from Vesuvius.... the Haleakala of Europe....

Anyone who feels they do not have enough time to travel should know how it feels to be a continent away. At dinner Craig and I realize, we have not yet been in Italy 24 hours; we have not been away from home for 48 hours yet; and yet we are already so very far away and so many new experiences up.

we got in the holiday mood right away because of Lufthansa. what a difference a culture makes in terms of service and politeness.
We had a terrific flight on Lufthansa. Frequent flier miles or not, coach or not, they did not care... Individual screens at our seats. we watched The Artist and The Descendants; ate tasty food and free Campari and red wine and coffee at our whim; slept a lot and joked a lot. when we landed in Munich to learn the rather startling news that our Italy flight was oversold and we were 6 and 7 on the waitlist, their services helped us get right away onto a flight to Frankfurt so we only landed in Naples an hour late with 2 more adventurous flights. We really did fine.

Naples airport is so close to town, that within the hour we had taken a shuttle to town (3 euros), found our hotel the Mercure which is 2 short blocks off the square where the shuttle dropped us , checked in and walked a block or two down to a slate night pizzeria to ishare a pizza 'Quattro stagione': pizza (which naples invented) with one quarter Margherita which is their own tastier tomato sauce, one quarter 'fruits of the sea', one quarter 'four cheeses', one quarter artichokes. and local wine red which was tangy, a little on the raw side, but great with our tangy food. Ate on the sidewalk, on tables with Valentines day red tablecloths and a spunky little waitress. At midnight, still a lot of street action, north African guys walking past, a cute Algerian French couple next to us smoking and flirting, little Fiat 500s stopping to get their pizza to go, lots of laughing and chatting in the local musical south Italian where every sentence ends with a trailing down descant. Don't know how to write that down. 'arrividercciiiiiiiiii' cascading down the scale'
In the moonlight, we could see that our clean modern italian design type room's balcony looked down on a little formal patio with tables, next to the train tracks: the local Circumvesuvians, the "around Mt Vesuvius" suburban train, depot. The moon was a beautiful sliver with a very bright Venus. We Thought there may be train noise, but no, our sliding door windows had perfect sound proofing and we slept real well. In the morning we made ourselves get up early in the first rays of sunlight, the only way to switch time zones fast. and we were off and running.

Today we have done so much. In the early am we walked two blocks over to watch the local street fish market be set up. Its in a little narrow street, well all the streets are narrow, next to a giant stone gate to the original city from the 14th century. The handsome men set out, on ice, up large trays of so many species, most of them alive: clams from fingernail sized to fist size, snails, inky squid, octopus, sardines, silvery flashy eels, little silvery fish tied in little live action half circles, and live swimming fish, eels and shellfish everywhere. We had local breakfast: hot cappucino and flaky croissants with gooey chocolate while standing at the local bar's counter, much cheaper that way, 2 euros each for breakfast about $2.50 much better than Starbucks!

In the next few hous we explored all over Naples on foot, ending up, after dodging traffic which never stops, down a narrow pedestrian street which dates back to the original Greek town. We went into huge ornate frescoed churches; shopped for cheap fakes of luxury CDs purses and clothes; checked out palaces from all centuries, and glass roofed "Galerias" from the 1800s; sawthe glories of pompeii and herculaneum at the archaeological museum; ate the local pizza again, this time with Margherita sauce and with "7 cheeses".
A little comment on the beautiful mosaics from pompeii: we did not realize made from minute minute glass. Each portrait is much smaller than life size. not huge like we'd imagined. So beautiful! So detailed!
Finally we have taken a cute suburban train covered in graffiti an hour south to our next base for the next 2 nights, Sorrento, while being serenaded by local accordian "bands " on the train. Wanted to pay them, to make them go away.
Sorrento sits on limestone cliffs very sheer dropping into the bay of Naples. The main portion at first seemed soooo touristy compared to Naples but now we are in the swing of it. We were able to hike down from the cheesy tourist village into the authentic fishing villages, and back... By that time the local economy got into major action, really fun. Bought some murano glass, sampled lemon liqueurs, ate yet again.

all of this is in the bay of Naples, where Vesuvius, not that big but certainly fierce, presides, uneven and sharp, over a big ocean caldera which is surely going to blow again.. one of these days. Lots of boats of all sizes...

Our hotel here the Linda is actually a pension in an apartment building. A nice price 62 euros.

just wanted to discuss our menu tonight. At the Leone Rosso one of twenty restaurants in Sorrento. for openers: carpaccio of fresh octupus with fresh florence fennel, finocchio, which was in some light marinade, the octupus was in six inch disks a millimeter thick very good; with local white house wine from here in Sorrento, the town we are in, very good. the second course was a dish of rigatoni perfectly cooked with eggplants and sausage in a sauce of tender fresh cherry tomatoes, washed with red wine; both with fresh bread and fresh pizza crust dipped in golden fresh virgin olive oil, very fruity; folloed by a main course of fresh flash fried shrimp, squid tentacles, sardines and a local white fish; with more of the white wine; end of formal meal followed by gelatos of pistachio, dark chocolate, hazelnut and chocolate rum, from the gelateria next door. Meal for 2, 36 euros about $48. Gelatos not sure maybe $6.50 for both of us. Not too bad! Quality excellent

Tomorrow...which is now today since, due to jet lag, I'm up at five polishing this back up and listening to outrageous pre dawn birdsong...we go back on the same train, to the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Next day, along amalfi coast to Salerno where we will pick up our fast train down to Syracuse in Sicily.