We drove about three hours this morning past Naples and to the city of Sorrento in southern Italy. Checked into our hotel called Hotel Albatross, which planly makes reference to the placement of this city in Homer's Odyssey story. According to legend, it was near Sorrento that the Sirens of Homer's Odyssey epic lived and sang/attacked unsuspecting boats.
The town itself looks like it hasn't changed in a couple hundred years. The Sorrento area is made up of six villages but it's very hard to tell the separate areas apart. The city offers sweeping views of the Mediteranean Sea and a breathtaking shot of Mount Vesuvius (one of the most explosive volcanoes in the world). This evening we ate right around sunset on the patio of a good little Italian place that overlooked the ocean and Mt. Vesuvius in the background. It was amazing to say the least. We also had the opportunity to really sit down to a nice dinner with several individuals from all over the world that are part of our tour group. It's quite a great cultural mix. The countries represented by the individuals in our tour include England, Australia, Canada, Brazil, France and the U.S. So while we were having this great dinner overlooking the Mediterranean, we also had a chance to talk about everything from cultural oddities to politics. Afterwards, about 20 of us went to a little pub down the street and drank until late in the evening.
All in all it was an extremely fun day of meeting new people and experiencing new cultures.
