Today I woke up early and adventured to two different Italian cities: Sorrento and Pompeii. The first stop was Sorrento. It is a small town in southern Italy that has 16,500 inhabitants and during the summer about 56,000. (Due to all the people who have vacation homes on this small coastal town.) There are two things that Sorrento is famous for: Firstly, lemons- they have the biggest lemon/lemon trees ever! Mom you will find this interesting: their lemon trees ripen three times a year, which is what allows them to make so many things containing lemons. They are famous for lemon soap, lemon candies, lemon chocolate, lemonceillo, lemonade and so many more lemony things. The second thing that Sorrento is famous for is inlaid wood work. There are countless shops around town that hand make these beautiful tables, music boxes, pictures, clocks and basically anything else you can think of that could be made out of wood. I ended up talking to one of the wood working shop owners who operated the shop with his dad and he showed me around the equipment explaining how everything works. It is quite the art and the pieces they make are ridiculously pretty (and expensive!)
Sorrento was home to the friendliest Italians that I have met. All of the small shop owners in downtown Sorrento loved to talk about their individual crafts and how they make their specialty. For instance I got into a conversation with this Italian lady who owned a tie making shop in Naples with her two sons and husband. All the ties she made were 100% silk but her business was known for introducing “new” colors (essentially ones what could be very fashionable in a few months but lots of people are bold enough to try yet.) The last shop owner I talked to was this nice old man asking me where I was from, how long I was in Italy, and if I had a boyfriend. When he asked the last question I made a quick escape from the shop. J
After a delicious and VERY filling meal at a local restaurant in Sorrento, it was on to Pompeii! In 79 A.D. Mount Vesuvius (at the time about an 8,000 ft high volcano) erupted and covered the town of Pompeii with burning ash and rock. Due to the fact that there was no molten lava, the entire city was perfectly preserved under about 20 feet of ash. In 1748, the Emperor of Naples began it’s excavation. It is still be excavated to this day.
For me, seeing Pompeii was kind of surreal. Ever since I was little, I absolutely loved reading the Magic Treehouse book series’ rendition of the explosion of Mount Vesuvius. Being able to see this city, walk the streets, and look in the houses was absolutely incredible. It is such incredible insight to what life was like so many years ago. There were bath houses (one for the men and one for the women) that were the places for people to take daily baths. The men’s had four rooms: a changing room, a washing room, a sauna, and a fredo room (for cold baths.) The women’s was basically the same except there was no fredo room because apparently women didn’t like cold baths.
After Pompeii, a shower was in order and then it was time for dinner. I would just like to say that I had the best dinner I have ever had in my life this night. It was a 4 course meal (for a very good price) and was recommended by a couple of my friend’s taxi driver. No one at the restaurant spoke a lick of English, but they were so understanding in trying to understand our hand motions and terrible Italian. The quality of this dinner was incredible and I feel like I need to touch on a little about what I had.
First Course: Pasta with fresh tomato sauce. When I say fresh I mean absolutely fresh. Not semi-a day old, but a completely 100% fresh and so delishishly sweet.
Second Course: Vegetables. I went with a group of 6 people and we all ordered a different vegetable for the second course. Included in the smattering were eggplant, carrots, spinach, zucchini, and something that tasted a bit like grilled papaya but was super incredibly good.
Third Course: Mozzarella, tomato, fresh basil, olives. The mozzarella was so fresh. Not the “buy at a grocery store kind of fresh” but more of an “I just milked the cow and make the cheese two minutes ago sort of fresh. It in itself was an absolutely exquisite experience for my taste buds.
Fourth Course: Watermelon. In Italy the traditional dessert at the local restaurants is to have a slice of whatever type of fruit is in season. Now, it is watermelon. Super sweet, super fresh, super awesome watermelon.
But, the best part of this meal was not the food. (Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing) The best part was the staff and the atmosphere. The group of friends I was with was the only non-local people eating there and so we were kind of a staring point. The entire time the boss was yelling, (very happily) greeting friends, and yelling “amore” to every lady he saw. Overall, it was exactly like in the movies: the crazy, slightly overweight Italian restaurant owner who just absolutely loves his job. When we tipped them at the end of the meal, there was a gaint tip bucket that they lowered on a string that was attached to the ceiling. When we put the money into the bucket everyone in the restaurant (and I literally mean everyone- customers and all) yelled “gratzi!!”
It was the greatest atmosphere and is something that I will never forget. I got a picture with all of my friends, the boss of the restaurant, and some random customer and waiter who sneaked into the picture as we were taking it. Having an experience like this really made me appreciated the importance of community and family and what a blessing it is J
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