Thursday

Caught the train to Naples at 8 and enjoyed the ride through the countryside. The scenery became progressively worse as we neared Naples. My friend Aaron told me Naples was a shithole and since he has traveled extensively throughout the world we assumed he knew what he was talking about...and he did. We wanted to go to the Naples National Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli) so decided to check our bags and brave the gritty city. Many of the statues, mosaics and frescoes in this museum are from Pompeii and Herculaneum and since we were going to be visiting Pompeii we really wanted to see this place and we were not disappointed. A short metro ride from the train station deposited us at the museum's steps. After a couple of hours we tried to find a pizzeria we wanted to eat at but got semi-lost and since we really didn't want to be lost in a shithole hopped the first metro we saw back to the train station. Grabbed a quick sandwich and a beer, collected our bags and boarded the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento. This train was packed but with views of the sea peaking through we started to feel more relaxed and looking forward to a nice room in Sorrento. Sorrento was beautiful.  On a peninsula in the Bay of Naples. Our room was lovely and our hosts quite gracious. We went to a restaurant for a cocktail. Actually got a Manhattan and a Martini. The Manhattan was perfect but Steve's Martini was a little heavy on the vermouth but still the closest he's had to the real thing in 9 days. They also gave us corn nuts, peanuts, little pizzas, some kind of savory donut hole thing and pistachios. We tried to eat at this seafood place recommended by out hotelier but:

We returned to have dinner at Meating which was right across the alley from our hotel. It was very good except for the 6 euro water.