Favourite 2014 travel photos. Rome, Italy. October 2014.
The trip I most want to take
This weekend, Montreal is playing host to a couple of preseason baseball games and more than 90,000 people will show up to watch. They’ll do that not because they’re fans of meaningless Blue Jays exhibition games, but because going to a baseball game in that city means something deeper to them. Although I won’t be there for the games this weekend, I count myself in that group.
The trip I most want to take is to travel to Montreal with my Dad to see the first home opener of our resurrected and beloved Expos. My Dad is turning 76 this year and although there’s renewed interest in Montreal as a possible site for a team, it’s still a long, long way off, if it ever happens at all. So at this point, it’s a bit of a fantasy trip, but the optimist in me holds out hope of living it someday.
My first experiences of traveling were back in the early 1980s when Dad took me to see some Expos games a couple of summers in a row. We had a lot of fun in the city getting away with things Mom would never have allowed at home: eating deep fried food, having ice cream for breakfast, chasing pigeons in city parks (I was only 8 at the time and I had never seen so many pigeons in one place before), Dad partaking in an afternoon beer and passing his bottle of Budweiser beer to me to hold while he took a picture of me. To this day the smell of a Bud takes me back to that very moment. Good times. But most of all from those trips, I remember the baseball. I remember the bright lights and the event of it all.
Last day in Rome
I always end up feeling a bit nostalgic on the last day of any long trip. Maybe a bit bittersweet as well. That lends itself to laid back, slower and somewhat indulgent experiences the day before I hop on a long flight back home. On our last day in Italy, we made our way back to Rome as that’s where we were flying out of the next morning. After dropping our bags at the hotel, we had simple, relaxed plans for the last day – wander around the Villa Borghese park and have a couple of nice meals.
With deep appreciation to the travel weather gods, we had another beautiful day to explore. This one with a few clouds, but warm and not a drop of rain, making it a full two weeks without rain on this trip. Villa Borghese is a massive city park in the heart of Rome and is a lovely escape from the noise and bustle of the city that surrounds it. On this fall day, there were times we felt like we had the park almost to ourselves.
Favourite 2014 travel photos. Positano, Italy. October 2014.
Positano
Delicious (and gluten free) Sorrento
After being in bustling Rome and Naples, spending five nights in Sorrento was like a vacation within a vacation. Even with the day trips we were taking, the pace of life slowed down significantly, especially in the evenings once we returned back to Sorrento. And evenings in Sorrento meant dinner and wine in Sorrento. On a couple of those evenings, we decided on a picnic like meal in the inner courtyard garden of our apartment, just off Piazza Sant’Antonino. Not a bad place for a meal!
On Canadian Thanksgiving evening, we stopped by the grocery store and picked up a nice spread of smoked cheeses, some cured meats, gluten free cookies, bread (for me), paprika chips (a European tradition for us) and a bottle of prosecco. We’ve now had a few of these al fresco Thanksgiving dinners in Europe over the years. There’s something special about eating under the stars…
A southern Italy home away from home
Sorrento was our home for five nights while we toured around Campania. We chose here for the ease of bus, ferry and train connections to Capri, the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, but also because Sorrento is a lovely little town in its own right. After the big city experiences of Rome and Naples, we knew that this vacation needed something a little quieter and relaxing for a few days. If life ever takes you to Sorrento and you don’t have a money tree in your front yard back home, stay at the Villa Elisa just off Piazza Sant’Antonino. It was the perfect home away from home and came at a very reasonable rate for this part of Italy.
We gave ourselves a full uninterrupted day to explore Sorrento as well as seeing bits and pieces of it as we came and went from our day trips. Throughout our stay, we passed through the main square in town, Piazza Tasso, many times. While bustling at night, during the day, it was quite peaceful as most of the town’s visitors were off exploring other locales. It had everything a proper European square should have – ample bars, attractive architecture and a lot of people watching possibilities.
A day along the Amalfi Coast
One day isn’t really enough time to experience all the Amalfi Coast has to offer. In the spirit of “one day is better than no days” my wife and I got aboard a very early morning bus leaving Sorrento for the ninety minute ride to Amalfi. It was great to leave the driving to someone else on the narrow and twisted roads, allowing us to just stare out the windows at the pristine beaches, cliffside towns and jagged rocky hills falling down to the sea.
The drive went by in a flash, and we climbed out of the bus on the waterfront in Amalfi. Of the towns along the Amalfi Coast, Amalfi is considered the least picturesque, which is a little unfair. I mean, this isn’t exactly the kind of place that hurts your eyes…
Favourite 2014 photos. Off the coast of Sorrento, Italy. October 2014.
Italian sunset
Touring Capri
After a spectacular cruise around the Isle of Capri, we had the rest of the day to explore the island on foot. We took a bus from Marina Grande up to the town of Anacapri, about a ten minute ride away along cliff-hugging winding roads. The bus let us off in a public square beside Mount Solaro where we made our way over to the chair lift station and headed up the mountain. The ride up the side of Mount Solaro was a peaceful fifteen minute trip. The air was perfectly still and quiet and there were numerous interesting gardens and houses beneath you…
… and the sweeping vista of where the western end of the Isle of Capri met the Tyrrhenian Sea off to your right:
Favourite 2014 travel photos. Capri, Italy. October 2014.
Bluenose Traveler 