Salerno, Sorrento and Pompeii in 3 parts (Part 1)

Yesterday evening and night we crossed from Croatia to Salerno, Italy.  I had signed up for an excursion called Taste of Sorrento and included a visit to Pompeii.  My dad grew up fascinated with National Geographic and I always enjoyed the issues that showed the excavations going on in Pompeii.  So this might be my chance of a lifetime to see it.

The ship was docked by 7 am and all aboard would not be until 6 pm.  My excursion left at 7:30 am so it was up early to get breakfast before we left.

Up there is where we are headed as we leave the port area.

This was the view from the top.

Our small tour bus, maybe 10 of us, left Salerno and headed to Sorrento.  Along the way we stopped at a small hillside farm for our taste of Italy.

They demonstrated how them make mozzarella cheese, cot to cheese, salami, bruschetta and lemoncello.  So during the demonstration on a lovely covered veranda we were served a plate with each of the items on it.  It was funny because 2 of the farm dogs suddenly appeared about the time the food was served.  They would lay there head in your lap hoping for a morsel.

We also went down the hillside further to where the family also produces lemoncello.

A little quilt inspiration in some old tiles.

Then back in the van to take us back up the hill to the bus to more on to Sorrento.

Day at Sea

Today we are crossing from Croatia  to Salerno, Italy.  It was a quiet day.  We, the quilters, got to see some of the craft programs she had filmed.  I think for Craftsy, but am not sure.  We found a nice covered area  with very comfortable, cushy chairs and sat and sewed.  Dinner tonight is in the formal dining room with formal dress suggested for tonight.

Split, Croatia

Overnight we sailed across the Adriatic Sea toward Split, Croatia.  We will be here from about noon and all aboard at 7:30 pm.  It has been an adjustment to get comfortable with the heat here.  Today it was about 88°.  After all the walking in Venice I was going to take it easy today.  I know some people were excited as I think some of King of Thrones is filmed in Croatia.  Excursions were the first to leave at noon.  We non-excursioners left at 12:30. It was quite a long walk from where the ship was docked to get to the tourist area.  

There were Roman ruins to visit and interesting city in general.

I kept bumping into a couple of quilters who I recognized from the ship so we kind of followed the same paths.  Stopped in tourist info to get a map. We walked around looking at a lot of the Roman building in the Old Town district.  Of course, because of the temps we had to try some gelato.  Yummm!

I also stepped into a church while walking.  I am still amazed  at the number of different marbles that are used in these churches.  It was also this was in Ireland 2 years ago.  The variety is staggering. It will be interesting to see if it is like this in Rome.

Every day when we are on board the waiters from the specialty restaurants like Chops, Sushi, Giovanni’s Table would come around offering discounts on meals at these restaurants where are paid separately.  Generally the cost started at $60 and up.  A waiter approached Deborah and I the day before, and offered a 3 course meal for $35, which we thought was more reasonable.  So we are having steak tonight at Chops. We also had a bottle of wine, our splurge.  Since we were neither big drinkers, they hold the rest of the bottle and then we can have it another night in the formal dining room.