Day 68: Florence/Sorrento

Today I finally left Florence.  I checked out of my hotel around 10:00am and then walked to the train station to catch my 11:10am train.  I got to the station in plenty of time, but the train didn’t leave until 11:30am due to a twenty minute delay.

It took about three hours to get to Naples.  Once the train arrived, I had to catch the Circumvesuviana, a commuter train that was more like an above ground subway.  I got off at St. Angello, a small town outside of Sorrento.  The ride lasted about an hour, and despite it’s reputation, I haven’t ran into any pickpocketing in Naples or on it’s trains.

I walked the half mile to my hostel which turned out to be the nicest hostel I’ve stayed in yet.  It has a good bar and lounge area, and all the rooms have cold air conditioning.  After checking in, I dropped my backpack off and walked to Sorrento which was about a mile away.  Sorrento reminds me of Clearwater Beach; it’s a seaside tourist resort complete with palm trees and sunny weather, except its on the side of a mountain and has a lot more scooters.  After seeing how nice Sorrento was, I realized I should have spent one less night in Florence so I’d have two full days in Sorrento, and then use one of those days to go to the island of Capri.

I spent about an hour walking through the small town and taking some pictures.  I made a mistake of not figuring out the bus system so I got stuck walking down a lot of stairs in order to get down to the shore, but it was much worse walking back up.

I walked back to St. Angello and got dinner in the restaurant in my hostel.  While eating, I learned about Pompeii through watching a BBC show that someone ripped and posted on Youtube in anticipation for my trip tomorrow.  I got about halfway through it before deciding to call it a night around 12:30am.  I plan on waking up early and taking the Circumvesuviana halfway back towards Naples, and visit Pompeii.