The good life

Last week I went to Italy to meet up with Marty and the Murdock women (well, some of them aren't technically Murdocks, but might as well be) for a few days of sun. I flew into Naples, which seems to be the armpit of Italy, and got a train to Sorrento, near where they were staying. They were doing a very intense Italian vacation, including Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, Amalfi, and some other towns in between. I showed up to crash the party toward the end, so I missed out on what Marty described as a death march through the Vatican.
Fine by me. This year has done a lot to define my travel style (or at least to make me aware of it), and as it turns out, I'm more of a lazy, wandering tourist than a well-informed, guided tour sort of tourist (not that I don't plan), so I didn't mind. I got there in time for a little shopping, a little exploring, and a lot of laying in the sun. No museums, but lots of restaurants (hey, food is just as valid a cultural experience as art). Marty, Aubrey, and Aubrey's sister Amanda picked me up from the Sorrento train station without too much trouble (a minor miracle) and after meeting up with the rest of the group for lunch, we shopped. The other women hunted souvenirs and gifts - apparently Sorrento (along with the rest of the Amalfi coast) is known for more than limoncello (is it cough syrup? detergent?) - and what I can only see as grown up stuff. Linens. Sandals (not flip-flops). Inlaid wooden boxes, pottery, jewelry that can't get wet. Things that needed to be shipped home. Not really my thing, and since Marty and Aubrey decided that they wanted to go to a discotech some evening, I mostly helped them look for disco clothes and bling. Ten points to Marty for getting a store to close/kick us out by practicing some moves in the changing room. I guess Italians take fashion pretty seriously. Since we were staying at a villa far away from restaurants and with a kitchen, we cooked a lot at home. I would like to award ten points to Steph and Mary, who did some intense off-the-cuff cooking and made clear to me that there is more to impromptu cooking than pasta and curry. Since too many cooks will ruin the meal, I helped out by fetching fresh herbs from the enormous stone window boxes on the balcony and watching the ocean, drinking wine, and talking with the other non-cooks. We went to Capri, where I explored long enough to find a bakery and then parked myself on the beach. I did get a little sunburn, but considering the long hours in the sun and the new bikini, I'd expected worse. Half of us went to Amalfi, which was my favorite city of the trip. It's grungier than Sorrento, and much more authentic. The road to Amalfi is probably the reason for that - it's a very narrow, windy road on the side of a huge cliff, and barely accessible by bus. We (in a car) got stuck in a line of five or six cars behind a very wide-turning tour bus and I have to say that it was above and beyond any real traffic jam I've ever witnessed. An Italian man in a pin-striped suit hopped out of his tiny, silver Lambourgini and started gesturing wildly and yelling insults at the driver. I'm not really up on my Italian, but I understood the word stupido. Another ten points to Steph for doing the driving.
Aside from the fashion (scary), the limoncello (gross), and the Italian men (smelly/amorous), the Amalfi coast is the Good Life. Everything I ate was delicious. Even the not-so-sunny days were lovely. Even the noisy, scary traffic was more relaxing there. Every ten minutes or so, I had to stop and say "That's beautiful!" But it wouldn't have been nearly as good if I'd been talking to myself.