If you are ever wanting to go on a vacation in Italy..do not go to Sarno.
Day 1
These passed 11 days ended up being one setback after another. We booked our train tickets the day before and got our necessary reservation. We boarded the train that our ticket designated but two stops before the one we needed the ticket collector kicked us off because the woman who booked our ticket gave us the wrong time and we did not have reservations for that train. We frantically ran around the station trying to find our way to the Sarno station where we needed to end up. A helper told us what to do in really broken english and long story short after a few more mis-haps we made it to the Sarno Train Station.
Once we got there it dawned on Khrystalle that as she booked the B&B that we were staying at she didn't ask them for directions as to how to get to their place. Awesome. Also it turns out that absolutely no one in the entire town speaks english. I was going to pull my hair out. We walked into a real estate office down the street and attempted to communicate with them. After a while they caught on to what we needed and they gave our hosts a call. And it turns out our hosts were the nicest people ever. 20 minutes later they showed up in their smart car and we all piled in and they took us to the B&B and got us settled. A few more miscommunications happened and we accidentally told them that we were hungry and wanted to eat at 2 when we thought they were telling us that they were hungry and would be going out at 2. So those sweet people got us back in the car and took us to a restaurant! In my mind they were going to stay with us..wrong. They just dropped us off!
In places that are not super touristy it turns out that pizza is not served until after 8pm. Who eats dinner after 8?! I found that out the hard way as I attempted to order that for dinner and then picked what I thought was pasta when she denied my original request. Wrong. It was uncooked bacon and 3 balls of mozzarella. It was bad.
Day 2
The next day we decided that we were going to try and go to the Amalfi Coast and go on a fun hike. But..we got to the station just 15 minutes after the train left which left the next one coming after 4 more hours. Just as we were about to give up and stay in Sarno for the day a bus pulled up and we hopped on! Some nice people motioned for us to follow them at one stop and we were able to communicate with them enough that they knew we wanted to end up in Salerno and so the lady ordered our tickets for us.
We got to Salerno and then hopped on another bus to Amalfi. The drive was really pretty, I wanted to swim in the ocean so bad but we hadn't brought our suits. In the end we didn't even go on a hike! Surprise surprise. We ended up getting lunch on the beach and then just walking around town for a little bit.
Day 3
We decided that we wanted to try and explore Sarno a little bit to see what it was like to be in a completely not-tourist friendly town. Yeah..its not fun. There are 'farmacias' everywhere which held baby supplies and meds and then there were some appliance shops. That is literally all that was there. This was the day that we really learned how little was around us which was nothing. Oh it was a doozy.
Day 4
We wanted to go back to Amalfi so that we could swim in the ocean and it seemed that it was going to work out perfectly as the weather in Sarno didn't look so good but uh..the weather in Amalfi was not any better. As soon as we got there it started to pour! Actually pour. So we went and got lunch and then some gelato and then went home! It was so lame! And that was our last real day in Italy!
So really..never go to Sarno unless you have a hankering for a little escape into an agricultural town with nothing in it. Or if you were looking to loose 20 pounds because there is nothing to eat-then Sarno is totally the place for you.
Traveling Home
These last two days have been incredibly exhausting. We got up nice and early for the train that leaves the station in Sarno for Salerno every day at 9:47. We had all our luggage with us and were so ready to get on our way home but when we got to the station we were confused when there were no train times on the screen. Turns out that in Sarno the trains don't run on Sundays. Surprise!
So we made the decision to walk to the next station and see if there was any possibility that there was anything running out of there. And count our lucky stars there was a train going to Naples right as we got there so we hopped on board and made it to Naples where we were so lucky again to have gotten a spot on the train we needed.
We finished the train ride from Naples to the Rome Termini stop where we needed to then catch our coach to the other station in Rome. It took a whole lot of patience, sweat, and deep breaths but we finally figured it out and got to Fiumicino where we caught our plane back to London's Gatwick Airport. We had to spend the night in Gatwick-yuck. In my paranoia I wouldn't allow myself to fall asleep at all for fear that someone would steal all of my stuff and then I would be stranded so I spent the night people watching.
At 5:15 we were supposed to catch another coach to take us to the other airport in London. As it turns out we didn't have a printed off confirmation of our tickets which is mandatory to board and so the driver told us that we wouldn't be able to get on. Panic struck again. As Khrystalle got angry and rude towards the driver I went in the opposite direction and pleaded with him to let us on.. and he did! I wanted to buy that man a prize. I must have thanked him upwards of 10 times for letting us get on! Lucky again
That coach took us to another coach station where we had to go inside and pick up some of the luggage that Khrystalle had stowed while we were in Italy. Once we picked that up we made our way down to the tube and caught that all the way to the airport where I waited for 6 hours until I could board.
These last 48 hours have been filled with so many instances where all of our plans should have fallen completely through but they never once did. How many frantic-pleading prayers I have offered up in those moments I could not even estimate but I am so glad that I am almost home to my family once more.
This trip has been blessing in ways that had never even crossed my mind. Whereas Khrystalle found how much she disdains the states-I discovered just how much I love the states! I have a better understanding of what it is like outside of the small little bubble of the world that I had previously been exposed to and have realized how incredibly lucky and blessed we are to live in America. It is an incredible country and I have come to appreciate it so much more. Love love love America!
