We had an appointment to pick up a rental car at 11:00 because our daughter Lydia was arriving to see us and to see some of Italy. When I told the gas broker we had to hurry because we had to pick up our daughter at the airport, he had lots of ideas he wanted us to try. Everyone wants to tell us about the foods we need to try and he was no different. I said we were taking Lydia to Sorrento to see the Amalfi Coast, and he said, "Sorrento? Why that's famous for Lemoncella!" I wasn't familiar with it and asked if it was a soft drink. He said, "Oh, no, not at all. It's a wonderful liquor."
I said, "That's why I'm not familiar with it We're astemi--we don't drink alcohol." He was disappointed but gave me a list of foods we needed to try--including a pasta dish cooked with liver, lung, and heart. I said that probably wouldn't work because neither of us care for liver. I hadn't ever considered lung but it didn't seem like it would interest me either.
I made a mental note that I should tell Robyn about Lemoncella but with everything else on my mind I forgot. We took a taxi to the rental agency and started working on getting the car. They have a brand new Ferrari in the showroom and I asked what that would cost to rent. He said, €1,500 per day. Since there was no place to put Lydia's luggage, we decided to keep the Audi we had reserved--at 50 Euros per day.
Well, we got Lydia and went to see Vesuvius, Pompeii and Sorrento. The road up to the still active volcano is very narrow and serpentine. There were road signs warning that you had to make a reservation to park at the trailhead and it had to be done on-line. I noticed the part about reservations when we were almost at the top. I pulled over to make the reservation with my phone when I learned I didn't have internet service. Fortunately, we were right by a gift shop that had a sign that reservations could be made there--because there was no cellular internet on the mountain. Robyn had already gone inside the gift shop where the proprietor welcomed her with a free sample of "Lemoncella." She asked, "What is it?"
He said, "It's made with lemon juice and buffalo milk."
She said, "That sounds interesting," and took a snort.
Just then, I walked in as Robyn exclaimed, "THAT'S HOT!"
The bartender said, "Oh, that's from all the alcohol."
I thought, "I knew there was something I was supposed to tell Robyn.
Well, when we got to the trail head, we noticed it was really cold with a biting wind. I mentioned to the park ranger (Mount Vesuvius is a national park) that it seemed too cold for being just outside of Naples in April--there are palm trees everywhere. He said, (loosely translated) "Tell me about it. It snowed this morning. We're all dying."
Robyn's usually the least comfortable in our family being cold, but she seemed fine. I asked her if it was due to the liquid courage she'd had. She didn't think so. Nevertheless, she was quite the trooper in a very cold adventure.
The view of the bay of Naples below us was breathtaking.
Postscript: (I revised the above post slightly because I wrote it in the Sorrento hotel, on my phone, while in bed. There were quite a few typos.)
I wrote from under the covers because the room was a little chilly and we didn't notice any radiators anywhere. Since there are oranges and lemons growing everywhere, I figured the hotel wasn't heated. It wasn't a problem because most of the time in the hotel, we're sleeping. But it was too chilly to sit at the kitchen table to write. When we were gathering up everything to check out, I picked up a remote control device that was next to the TV. It was for the heater--located about 20 feet above our heads--No wonder we couldn't see it.
The crazy high ceilings are something we haven't been able to figure out. Older buildings have ceilings about 20' high. We're in a newer apartment facility and our ceilings are only 15 feet high.
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