Luisita and myself in Sorrento Naples
We arrived in the bay of Naples, Sorrento late at night and from the coach window we saw the gaiety of the southern Italians promenading, singing and enjoying the glorious and warm nights. Lights were turned on everywhere and restaurants, pubs,houses and streets invited the visitor to have a good time. Tourists was and still is one of the greatest industries that keep this part of the world alive. Our hotel was bright and colorful giving us extra joy. We rested and awoke to new surroundings once more with a bit of nostalgia. We were approaching the end part of the Italian territory and from there we could only go back which meant our vacation days were almost over...
Luisita, and I were the main attraction in our group as we were like two children marvelling at the simplest of things. I believe we enhanced the trip to our companions on many occasions with our innocence and our lust for life. We were taken to see the Grotto by boat. This is a trip that every tourist is taken to and it is worth the experience. The Adriatic sea is at its bluest in the southern part, and one is tempted to investigate the water in one´s hand, to see if it is really that blue, but no, it is not blue it is the effect of the sun,the terrain and the beauty that this universe has granted to us. The Grotta Azzura is inside a mountain and the entrance is concealed and small, giving it the extra excitement and wonder as you are told to lower your head as the boat penetrates the wall and takes you to this marvel inside the mountain. To describe it, is difficult, its beauty is in the colour,the coolness and the difference...
We arrived in the bay of Naples, Sorrento late at night and from the coach window we saw the gaiety of the southern Italians promenading, singing and enjoying the glorious and warm nights. Lights were turned on everywhere and restaurants, pubs,houses and streets invited the visitor to have a good time. Tourists was and still is one of the greatest industries that keep this part of the world alive. Our hotel was bright and colorful giving us extra joy. We rested and awoke to new surroundings once more with a bit of nostalgia. We were approaching the end part of the Italian territory and from there we could only go back which meant our vacation days were almost over...
Luisita, and I were the main attraction in our group as we were like two children marvelling at the simplest of things. I believe we enhanced the trip to our companions on many occasions with our innocence and our lust for life. We were taken to see the Grotto by boat. This is a trip that every tourist is taken to and it is worth the experience. The Adriatic sea is at its bluest in the southern part, and one is tempted to investigate the water in one´s hand, to see if it is really that blue, but no, it is not blue it is the effect of the sun,the terrain and the beauty that this universe has granted to us. The Grotta Azzura is inside a mountain and the entrance is concealed and small, giving it the extra excitement and wonder as you are told to lower your head as the boat penetrates the wall and takes you to this marvel inside the mountain. To describe it, is difficult, its beauty is in the colour,the coolness and the difference...
What a day! How can one not be happy. We were taken by a larger boat to lunch and a trip to Capri. I am of the opinion that one has to travel when one is young. Alas, many people cannot afford this luxury until after retirement. (I only achieved it through irresponsiblility, my parents would have benefited from the money I spent during the trip)
I know myself I could not now enjoy going up the hill all the way to Ana Capry and its incredible view at the top of the mountain. I am not surprised that Pablo Neruda with his partner Matilda Aturria chose it as his residence during his exile , and wrote Los Versos del Capitan.
Capri and its rival Anacapri, is situated up the mountain. A large list of famous people from cinema, politics, painters, intellectuals, writers and some exiled personalities, chose the island as their permanent or temporary residence and gave testimony to its beauty. Contrary to many endorsements of beauty Goethe proclaimed that it was a rock without much interest.
The beauty of this territory is very pleasing to the eye of the tourist that travels by car,well fed and without a care in the world. For the peasant may not have been as agreeable, for its geographic situation makes agriculture and farming very strenuous employment I am sure.
In Capri we had more spaghetti for lunch and without further a do, the long walk to Anna Capri begun. It is a narrow road going uphill all the way. It was hot and with our bellies full of Italian pasta the going was hard. The imposing view from the top was rewarding, the spirit wondered, the mind questioned the unbelievable horizon in front of us, and the wind refreshed our souls....
This vacation never ceased to stop offering opportunity for learning and variety of landscape and heritage. Our next trip was to be Pompeii.
Pompeii is situated in another impressive mountain in the vicinity of the Vesuvius volcano. It impressed me no end, to see with my own eyes people frozen in stone in the posture that the lava found them... Pompeii was a modern city and its advance is depicted in their artistic walls in the bath houses, kitchens and museums. The stones in the roads demonstrate the busy life that Pompeii enjoyed for many years. The carts wheels have carved a dent in the street stones that only years of transit could have done. They enjoyed hot and cold water and even shaving blades were found among other modern equipment and tools, it is difficult to imagine that all of that existed more than two thousand years ago, and yet, in 1950 we were in such decadence that such luxuries as hot water in baths were not known for a generation...
More pictures were taken in our cheap Kodak cameras. These have stood the passing of time and 40 years later I am able to scan them to my blog...
In Sorrento we enjoyed more of the same spaghetti dinners,drinks and serenades being sung in every cafe in the street. The young Italian men were very attentive and added to our vacation the pleasures of the young...
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