Across the Atlantic

An hour out of Rome we flew into the sunrise and below us the French (or maybe Italian) Alps revealed themselves. A crinkled landscape of blue-black capped by the perennial white of snow and glaciers. In the distance an unending gauze of thick white clouds tinted pink by the morning sun.  I only caught a glimpse over the shoulders of my neighbors but it was breathtaking nonetheless.

As we arrived in Rome, the digital map on the seat in front of me showed that we had traveled for about 7.5 hours and over 4,100 miles. Local time of arrival was 7:30am (2:30am in Boston). Not a bad flight on Alitalia. The plane was very new with a slick entertainment system in each seat. The overhead light was nearly useless - weak LEDs. The most remarkable feature was the option to view live video from an outside camera mounted on the nose of the plane. My seatmate and I watched the takeoff and landing with giddy laughter. Interestingly, a lot of other people said it actually made them feel more secure being able to see what's going on up front.

From Rome we boarded a smaller plane an hour later to Naples (or Napoli). The flight was less than an hour. At the Napoli airport we were met by our tour coordinator Rosella. Fifty two of us boarded a newer tour bus for an hour long drive to Sorrento. The minute we got onto the highway there was Mount Vesuvius dominating the vista on our right - a steep, blue brown cone of rock. To our right, the Bay of Napoli.

As we approached Sorrento, we got our first glimpse of the Sorrento peninsula - irregular and steep, rocky cliffs plunging into the bay. Somehow these walls of rock were colonized by dense settlements that descend in steps toward the sea, stopping only at the very edge where the hills drop vertically to the rocky beach below. On either of the twisting, cliffside road were olive, lemon and orange trees. As we arrived in the ancient city of Sorrento itself, I was struck by the street trees - all orange trees loaded with fruit!