It seems like just yesterday I was formulating the plans for this trip in my head. Now it's only 3 weeks away and after a few potential road bumps, it's all steams ahead. I readjusted my itinerary a bit from the last time I posted - it's now 5 nights in Rome and 4 in Naples. After starting to read about all the things to see in Naples, I just had to add a day. To compensate, I decided against the cooking class in Rome. That freed up a day and I think I'll be able to fit everything in to Rome that I wanted to see, and more. In the interest of maximizing my time and sights, i'll stop in Pompeii on the way from Sorrento to Naples and check out Bari for a few hours before meeting up with my tour guide.
In Rome interesting things have opened up recently and I've made plans to take advantage: namely the Domus Romane at the Palazzo Valentini and the underground/3rd level of the Colosseum. I prepaid for both of those tours, as well as reserving a time to see the Galleria Borghese, finally. I wonder how things like this got around before the internet - these sights are too new to be in any guidebook, thank god for TripAdvisor! I also pre-purchased a few train tickets to take advantage of the "MINI" fares and saved several euros.
One thing I have been more diligent about this time is planning restaurants, especially in Rome. I actually made a Google Map of all the places I want to try (or at least, of solid-sounding suggestions in pretty much every neighborhood so i don't have to take a risk or rely on Rick Steves - something which gave me the only bad meal I've ever had in italy and will never do again!). I bought an app for my ipod where I can download the maps and have them available for offline use. Awesome. So i also am in the process of making maps for Naples, Sorrento, etc.
As preparation for the trip, I went over to the Getty Villa today. It's a cool collection of Roman, Greek, and Estruscan ruins. They have an agreement with several museums in Italy, notably the Archaeological museum in Naples, to help them restore and earthquake-proof items in exchange for the Getty being allowed to display them for a while. The highlights tour was run by a guide who is actually a professional instructor at the Getty, she focuses on archaeological stuff. I was pretty surprised, then, when she said she had been to Italy, including Rome and Pompeii, but had not been to the Naples museum. Anyway, I digress. See the many pictures I took here at Flickr. Trying to get as much photography practice in as possible so that I can take some really nice shots in Italy.
After that, i decided to finally try out the only Grom in the area (and by area, I mean anywhere in the US besides NYC). As good as it looks, it was sadly disappointing. The flavors were actually so strong that it was bitter. Bummer. i mean, I think it takes an awful lot for me to say something was too chocolatey.
Now I'm trying to learn as much italian as I can in the next weeks and hoping the weather stays as nice as it has been lately!
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