I am a wizard! And other adventures in Sorrento

From Florence we headed towards our last stop in Italy. Our stay in Sorrento was short and we soon regretted allotting too little time to the beautiful coastal town. In addition to the charm of the city, our hostel was amazing, thanks to the reccomendation of a few Delta Gammas back home. The hostel's top floor terrace possessed one of the best views in Sorrento, a great restaurant, and very comfortable lounge chairs!


The first night there we explored the downtown area, and then returned to the hostel to grab dinner. We soon made many friends at the hostel's restaurant and made plans to join one of our new friends in the trek to Pompeii the next morning. Holding true to our promise, the next morning we woke up early and met our friend for a quick breakfast and then trip to Pompeii. We were all amazed at the ancient city's ruins. The city still possessed much of its artwork on the walls, while the layout of the city and its homes were also rival with present day city layouts. By the time we were done exploring Pompeii, we where glad that our new friend had pushed us to get to the cite early. As we made our way to the exit, loads of tourists started pushing their way in.
After lunch we returned to our hostel to book a ferry to Croatia for the following day. Here Melissa was greeted by her new number one fan. The owner of the hostel was a younger gentleman, who happened to take a huge liking to Melissa. Although Melissa was definitely not interested, I benefited greatly and did not mind all of the freebies. However, karma would catch up eventually, as I later found I also had a new admirer that worked at the hostel... That night we ventured out to a notoriously great seafood restaurant, recommended to us by some locals. We sat on the restaurant's back terrace, that overlooked the ocean and sunset (the picture for this post was our view from our table), shared a wonderful meal together, and headed back. After dinner, we remembered that it was in fact a Saturday, not to mention our last night in Sorrento, so we decided to go out with some of our new found friends (not our admirers). For a decent fee, the hostel provided a shuttle to take and pick up guests from the downtown bar area. We danced the night away and had a great night. When we returned to the hostel we both ran back to our rooms, hoping to avoid our friends that worked there, however Mel was not as lucky as I. Mel's friend intercepted her run for it long enough to get a hug, and a sneaky kiss on the cheek. Luckily Mel was able to soon say her goodbyes and join me for a good night sleep. The next morning would mark the start of yet another adventure as we headed out early to catch the ferry in Bari towards Croatia.

*Side Note: Please note the name of this blog post. A few days after arriving in Croatia, I received a friend request and message from my Sorrento admirer. Which means that there is probably not much confidentiality in Italian hostels, seeing as my last name and email that I use on facebook are different than the ones I use for our hostel reservations.
The message from him read: "I found you!!"
I replied, "Yes you did!"
He then replied, "I'm a wizard!"
I hope this gives all of our readers some insight into why we had to run for it!

A Taste of Tuscany

After gladly leaving Pisa, we were immediately in a good mood upon arrival in Florence. Not only was it easy to find our hostel, but the hostel was big and clean and they spoke good English! We checked into our room (which had a personal shower and a blow dryer!) and then headed out for some dinner. We found a great pizza place nearby then headed up to the rooftop terrace of our hostel to see the breathtaking view and watch the sunset with a glass of wine. We called it an early night because we had a big day of sightseeing ahead of us.

We awoke early to have some breakfast before the bus for our tour left at 8 am. We discovered this great cafe nearby that had great breakfast sandwiches and arrived back at our hostel just in time to board the bus. The night before, when signing up for the tour, we told Stephano, our guide, that we may be a bit tired at 8 am and he informed us that it would be okay because it was an hour drive to our first destination. Therefore, armed with our ipods we prepared ourselves for a nice morning nap. WRONG. Immediately, Melissa was called out by Stephano on the microphone so everyone could witness her getting a few Zs in the backrow. Needless to say, we remained awake for the remainder of the trip.

(Stephano was a lively tour guide who loved his microphone. He also continued to tell jokes the whole time but proceeded to laugh at them before he even said the punch line. Stephano also looked like he just rolled out of bed which added to the entertainment. )

Our first stop was in San Gimignano, the famous walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, where we had free time to wander through the narrow and characteristic streets and check out the local shops selling the delicacies of Tuscany. And of course we had to stop at the world champion gelato place: Pluripremiata Gelateria. There we experienced gelato flavors like no other including raspberry/rosemary and blackberry/lavender. Delicious!

The second stop was at a local winery located in a stunning area of the Tuscan countryside well known for the production of the D.O.C.G Vernaccia white wine. It faces the famous towers of San Gimignano and surrounded by rolling hills, vines and olive grooves. Here we learned about the production of wine and olive oil from the wine maker, tasted some of the best wines produced in the Chianti region and enjoyed a home style lunch based on local Tuscan ingredients. The lunch was a little disappointing as we were expecting hearty dishes of pasta and tomatoes, etc but received a few crackers with some spreads on it and some bread mixed in a bowl with tomato sauce. It did provide us though with the opportuniy to bond with the new friends we had made though: 2 girls from Texas and 3 boys from LA.

After lunch we stopped in a second winery, 20 minutes from Siena, for a chianti wine sampling. This was a brief stop but was a great location in the Chianti area to admire the walls of Monteriggioni, one of the most preserved medieval towns of Tuscany, and help ourselves to the remaining bottle of wine from the tasting with our new friends. :)

Last but not least we headed to the historic city of Siena where we were amazed by the architectural styles of the Cathedral and the Palazzo Comunale in Piazza del Campo, the stage of the famous Palio horse race held twice a year.

As soon as we got back from the long day of sight seeing, the boys invited us to watch the sunset with them at Piazza Michaelangelo. We grabbed a bottle of wine and headed out for the 40 minute walk to the Piazza that culminated in a steep staircase. It was such a breathtaking view! Probably a hundred people joined us on the stairs that overlooked Florence and its major attractions. This is a sight that pictures will barely do justice for it really is a different sun in Florence.

We continued our night at the hostel bar where we danced at what seemed to be a middle school dance party. Not only did we feel old, but also felt like we were chaperoning. Nevertheless, it was a great day seeing the sights and meeting new people.

Following an exhausting day, we decided to listen to our bodies and take a day to relax. We curled up with our books and had much needed down time in this whirlwind of backpacking we have been doing.

Day 3 in Florence brought us David. After searching the city for a place that made omlets, we stood in line for 2 hours because we didnt make reservations for the Accedamia museum. Michaelangelo's David was worth the wait. It lived up to the hype more than most of the other art pieces we have seen. And we learned that the David was created to show David after his defeat of Goliath! Who knew it was the same person!

After realizing that it would be impossible to see the Birth of Venus at the Uffizi Museum since reservations had to be made at least a month in advance, we ended our evening climbing up to the Piazza once more to watch the sunset.

Day 4 was very stormy. The thunder and lightening storms seem to be following us wherever we go! We got trapped in a cafe nearby (our favorite restaurant of the trip) for about an hour as the streets practically flooded from the water. As soon as it calmed, we rushed back to our room to throw on our rain jackets and hopefully beat the crowds as we climbed the Duomo. We were lucky the clouds had cleared so we were able to witness the incredible view!

Overall, we had a great experience in Florence and recommend it to all! It was both relaxing and filled with sightseeing. The locals were very kind and the food was great. Our next stop from Florence was Sorrento and we were excited to see this beautiful beach town!

Ciao for now.

We are still trying to figure out how to upload pictures without a computer! Stay posted.