As mentioned previously, the day started very early with a quick breakfast at the Windjammer. After this, we headed to the Royal Theater to meet up with our tour group for the day. After leaving the ship, we headed to our bus and met our tour guide for the day, Valentina.
We drove for a little over an hour to our first stop, Sorrento. We began our time there in a beautiful lemon grove and restaurant where they gave us a presentation of how they made mozzarella. We were then brought samplers to try various meats and cheeses, which were all very good!
After this, we headed to the center of the town for lunch & free time. We ate at a pizzeria in the square, and it was the best pizza I had during my time in Italy (maybe the best I’ve ever had in my life)! After this, we took a stroll down one of the streets of Sorrento and ordered some of their famous lemon gelato, which was amazing! Kate described it as being sort of like the flavor of Chick’fil’a frosted lemonade, and I find that to be an excellent description.
After this, we got back on the bus to drive to the ruins of Pompeii, the famous town destroyed by Mount Vesuvius, which was visible from the ruins, and it was stunning! The ruins of the town are incredibly intact thanks to the volcanic ash that covered them in the eruption, and they’re very impressive!
Valentina showed us many buildings, some of which were almost entirely intact, and explained what each building and artifact would be used for as well as some symbols that could be seen in the ruins. My favorite invention in the ruins was the stepping stones that stuck out of the road so that people could cross it even if it flooded.
We then boarded the bus to travel back to the terminal to board the ship. While in the terminal, I bought a headband decorated with lemons to remember my time in Sorrento. After this, we boarded the ship once again.
After getting cleaned up, we headed to dinner in the main dining room. This time, I ordered French Onion Soup as my appetizer, which I had never tried before but very much enjoyed. I also ordered a cheese tortellini and a warm chocolate cake, both of which were delicious.
We then decided to attend the headliner show for the evening, Broadway: Rhythm and Rhyme. The main singers and the dancers were incredibly talented, and I got to hear a lot of pre-golden age & golden age Broadway music that I’d never heard before, which was cool. In addition, we heard a snippet of another song from Anything Goes, “It’s De-Lovely,” and I found it so crazy and cool to hear not one but two Anything Goes songs on the trip! After the show, we headed back to the stateroom to conclude a wonderful first day of excursions.
