A long day…

We were very good and got up early so that we could have breakfast and make the 9:07 Circumvesuviana train from Sorrento to Napoli (Naples). We made it and arrived in Naples at around 10:07 with plenty of time to spare until our 11:30 train to Firenze, scheduled to arrive at 3:06. The plan was to then take a taxi to Hotel Casci (a wonderful hotel that we stayed at on our last trip – the family that runs this hotel is super nice and helpful. Free internet too!) and meet Nicole’s parents there at about 3:30.

We had some time to kill so we ate at the McDonald’s in the Naples train station. One of the employees saw me taking pictures and gave us a goofy pose. In addition to regular french fries, they were running a promotion where they had what they called “My Music Potato” (they actually used English words; this is not a translation). They were seasoned french fries and there was some kind of deal where you got points or something that you could use to download free music from what sounded like the Italian equivalent of iTunes. They were part of what they called the “Big Mac Music Menu” and they were actually quite good. I wish McDonald’s in the USA had these fries.

Our EuroStar train to Firenze (Florence) scrolled off the departures board, without ever showing a track number. When we asked, they simply said “No train”. We took another much later train, which was delayed.

The train ride was very long. I finished my Arab and Jew book.

Finally at around 6pm or so (3 hours later than we had planned), we reached Hotel Casci and met Nicole’s parents, who were coming down just as we were coming in.