Travel Post III

Well, we survived another day. After posting last night I chatted with the missionaries for a little bit, just catching up on developments in the mission. This morning we ran into a fourth set of missionaries in Florence. It was odd.

After chatting with the missionaries we ate some dinner at the same place we ate the first night in town. I had the Spaghetti alla Carbonara. It was really good.

After dinner, we decided to do some laundry. We were planning to do it tonight, but worried that we'd get in late and wouldn't be able to find the laundromat in time, and since we knew exactly where to find a laundromat in Florence and we had some free time we just did it there. It was a bit of an ordeal. The machine that gives tokens ate 5€, and from then on would only accept change (so I had to keep getting gelato to get change). The dryer didn't quite dry the clothes so we had to hang some out overnight. It's done though, and we smell like roses.

I loved Florence; it's a pretty city. The only thing I didn't care much for was the mosquitoes. They're everywhere! Not exaggerating at all, I have over 100 bites all over my body. It was too hot in the room to sleep with the window closed, and too hot to stay completely under the covers. As a result I have mosquito bites up and down both arms, all across my back (mostly the upper part) and on the lower half of my legs. On the plus side, we got to smash a whole bunch of blood-filled mosquitoes.

So this morning we packed up and headed out of Florence. We caught the 10:27 train, but of course the train was leaving from a different station so we had to sneak a ride on another train there. The train was full the whole way down; all five and a half hours. Then we had to switch to a regional train system (the Circumvesuviana) and it was absolutely miserable. At least on the other train we had a seat. On this one I was standing diagonally holding onto the pole to keep from tipping over. It only lasted an hour or so though.

Then we arrived in Sorrento and walked a little under a mile to the Bed and Breakfast where we're staying. The B&B made up for all the stress and trouble on the trains. The rooms are air conditioned, don't have mosquitoes, our TV is the size of our bathroom in our Paris hotel. There's everything we need here, including free internet access in the common room of the B&B. We had to pay for access in Florence.

I believe that our B&B in Rome will be very similar to this one. Good thing.

Oh, since getting in today we've just been getting our bearings. We did a little window shopping, ate some good seafood pasta down by the sea, and sat on a bench overlooking the Bay of Naples for a little while. It's been nice. Now we're getting ready for bed, and for sleeping in good tomorrow.

We've decided to scale back tomorrow's plan a bit. Instead of going to Pompeii, then the Museum in Napoli, we're just going to see Pompeii. That way we can leave a little later (that means sleep in) and have some time in the evening to relax. It also means we don't have to go into Napoli any more than we have to.

I loved Napoli as a missionary. It's a tough city to deal with; very hectic, very chaotic. And if I were here alone I probably wouldn't worry so much about it. But with other people that are Napoli street-wise it's best to limit our time there.

Anyway, hopefully my posts will be more frequent for the last half of the trip (yep, it's now half over). Ciao a tutti.