Road Trippin'

Today was our drive from Florence (North) to Naples (South). We boarded our bus at 8 am and were scheduled to arrive in Napoli at 3 pm. Yes, we know what you are thinking… UGH!! And yes it was ugh! We made our first pit stop at 9:30 at a gas station that already had about 4 other tour busses full of people! They even had another Perillo group there. I almost got in a fight with some old ladies because they kept pushing me in the bathroom line! Grr.

Our next stop was for lunch around noon. We had the most amazing provolone sandwich. It was made with foccassia (spell?) bread, ham (maybe turkey, not real sure), and provolone all melted to perfection. Our final stop at around 2:30 was in a city outside of Naples. Here we received a demonstration on how they make cameos. These are the trinkets carved from shell that typically have a woman’s profile. And of course we had time for shopping. (They give us a whole lot of that.. apparently they want our money or something).


After that it was another 45 minutes to Naples. Once we arrived we took a driving tour around town. They have the most beautiful coast here. We were able to see Mount Vesuvius – a still active volcano that destroyed Pompeii which we will get to see on Sunday. They have the most peculiar beaches here. They are nothing but huge stones, big rocks that people lay out on. They just go find their own rock. We have also seen a lot of people making out here. Several couples think it would be fun just to go find a bench and make out. Hey when in Rome, right? Or Naples either one. We got to see a few castles and one they say every bride and groom in town after their wedding go there to take a picture. We got to see a wedding party and the old grandpa fell down on top of the little kids. It was kinda funny.

After our driving tour we came back to the hotel. This hotel is stinkin’ amazing! By far the best one we’ve been to. It is called the NH Ambassador Hotel and can be found at http://www.nh-hotels.com/nh/en/hotels/italy/naples/nh-ambassador.html?action=search&stype=default&fini=&fout=&nadults1=2&nchilds1=0&services=&maxPrice=&searchLauncher=reservation&stext= (Sorry for the long address, but that should take you directly to our branch)



We had dinner here for the evening, of course another 5 course meal. We started with fried mashed potatoes almost (the Italian version of a tater tot with cheese) and fried rice balls with tomato sauce, peas, and cheese. Next was our vegetable soup or pile o’ rice. The rice block was huge – sausage, egg, ragout sauce, peas, mozzarella. For our main course we had the most amazing fish, dentex. Everyone enjoyed the fish for the evening. Dessert was another story. We had baba. Matt loved his baba. Mine, not so much. It is basically a rum cake. We did not know this until after the first bite. The cake was soaked in rum. So after our failed attempt at dolce (dessert) we decided to go out for gelato. We had a mix between chocolate and vanilla. Very different flavors than we have in America. Then it was off to bed.

Josh, Lucas, and Taylor - this ones for you! Apparently Italy has a Comicon too!! hahahaha