New Year’s Eve Day Trip

There is this feeling of the “need” to hurry up and travel.  I am not sure if this is a common feeling for other people living overseas.  The fact that we aren't established yet doesn't seem to matter on the traveling front.  And we don't want to be the only people who haven't been someplace cool.  One of the vows we made when Matt and I decided to accept orders to Napoli, was that we would travel and experience Europe.  We weren’t going to spend three years in Europe and only see the basic areas where we were living.  And we weren’t going to let having a newborn (and a dog) keep us from missing opportunities to travel.  Of course this is much easier said than done!  Matt had several four day weekends because of Christmas and New Years and he didn’t want to “waste” them.  We decided to go to Roma for Christmas Eve but I told him I didn’t want to spend the night because I wanted to do Christmas and I didn’t want to leave the dog.  So, needless to say the dog and the baby are going to affect our travels.  I think eventually we will find people who will be willing to dog sit so we can do more than local day trips!  For New Year’s, we decided to copy some of our friends here and drive to Sorrento for the day.

The drive down the coast was unbelievable.  It was a curvy road with very high cliffs that looked very scary but the view was amazing.  It was one of the roads that you want to drive because it is curvy and fun to drive but you want to be the passenger so you can stare out of the window at all the landscape passing the windows.  Periodically there were little overlooks where you can stop the car and enjoy the view, take pictures, and even eat a Panini from the Panini truck! Here are a few pictures to whet your appetite:

I know you want to visit even more now!  When we got into Sorrento, we realized we would have to find parking with the big Explorer!  This could be very challenging and scary.  We drove through the town square and didn’t find anything so we went back towards the bus station.  Luckily there was a parking garage at the bus station which was walking distance from downtown. We have been told many times that our car will be broken into or we will be pick pocketed while we are here.  So of course we are paranoid to leave anything in the car, including the car seat!  But today we decided we would try to leave the car seat in the car and take the stroller instead of the ERGO.  We walked into the downtown square which was still decorated for Christmas and was VERY crowded even though this was the off season for Sorrento (in the summer the population is doubled with tourist!)

Since the drive was about an hour and a half, I was hungry when we got to Sorrento.  We wandered a few streets looking for a restaurant to eat a nice lunch.  For lunch we shared a Caprese salad and some delicious calamari.  During the lunch, the table next to us started talking to us about the baby.  It was an older couple and the woman really liked the baby.  And the baby liked listening to her speak.  Of course, we have no clue what she was saying, except when she asked how old the baby was and told us she was beautiful.  She got the waiter to try to translate and one of the other things she was trying to say was that the baby looked like me!  This was one of the few times someone said the baby looked like me and not Matt!  We asked another waiter where we should go in town and he recommended a local park with an extraordinary view.  So we got the baby all snuggled up in her stroller and walked to the park.  It was a very nice view but a little too windy to hang out for an extended amount of time. 

When we left the park, we ran into the friends whose idea we stole to come to Sorrento! We found the street shopping of Sorrento!  Matt’s brother would have LOVED this narrow street with shopping GALORE! As I have mentioned we are not shoppers but we still enjoyed looking at all the wonderful stuff.  There was a taste tester of Lemonicello and Meloncello.  This was the first time I tasted either and they were both MUCH stronger than I anticipated!  My endurance for shopping ran out before Matt’s and I needed to refuel.  Of course I want to eat the yummy treats or drink a delicious coffee but I had already started my Weight Watchers adventure so I settled for my apple.  It was probably one of the most disappointing apples ever.  We strolled around Sorrento a little more but it was starting to get chilly and we still had to drive back to Napoli.  We hiked back to the car and saw some of the coolest trees but of course didn’t take a picture! During this day trip, I learned that we are able to maneuver through the streets with our stroller and that I must bring lots of snacks to help stay on the plan.

 On the drive back, we stopped at one of the overlooks to watch the sunset.  It was beautiful and a wonderful way to end a very exciting and life changing year: a sunset in Sorrento:

Last New Year’s eve, we were in California celebrating the wedding of two of our friends with no clue that in one year, we would have a daughter and live in Italy.  What an adventure!