[INSIGHT TRAVEL - EUROPEAN GRANDEUR] - Florence/Firenze to Naples

DAY 16 - SEPTEMBER 15, 2000
NAPLES, ITALY - GRAND HOTEL LA SONRISA
ROOM 201

It was another long driving day, but mercifully one with regular two-hour stops. We left Florence under brooding skies and chilly weather, only to have the sun come out to meet us not far from the city limits. The highlight of the drive was the one-upmanship game played by Dmitri and a truck driver on the autostrada. Of course, with Alex and Joe up front, it was a fine thing, the lads egging on our driver to greater feats.

Popped Lisa a small note before we left Firenze and she thanked me for it at the morning stop. I think at some point I owe Dmitri an affirmation notice as well. I'm sure the opportunity will present itself soon enough. As it happened, the dear man played a game with me at the checkout line, pretending to want to cut in front of me and mom.

After the lunch stop we cut over to Monte Cassino, to visit the commonwealth soldiers' cemetery at the base of the mountain. So sad to see all those young men who sacrificed their lives so we could live the lifestyle that we do. And it doesn't look like the world is doing any obvious good with what they've been given to hold. A real shame.

Monte Cassino is also famous for its abbey -- St. Benedict being the founding father. I remember reading about it in Reader's Digest, about the library with its precious manuscripts that somehow survived the madness of a world war. Our stop was a case of schedule switching. We were really supposed to see Monte Cassino on our drive up to Rome, but Lisa decided to play around with the schedules a bit and move the highlights around.

We pulled into Pompeii at around 1500H or so. Our tour guide's name was Roberta, and a nice lady she was, too. Except for one jarring note, Pompeii was awesome. Though it was a bit dismaying to see a man being stretchered out of the ruins, his entire group in attendance. They had him on oxygen and a drip. Another random observation about Pompeii -- it has dogs. Lots and lots of dogs. In the queue to the washroom, in the washroom, lying on the ground fast asleep, oblivious to all the people milling about. Strange, but somehow not so surprising.

Pompeii is fascinating. It would seem that those Romans were probably the first to come up with the concept of having hot food to serve to customers for "take out" purposes. There was an interesting shop that actually had a counter top with several terra cotta bowls kept warm by fire, and it even had sliding doors! Amazing.

From Pompeii we made good time for our hotel. But I'll reserve my reactions on that for tomorrow. Suffice to say for now that it's exactly what Lisa has described it to be -- a wedding/honeymoon hotel.