Italy Days 1-4

Ciao! We are now in Sorrento, a small quaint town about 1.5hrs away from Naples by train.
Returned from a nice dinner by the sea had the Sorrento local speciality of gnocchi (potato filled pasta) in tomato sauce and mozerella cheese, ravioli stuffed with cheese and grilled calamari (so soft and succulent). Sorrento also specialises in Limoncillo (lemon flavoured alcohol), zzz should be grinning from ear to ear, but well, we probably cannot 'import' any over....:p

Spent the day in Pompeii, stayed and walked the ancient town in 5.5hrs and we are all zonked out. The archeological sites are amazing, some of our buildings are a reflection of those that were alreay standing 2,ooo years ago, like the 20,000 capacity grand amphitheatre, the sports staduim, common baths etc. In a way, is a strike off to one of the sites on my travel list, ever since i read the passage about the buried city during the O Level English paper, strange way of being attracted to a place but well.....

The past 2 days in Rome were spent walking around the city's famous momuments. The Trevi fountain, Pantheon (another 2,000 year old administration building), the Colosseo , Spanish steps, Palatine, Roman Forum. We were simply awestruck by the Sistine chapel and the Vatican city in all. How on earth could anyone (even if that someone IS Michaelangelo) paint the entire chapel in such striking paintings without leaving an inch untouched?

Oh! we also stopped over in Naples for THE original Napolitean pizza!! Place serves only 2 kinds of pizza, either magherita or marinara, guaranteed one of the best in Naples, we know judging from the Q snaking in front of the small shop (formed mostly by locals). The best thing about ths pizza is the simplicity of it all, just plain pizza dough and fresh ingredients.

Will be off to Florence (Firenze in Italian) tomorrow, where we will remain there for 3 days including a tuscany bike tour in between, then to Siena, Lucca, back to Rome and finally home.

More when we are back, Ciao (which means hello & goodbye) for now!!