Arrival in Sorrento

Luck was most definitely not a lady today. Well, not for me at least. Surprisingly, however, I think this might have been my favorite day of the entire trip so far! We started with an early departure from the inn in Sicily, and headed straight to the airport in Palermo to fly to Naples. It was an incredibly short flight (short enough that I hardly had time to start my blog from the day before), but Alitalia airlines managed to accidentally leave my luggage back on the island of Sicily. I had to make a report to the lost baggage claim desk and pray that they might pick up the pace of their normally lackadaisical approach to task completion so that I might have clothes to wear other than the dress I had on. 

We boarded a bus outside of the airport that was destined for Sorrento, but there were no seats left for the hour and a half drive. So a dozen traveling Americans thus were left to surfing in the aisles of the charter bus as it wound its way around cliffs and mountain slopes. Of all the hours we have spent on buses this week, this was by far my favorite ride. We managed to make friends with passengers from all over the world—to my left was an adorable family from Paris, complete with two young boys and a baby girl, and a mother who spoke remarkably clear English. To my right sat an engaged couple from London who were on a trip to Italy to pick out a venue for their destination wedding next year. It was fun hearing about one another’s travels and trying to explain to the French lady that the United States isn’t always like the TV shows that it produces. 

Courtney and I after a pause walking down the mountain. That's Mt. Vesuvius in the background!

When the bus finally arrived in Sorrento, we unloaded our baggage and made our way into town, single file lugging suitcases behind us and confusedly looking for our new abode, Hotel Il Faro. It took us a while, but we finally found it…about 200 steep steps down the mountain from us. It turns out that the Lord was watching over me by allowing the airline to lose my luggage, because the trek down the hill was pretty treacherous. I even made it all the way to the third-to-last step before Molly took a tumble, and I went sliding down the stone steps on my shins. Not the most pleasant feeling in the world, but the bruises could have been much worse! Also, my giant suitcase probably would have made the situation even more painful, considering the damage that my backpack alone caused in helping me fall down the stairs. So really, luck might have been more on my side than I thought!
We were so excited to have a new hotel and to be in a city for the first time. The view is absolutely amazing—the coastline stretches out for miles and different shades of white and red Italian buildings are sprinkled all throughout the cliffs. Sorrento has some great shopping areas, so I was more than happy to set out to find an outfit to tide me over until my suitcase was delivered. I managed to find some clothes in town, but luck still wasn’t on my side when it came to my Ray Bans…I think that they either got taken out of my purse while I was walking or I left them in a dressing room somewhere along the way.  Amazingly, when I came to look in the store I thought I left them in two days later, they still had them! I was so amazed at the friendliness of the people here.Although everyone joked that this day was my unlucky day, I truly am grateful that nothing worse happened and we all made it here safely! God is watching out for us, and I know that the rest of the trip is going to be just as great as it has been. 

Molly Mitchell