Today our true vacation begins, a mixture of pilgrimage and pleasure. Probably, more of the latter than the former because Rafael has already informed me that he's not planning to spend his entire time in Italy hopping from church to church.
We spent the afternoon in Sorrento, which is a beautiful town. It has a little bit of everything: history, shopping, plenty of restaurants, beach, lots of tourists and churches in every corner.
We began our walking tour in Piazza Tasso, under the statue of St. Antonino, its patron saint.
I love how every town has its own patron saint. There are statues of saints in every corner. But Mama Mary wins. She is everywhere. The Southern Italians, to my surprise, are truly devout. That was not my experience in Northern Italy nine years ago. As we were leaving the marina, on that rollercoaster of a road I mentioned a few days ago, there is a statue of Mary in one of the sharp turns. She has been strategically placed to protect the drivers because they need all the help they can get to drive in Italy. And as we passed her, I noticed the driver doing the sign of the cross.
A lot of the streets are also named after Mama Mary. The street we started walking from Piazza Tasso was Via Santa Maria Della Pieta. In the middle of the two block street, I discovered this little Shrine with a painting of Mama Mary breastfeeding baby Jesus:
The street ended in the Cathedral. Another thing I love about Italy. Every town, no matter how small, has a cathedral. This one was rather small but absolutely beautiful. My favorite thing was the beautiful "presepe," that I found next to the entrance:
We continued our exploration of Sorrento, running into a few more statues of St. Anthony. and then we came upon a statue of St. Francis, one of my favorite saints. So I decided to capture him for posterity.
By this time we were starving so we made our way down to the Marina for some delicious pasta and seafood at Ristorante Delfino. At this restaurant, I got more than a meal. I left with a blessing and a couple of medals of Mama Mary. It happened when I went to pay. Rafael had gone to the restroom so I went to the register by myself. The lady at the register had a basket filled with medals and she handed me two of them with this message: "Take Blessed Mary with you and she will take care of you. She will fill your life with blessings." I was utterly speechless. I left feeling full of joy.
We then began our drive to Amalfi, where we will be staying for the next five nights. Just as I feared, the roads are not for the faint-hearted. And I'm definitely faint-hearted. Even with those medals of Mama Mary in my possession, I had to close my eyes a few times and my knuckles were turning white from holding so tight to the door. In addition, we were driving south with the cliffs on my side. At one turn, we encountered a bus and we literally had to reverse because there was no room for both of us. Rafael had not driven stick shift in a while, so when trying to put the car in reverse, he missed and we almost ran right into the bus. Needless to say, I almost died. That was one of the times I had to close my eyes. But thank God and to Mama Mary, we made it safely to our hotel.
Our hotel, Il Saraceno Grand Hotel, is built vertically on the cliffs. Most towns on the Amalfi coast are built that way. And the views... They are simply magnificent.
With this view and this room, I've decided not to leave the hotel.
The good thing is that everywhere we go, the views are even better. On this night, we decided not to venture too far so we found a little restaurant, Da Ciccio Cielo, just 400 meters from our hotel. The food was delicious and the view... It was hard to distinguish where the sea ended and the sky began:
Thank you God for allowing us to experience your beautiful creation. And thank you Mama Mary for keeping us safe. Mama Mary, continue to protect us. And keep our family and friends, healthy and safe back home. St. Antonino and St. Francis, pray for us.
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