Saturday October 22nd
It was really nice to be in Sorrento for a couple of nights, to know where I was going and the best way to get there. But it’s time to strike out and see some new things. Ercolano as I mentioned was destroyed by Vesuveus, and then built right on top of in more modern days. But now it gives a bit of a glimpse into how the better half lived in those days. Two story houses, courtyards, pieces of furniture, and you can even see a little piece of fabric that has survived all this time. It is much smaller than Pompeii, but you should still schedule a couple of hours to wander around.
From Ercolano we headed to Caserta, and La Reggia Palace. It’s often compared to Versailles in France. I’ve never seen Versailles, so I don’t know, but the sheer size is incredible. From the back door of the palace to the end of the gardens is more than 2 Km. They offer carriage rides which we didn’t take them up on, but if they had been waiting on the other end for the return trip I think I would have gladly paid. Pools, waterfalls, sculptures, shrubbery, etc. La Reggia has a lot of ground to cover, on the inside and out. Give yourself a few hours to take it all in
We were hoping to take a big detour and head to Campobasso which is where our great grandfather is from. But by the time we got out of the gardens it was already approaching sundown. Because the plan is to be just south of Rome tomorrow, we decided against it. As such we found a great agriturismo right in the area that we are set to start in tomorrow. Agriturismo Agropolis www.agropolisagriturismo.net was hard to see at night, so I’ll save the description for the morning.
On a side note, I’ve heard through “La vigna dell’uva” (grapevine) that the blog is boring. I’d like to respond to that by saying this; This is not supposed to be full of anecdotes, it is supposed to let you the reader know where we are and what we’ve seen, the places we’ve stayed, and sometimes a little about the people we’ve met. We want to give you ideas to further explore, not tell you every single thing about the towns. Beyond that, we’re covering as much ground in 2 days as a normal traveler does in a week. We arrive at our lodging late, and go to sleep even later. I wish that I had the time to sit on a lovely park bench and spend the day thinking of poetic things to say. Instead I’m trying my best to keep you all informed while my eyelids droop, and I try to get the next day planned out. When we’ve returned to the States I will try to liven it up a bit, until then please keep the afore mentioned reasoning in mind.