Today is Wednesday, October 30, 2024. Elliot and I are home after spending 13 days in northern and southern Italy since mid-October. All I can say is that we had a pretty lovely time in the country, despite some bumps along the road, particularly the time when Elliot left his backpack in Sorrento last Thursday, which necessitated a very tense four hours or so scrambling to find it either on the regional train where Elliot first thought he left it or even back at the train station in Sorrento or, yet, even back at the Hotel Astoria in Sorrento where we stayed for four days.

When Elliot first discovered he didn’t have his backpack, we were two stops out of Sorrento and heading back toward Naples to spend a day or two there before heading back to Milan to end the trip. We got off the train then and went back to the first stop and Elliot left the platform to inquire if anyone found the backpack at the station. I stayed on the platform and called the hotel to see if anyone turned it in there and was told no backpack was found. Thus when Elliot returned without a backpack, we disconsolately left to go to Naples and to our next hotel room. When we entered the courtyard and met our concierge, Angela, she animatedly greeted us with the news that Elliot’s backpack was indeed found and turned in, but was at a police station in Sorrento. Actually, we still don’t know who the hell found it since the people at the hotel said they hadn’t found it the last we spoke to them; we have the theory that someone found it at the little cafe where we stopped before getting onto the train at Sorrento. So we abandoned whatever we were going to do in Naples the next day to travel back to Sorrento for a third time and to retrieve the item at the police station. We took a taxi from the station to the precinct and discovered it was only about 10 minutes away. When we got to the building, Elliot let out a squeal of delight when an officer showed him the brown backpack out of a window. We went upstairs to sit in an office where an office filed a report. The backpack was all sealed up and everything was taken out of it one item at a time. Astonishingly, everything was intact: Nothing was stolen. Elliot had his credit cards, money (mostly in euros), and medication all intact. So someone was extremely honest here and I wish we had known who had indeed turned it in. The police didn’t really tell us how they even got it. However, they were all very accommodating: one or two of them recommended where to go in Naples for sightseeing and for food.

Anyway, enough of this! Our trip was not just about trying to retrieve a lost backpack, even though my description of it sounded like it was. There were a lot of other things to do like take a boat ride to the island of Capri, traveling to the Amalfi Coast, taking a bus to Positano and to Ravello where celebrated author Gore Vidal had a villa there for several decades, taking a 90-minute tour of the famous opera house La Scala in Milan. We traveled by bus, metro in Milan, regional and by Trenitalia, which is the major train company in Italy operating regular and high-speed trains throughout regions in the country, and by plane, of course. We went to at least five hotels or residences.

One other snag we encountered on this trip was getting closed out of our first stay in a boutique hotel in Naples. We don’t know what happened here, but we learned that Elliot’s credit card was mysteriously turned down, so we were told that the hotel would try to get us another room but in the evening. We were told to return to the site at around 7 p.m. which left us walking the city for several hours without having an agenda. I think I went into an art museum leaving Elliot more time to go shopping. When we finally returned, the manager informed us that he couldn’t get us another room in his establishment. Thus he had to book us another room in a residence not too far from his place. I forgot to mention that when we came back to the “hotel,” all our belongings were put outside the room; I shrieked I couldn’t find my apartment keys and another phone charger anywhere in my suitcase. Finally, when I opened up Elliot’s suitcase, I found my keys and charger. For some reason, I felt violated at that time. And if we were really in our right mind, we would have demanded that the manager pay for our cab ride to the new establishment. But we didn’t. We just wanted to get to a nice, clean room and relax since it was getting late already.

One thing we’ve decided to do differently next time when we travel is not to book stays at nothing but hotels. No more boutique hotels or “residences” where you need key codes to get inside and out and a key for both the inner and outer doors of the building, which was our lot at our stay in Naples the second time. Even though there were no issues with this place, I was turned off by the sophisticated way I had to follow directions from a message sent by the manager via WhatsApp, the phone app, which indicated what codes to follow to open the resident door and the door to our room. Just give me a hotel room any day and I’ll be happy. The hotel in Sorrento was a traditional hotel which gave us a bulky key that you left at the front desk before leaving which you got back when you returned, so you wouldn’t risk losing the key on your person.

The residence in Naples was where I left a pair of jeans back in the room. I got a text from Angela who said I had left the jeans there. We were already at the train station waiting for a 2:30 train for Milan. Thus it was early and I had enough time to rush back to the building to retrieve my pants. We were only 10 minutes away from the Napoli P. Garibaldi train station. That was the benefit of staying at this boutique residence, even though it was a muddle getting in and out of the place. Also, the building boasted a lift out of the 19th century, where you had to put a 10-cent piece in order to run it. If you didn’t have a 10-cent piece, you either had to walk down or up.

One of the true highlights of this trip was the scrumptious food we ate all throughout our ramblings. In Naples, we sampled the pizza everywhere; not one restaurant made less-than-stellar pizza. I’m fond of Italian food anyway, so I didn’t have to grit my innards in order to try the food on the menu. One restaurant in Naples had the best lasagna I ever tasted. I sampled gnocchi at least twice in which the dish was truly extraordinary. I’ve had bad gnocchi in New York restaurants in some instances, though.

The other highlight was indeed the scenery which we saw on the coast. I can’t put the stunning sights in words here, other to present you some pics at the bottom of the blog here tonight that might give you some insight into how beautiful these vistas truly are.

One good reason for taking the trip right now was to avoid any news on the upcoming consequential election taking place less than a week out. Thank God we couldn’t see any election coverage on Italian television. We also couldn’t watch many shows in English either, except for the one instance where I somehow connected with my Netflix account in our Naples room and we watched two episodes of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which we found fascinating, even though I’m not sure how accurate it is in depicting the case of the true-life brothers who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez.

Tomorrow is Halloween. Have a good Boo Day, everyone. Let’s hope we enjoy more treats and no tricks.

As for the shambling and doddering old fool known as Donald Dump, I heard his Bund rally at Madison Square Garden right here in New York outraged many for the racist, disgusting comments made by a fucking comedian who dissed the island of Puerto Rico. You would think just six days out before the election, would this be considered a smart move to anger the Latino vote at this ridiculous rally that featured no-listers like fucking Hulk Hogan and no one else I can mention here? No, I would think not. I watched a video of Jimmy Fallon who featured the “celebrities” who came out for the fascist contender for president, with one being X owner Elon Musk who sounded like a fool in the clip I saw. There was awkward former First Lady “Melanoma” Trump who butchered the English language when she introduced her rapist husband. She said “sized” the moment when she clearly meant “seized.” The picture of the two of them after the introduction was cringeworthy. She obviously was forced to be there by her prenup, as Fallon stated in his commentary. Anyway, I’m glad I missed this since we were still in Italy. Hell, I think I would have gone down there to protest his appearance there in the first place if I were home.

And so it went!

This is an alleyway in Naples.

More of the same.

This looks like a science museum in Naples.

This is Andy Warhol’s iconic collage of China’s Mao Zedong that I saw at that art museum in Naples when we were locked out of our room for several hours.

This is the iconic Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan where many high-end stores are located. I bought Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles at the Rizzoli Bookstore here.

I think this view was taken from a bus going to one of the towns on the coast.

This is where we got off to take a bus to Positano. This is Amalfi where the buses ran to other towns on the coast.

This is the view from the Villa Rufolo in Ravello where we spent Elliot’s birthday on the 20th of October.

Look at the sky and that stunning view.

This is a staircase found in Positano.

This is definitely Positano.

This is also on the Amalfi Coast.

This is on our boat ride to Capri. I didn’t mention that I needed to take Dramamine on this ride since the boat was small and the water was quite rough in spots.

This is a spaceman who you meet on Capri. Why he’s even there, I have no idea.

This was taken in the Gardens of Augustus in Capri overlooking the faraglioni, which are stacks, coastal and rock formations eroded by waves.

Here are some pics of the flora at the Gardens of Augustus.

Here is a pic of a grotto seen on the boat going to Capri.

This was taken in Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption at Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

This was the only inhabitant we saw who died in the eruption from that cataclysm so many years ago. She was preserved in plaster here.

This is Mount Vesuvius that you see from the ruins of Pompeii. Doesn’t it look like it could erupt at any moment?

This is the great view I saw from our little terrace in our hotel residence in Naples.

More of that grand view.

Isn’t this scary? This is the elevator we had to take to the fourth floor to our room in Naples.

This is the Duomo at night.

This is a dispensary located very near our hotel in Milan which dispensed condoms, lubricants, and the like. I didn’t see anyone buying anything the few times I passed it.

This is one of the elegant galleries found in La Scala, Milan’s opera house.

This is the great Franz Liszt’s own personal piano found in the La Scala museum.

This is a pic of the great Giacomo Puccini, one of Italy’s most noted composers of opera and was featured in a special exhibit at the opera house that we were allowed to go through after our very illuminating tour of the building.

This is the Duomo during the day which attracts visitors galore all the time.