Today was the first day we really wished we had planned a bit better on this trip. We’ve intentionally kept this trip from becoming itinerary-driven by only planning out one day in advance. We wanted it to stay restful, and not always feel like we had to meet our next wicket. Today, though, we arrived at Saint Peter’s Basilica hoping to be able to attend Sunday Mass with the Pope only to find out a few things: Read More
After seeing what a lovely room we’d booked, and how much there is to see in Tivoli, we asked Alessandro if we could book a second night with him. Unfortunately, he already had a prior reservation, so this morning, we packed up, had breakfast with Alessandro, and headed into town in the car. Parking was easy to find downtown, and we set off to start our tour of Tivoli. A short walk got us to Parco Villa Gregoriana, a stunningly beautiful park in what used to be called the Valley of Hell for the thunderous roar of a waterfall tearing down a ravine on the very edge of town. Three hundred years ago, local officials started a hydro-engineering project to redirect some of the water to prevent the town from being eroded away. Although there is still a waterfall in the gorge, it is no longer quite the raging torrent it used to be; much of the water is redirected through a tunnel to the other side of the park. Read More
We had a wonderful breakfast this morning at the Fattoria Terranova in Sorrento in the covered patio of the main farmhouse. It is so rustic and charming here, and the food is unbelievably delicious. Our hosts are friendly and courteous and have ensured we’ve had a wonderful time here. After packing up and checking out, we headed towards Positano, our original destination last night. Even though we ended up stopping here in Sorrento instead, I think it worked out better. The pace of life in Sorrento is wonderfully slow, and it was a great reminder to slow down and not try to take this trip too fast. Read More
This morning we finally got a rental car. Booked it online and picked it up from Capodichino Airport, Napoli. If we had reserved it at the Europcar counter in the airport, we would’ve been required to purchase full coverage (think CDW, but more expensive than in the USA), even though our credit card covers up to full value of the car. But if we reserved it online, we were not required to purchase full coverage, so the price was about 1/3 of the quoted price at the counter. Read More