Sorrento

We left Virginia and the tall mounds of dirty snow behind. We landed in Rome around 8 a.m. and were one of the few people to get a rental car. Saturday must be laundry day in italy because most of the balconies in the apartment buildings had laundry drying on them. Here in Sorrento it's chilly - in the 50's but there are ripe orange and lemon trees everywhere. The hotel garden has camellias and rosemary bushes in bloom. Cyclamen and birds of paradise are all around. A rooster crowing woke us up this morning (in town). We took the train to Pompei and saw orange and lemon "groves" right up to the railroad tracks. Everyone with some land seems to have fruit trees and gardens. Now i understand my Italian grandfather's need to garden a little better. But enough of the beauty, we drove from Rome and were surprised to see vendors at toll booths trying to sell stuffed animals or trinkets to you while you wait in line to pay the toll. Also, the scooter riders are INSANE! We were in a long line of traffic going up twisty two lane roads. The motorcylists and scooter riders were weaving in and out of traffic and riding down the middle of road at full speed - showing no fear. The other bizarre thing was having little children (maybe 3 or 4 years old) going from train car to train car begging for money. Pompeii was amazing - so much bigger and more technologically advanced than we had imagined. We spent about 5 hours there. No one seems to want to hear my Italian. It is pitiful that we must only be in tourist traps because everyone is speaking English to us.