Wednesday morning started with me doing a phone interview for a job back in Perth. I banished Glen from the room so he could have breakfast and I could have some quiet to focus. The interview lasted an hour and then I joined Glen outside, sensibly taking a jacket with me to keep warm on the terrace. After breakfast we hit the streets to see a few more sights before our train to Sorrento.
The Pope
I wanted to get a look at St Peter’s Square, if not inside the basilica itself. Glen wasn’t fussed about looking inside the church either and finds the ins and outs of the Catholic religion, or much of Christianity, baffling. Even if he’d wanted to see inside what is no doubt an impressive church, we wouldn’t have been able to until 1pm anyway.
On the route to the Vatican we were asked by about 20 people if we wanted a tour of the museum or the basilica and told that the church was closed. I ignored them because mainly I didn’t want to go into the church but after about the tenth I got concerned and told them this. They said the square was open (of course) while the Pope was giving his address. The last bit of information was only grudgingly given.
The square was indeed open for visitors, and probably actively encouraged so this head of state and head of the church could address the masses and lay his blessings upon them. We went through security and then got a bit closer. The Pope was a speck in the distance, seated beneath a shade sail.
Screens dotted around the edges showed either him speaking, another priest speaking or the crowd. The audio was terrible and inaudible, and I imagine you could only hear him clearly if you were standing within a certain part of the crowd. Nevertheless people waved or clapped or generally looked with adoration.
We stayed for about ten minutes, got our photos then got the hell out of there. We walked towards Castel San Angelo and then crossed Ponte San Angelo, one of my favourite bridges, before heading towards the Pantheon.
The Pantheon, Again
Glen’s interest had been piqued by the Pantheon and he wanted to see inside it so we headed south and got a look inside the old temple. We watched the sun tracking its way around the inside of the dome, its light cast on the wall. We could actually watch time pass.
We grabbed a bite to eat at a little paninoteca, a simple place with only two tables but easier than finding a sit-down restaurant and it really offered all we wanted. We got another ice-cream at Grom, the same place we’d been to in Siena. I had trouble deciding which flavour to finish last as they – peach, raspberry, and cookies & cream – were all so delicious. In the end it was cookies & cream.
Then it was back up the Via del Corso, into the Moleskine store so Glen could have a look, into the Piazza del Popolo and to our hotel where we collected our bags. The subway took us to Termini and we booked our tickets to Napoli.
Roma – Napoli – Sorrento
It was another few hours of travelling in the afternoon to reach our final destination. We caught the high speed train to Napoli and then the local Circumvesuvian to Sorrento. Unfortunately we took the rickety subway-style train that stopped at every stop getting out of Napoli, then all the stops in between there and Sorrento. We stood the whole hour and a half journey, and at times I feared we’d crash and die. It was not a fun train ride.
In Sorrento we walked up to our hotel, walking up the Corso Italia, a two-lane street that seems to be the main thoroughfare cutting through the village. It’s hell, crammed with cars, bikes, mopeds and buses. The pedestrian sidewalk is only about one and a half person thick so meeting people coming the other way requires risking life and limb to step onto the road and into chaotic traffic.
As always, it baffles me that there aren’t major traffic accidents (at least if there are they’re not more frequent) on streets like this as there’s very little give and take and much swerving and near missing. The traffic also doesn’t gel with the nice image you have of the picturesque seaside town of Sorrento. Perhaps it’s only picturesque from a distance.
We checked in and went walking, mostly along back streets which were quieter and calmer, until we reached Sorrento proper. The place was crawling with tourists but at least corresponded a bit more with the image in my head. There were plenty of narrow streets for pedestrians only where shop after shop sold lemon-everything (except actual real lemons I think).
We stopped for an early dinner at a place down one of the streets but really we should have kept looking. It was a last minute, oh-god-can-we-stop-now decision and the food was edible but definitely nothing to rave about. Probably our worst meal in Italy.
We walked home along the busy – but direct – street and were in bed by 8pm. So much for wild nightlife in Sorrento.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?