Today we head out to Sorento or actually Massa Lubrense. We have rented a villa with a lovely view close to the pier. It will be the relaxing slow portion of the trip. A little time to lounge around before heading home.

I hired us a car service to drive us down. The train had worked out okay from Perugia and we probably could have done it. However by the time we took a taxi to the train station changed trains in Naples and got from Sorento to the villa. So although more expensive not a by a lot.

The driver wanted to come earlier so we did move it up to 8:15. We were all ready to go by 7:30 so we could have gone earlier. But this did give time for the coffee drinkers to have that before we left.

I was a little nervous that everything would fit in the van but it all went in fine with some strategic packing. Two bench seats for 6 of us and one up front. Wasn’t the most comfortable ride but not bad.

We saw a part of Rome I had never seen before and the sports college that looked like part of the Rome Olympic facilities. Once out of the city and on the toll road it was a pretty drive. I did not know that the mountains continued past Rome.

We had a brief stop at a travel center then on to coast. Traffic through Sorento was crazy and the roads were super narrow. There was no room for people to walk but they were doing it anyway. Some of the views were incredible so I see why they would want to walk up to them but I definitely could not.

It took us about 3:30 hours but we finally arrived in our little town Massa Lubrense and to the address provided. However that was for the whole complex of houses and our driver couldn’t figure out how to get to ours. They had sent me a pin location but that didn’t help. It took a few tries but I finally got one of the hosts on the line and they gave the driver directions and we arrived.

I knew there were stairs down to the villa but I wasn’t prepared for how many with our luggage. The host showed up with his son and helped carry it down so it relatively quickly.

The views from the villa are amazing. It sets right over the ocean with great outdoor seating and every room has big sliding doors out to the terrace. So they all have ocean views.

The villa sets about halfway down to the water. So we have stairs both ways. Probably a few more to get up to the road but not many. The beach is rocky but people are down there. Most just sitting in the shore but a few kids are playing in the water.

One big problem the path into town is closed for maintenance. Seems they are pouring a new concrete path. Our host says just go around it but we can’t figure out how. Without the path we are basically stuck in the villa. Not a bad place to be stuck but not what we want.

Our host agreed to take some of us into the town for some food and wine about 5. We arrived at about 12:30. We left Rome early so if we had breakfast it was just a snack. We had a few chips and some stuff Margaret got at the travel center to tie us over but that wasn’t going to last long.

The grocery run happened and they returned with meat and cheese some pasta and wine. We were set for a few days if need be. We were able to do a nice spread for dinner so all was good.

We toasted the beautiful sunset with Prosecco and headed off to bed. A little bit of a rocky start to our stay but I think it is going to turn out to be a great few days.