We woke up around 8:30, ate breakfast, and got in the car, headed north out of Sorrento towards Pompeii.

About a third of the way there, we pulled over in an empty parking lot to take some photos of the view from the roadside of Sorrento and the last couple of towns we’d driven through. It was just gorgeous.

As we got back into the car, we saw the shop owner that owned the parking lot we were sitting in, and we realized we were sitting in a little inlaid wood factory’s parking lot, so we decided to stop in, as he was opening the shop up.

We ended up spending an hour and a half in the store. They had some amazing work, and the owner’s uncle made Christine some flowers and her first initial while we watched him work on his band saw. It was pretty awesome to watch. The owner’s name was Michele (Michael in American) and he spent a lot of time with us explaining his business and the art of it all. Turns out his uncle started working for the factory when he was 9, and had been at it for 61 years. Michele had joined the Italian Navy and retired when he got married, and came back to the family business to run it upon retiring. What a great experience at Miss Bellevue … if you’re on the Sorrento Peninsula, I highly recommend stopping by their showroom!

We fell in love with a table that was 5, 500€, and was just gorgeous. I kept reminding Christine that we had to pay our taxes on our house in January, while she tried to figure out how to buy the table. As we were finally leaving, Michele offered Christine a job next summer, after which he’d give Christine the table… so if you hear that we’re living in Italy next summer, you know why 😉

After spending more time than we’d planned at the shop, we got in the car headed for Pompeii.

We ate lunch with a couple Christine had met at breakfast that morning. He was a government contractor working on military contracts, so we had that common bond, and enjoyed the lunch.

After lunch, we toured Pompeii, which was pretty amazing. Lots of old stuff that looks much like it did ~2, 000 years ago. Christine and I were amazed at how advanced their civilization was… water/plumbing, painting, riches, poverty, brothels, etc… they had it all. We were also amazed at how much damage the eruption of Vesuvius did to the city of Pompeii, and the surrounding countryside. I mean, just thinking that the sea used to come all the way to the Puerto Marina (the gate we entered, which used to be the gate to the marina) and is now a good few miles from Pompeii, shows just how much stuff landed around Vesuvius when it blew it’s top. I mean, just wow!

The sun was starting to set around 4:30, so we finished up our tour of Pompeii, and got in the car to drive out to the tip of the Sorrento Penninsula.

We didn’t make it all the way to the tip, but we made it to Massa Lubrense, which is one town further west than Sorrento. It’s a tiny little town built up on the cliffs over-looking the Bay of Naples, and it’s very cute. We visited the local cathedral, and saw a private cermony taking place in the chappel next to the cathedral, then bought some clothes in a shop, before heading back to Sorrento for the night. I got two shirts (that we later discovered were actually made in Bangladesh) and Christine got an italian made sun dress that was very cute.

On the way back into Sorrento, we decided to park and do a little shopping before finding dinner and heading back to the hotel for bed.