Living the Dream

SONO ARRIVATO!   (I HAVE ARRIVED).  

First, let me offer my condolences to anyone who has to travel internationally for their job.  What an uncomfortable journey it was.  Toledo to Chicago….no problem.  Chicago to Madrid…met two very lovely young women….one was headed to Torino, Italy to spend a year as an au pere to 7 month old twin girls and their eight year old brother.    The other was headed to Seville, Spain to study Spanish for a semester.  Comfort level on plane…..minus 4.  No leg room, and the woman in front of me had her seat reclined for 90% of the flight.  Madrid Airport….by the time I got off the plane, I had one hour to get to the gate for my flight to Naples.   You have to be part mountain goat to navigate this airport.  Just getting from the plane to the concourse was a seemingly endless uphill incline from ground level to level 3.  Then a llllloooonnnnngggg walk to the terminal, then a series of escalators that eventually led to customs officials.  Went through quickly….wouldn’t have needed that ticket to Cork  Then more escalators down to a train that took several minutes to get to the concourse where my flight was departing.  Then another llllooonnnggg walk.  All this time, I’m lugging around two bags with no wheels (that’s another story…bad luggage decisions).  All this took 50 minutes.  I slept on the 2 hour flight from Madrid to Naples.  After whacking my head on the hand dryer in the Naples gabinetti per signore, I found my luggage and my driver and enjoyed a relaxing drive with breathtaking views all the way to Sorrento, where I slept all afternoon.  Ate my first fresh sardines for dinner last night.  Yum....very different from the canned ones.  Then I slept 12 hours.  I think I'm caught up now on my sleep.

A wonderful realization came to me as I was strolling the narrow streets of old Sorrento this afternoon.   I don’t have to rush to see this place.  I can explore at leisure, which is a luxury I have never enjoyed, and I think most of us don’t in our short vacations here and there.  I’m really looking forward to that.  Another realization.  Everyone here speaks English!!!   My driver said I picked a bad place for learning Italian, because most residents here work in the tourist industry and are quite fluent in English.  No matter….they know how to speak Italian, right?  

Will post some pictures next time....if I can figure out how to do it.  I think I left my instruction book back home (where is that?)  I move into my apartment tomorrow and start language school on Monday.

Arrividerci for now!