you can see the shape of the body. The bodies were the last movements of the victims and it was really sad to see some of them trying to cover their face and all. There was even a dog trying to protect her puppies.

A very well preserved mosaic

Note: Guide on how to get around in the Pompeii excavation area.

Another thing that I must mention is that it is really easy to get lost in this place, really really easy and it is harder to find the places of interest, all these are true if you do not figure out their mapping system. Ok show off time here, after some time of walking and almost getting lost trying to find the house of Faun I was feeling tired because there is a lot of walking. But I also noticed something on some ruins which was Italian words then IV or III. They are of course roman symbols for numbers then there were also these signs at certain areas that did not make sense to me as it was all in Italian. Ok don’t be scared yet, it’s really simple. The numbers represent the areas you’re in. Like zone 1, 2, and 3 and so on. And it is clearly labelled on the map they give you at the ticket area, make sure to get your free map and guide at the counter near the ticket area! Then the signs that I mentioned are like road sign boards, like Oxford Street something like that. So you figure out which area you’re in first, don’t worry the numbers are on most of the ruined buildings and then you find the street you’re on. Then please I hope you were paying attention during geography class, use north as your reference point and then figure out where you are or where you want to go. And yes, I am a girl and I figured it all by myself, so do not underestimate girls and maps.

A victim

After we left, we felt really tired, another thing I should mention is that there aren’t many toilets around and there is a mini cafeteria there in the site itself but if you wonder a bit too far and suddenly want to eat, you will just have to walk all the way back. And no, the ruined fast food places are not in operation. So take note, wanna go toilet or eat, do it when the facility is right in front of you.

And we had not eaten since breakfast, so desperate for food we ate at a restaurant in a hotel nearby, like just outside the site. It was 10 euro’s per person and that is really worth it because you get some really good spaghetti with clams and me being a non spaghetti fan just ate this one whole heartedly, then some friend squid and prawn, salad and dessert. I admit that some of the food was too salty but overall it was a good meal for the price we were paying.

By delaying our journey by almost 3 hours we had to rush into the van and get on to the amalfi coast. Before this I did not know what this whole Amalfi Coast thing was about, but that was soon history as we just saw miles and miles of road along the sea and how do I describe this? It’s like going up to genting highlands but instead you have the sea instead of trees and houses on the hills facing the sea, it’s just lovely and beautiful. Unfortunately we did not complete the whole thing as the sun set and it was dark. But even when it was, the lights from the houses made it really nice, like Christmas without the snow.

We reached the hotel we stayed in, a nice new place on top of the hills, with Sorrento just a 10 min ride away. Checked in and finally read my itenary, learnt my lesson by then. Found out that we would not be able to see the town in the morning as we had to leave so some of us took the shuttle to the town to explore all we could. Yes we were tired but it was so worth it. The places is not really big, you have many small lanes to explore and the shops are quite small too but have loads of interesting things to see. We stopped by at a random restaurant and ate pizza there. This is what I love about Italy, you don’t have to go to a certain place to eat good pizza, and it’s everywhere! And they don’t do thick crust like how it is done in America, it’s thin, crispy and you have the taste of the earthen oven in it. Well it was late and many of the shops were already closed once we left the restaurant. To sum up the place, I think it’s like a little village in a storybook. I’m sorry today I just not my day to describe things haha.

And that is my time in Pompeii and Sorrento.