Thanksgiving is right around the corner...

It's Tuesday here in the present and it is a short work week for me.  I am excited about being off but at the same time, I know my mom is hurting because she is missing her husband dearly.  He passed away earlier in February, and last year for the holidays he was still with us.  I feel so much has happened this past year.  It's hard for me to recap events 2 months ago.  I go back and forth in my mind making sure I don't get things mixed up. 
Back to recapping my trip in Italy, me and my friend left out early to head to Sorrento.  From Napoli it was about a 30 minute drive, and what a difference that makes!  Since we were driving on a mountain side, it could get hectic up there with the narrow roads and moped's passing you up.  My friend was determined to stay in Sorrento besides anywhere else in the Amalfi Coast because it wasn't so expensive.  She made the right choice since I did end up falling in love with our hotel.  We parked nearby and decided to walk around the central to look for a hotel.  We were getting hungry again since we had a light breakfast earlier.  We stopped dead in our tracks when we found a café serving gelato.  It was delish!!  Double scoops of heaven!  That held off our hunger for a while.  We sat outside a restaurant and ordered some coffee to wake us up a bit.  We used their wifi to look for hotels nearby.  The price point jumped high in Sorrento, so I kept that in mind since we're now in a tourist attraction locale.  We opted for the Grand Hotel Europa Palace, by the cliff side.  I LOVED IT!!  It was so beautiful and scenic!  We couldn't stop taking pictures. 

On our way to Sorrento!  Took pictures on the side of the road.  Too pretty!

In Sorrento having some gelato!  Definitely one of the best I've had in Italy!

Overlooking il centro in Sorrento...

Lemons galore!

Our view at the Grand Hotel Europa! 

I enjoyed our stay at the Grand Hotel Europa.  Friendly staff and were very helpful...

We checked in and tried to figure out our next move.  We were only planning to stay one night, so we wanted to take advantage of all the amenities.  At the same time, we were restricted with time.  We decided to go down below and get some sun action.  We were not going to lay out too long.  We wanted to head to Positano and have lunch.  Positano is small so we figured we'll spend a couple of hours there. 
Once we freshened up we headed back out for our drive.  Now a word to the wise.  Driving to Positano is not for the faint of heart.  There were many twists and turns heading down there.  My friend had anxiety by the time we finally parked.  Unfortunately, since she is the only one who drives stick, she did all the driving.  I felt bad that I couldn't help out. 
We did a quick walk through of Positano.  My friend was still pretty anxious, so we decided to finally have something to eat.  We decided to keep it light since my friend didn't want to stay there long.  She wanted to head back to Sorrento before it got dark.  She noticed there weren't any lights on that crazy road, and we didn't want to stuck overnight and getting another room to sleep in.   
We stopped at a restaurant and quickly ordered some wine.  The man who ran the restaurant came by and chatted with us for a bit.  I love hearing his perspective on life in general.  He was in his 60s, but apparently he's lived in Positano practically all of his life!!  I can't imagine!  It's such a small town.  I'm surprised he never branched out somewhere else.  Regardless, Positano is beautiful, so I can see why he stayed.  

Positano is magic!!

A glass of wine to help ease the tension from that drive!

We had a glass of the Furore Rosso.  It was delish!

Window shopping in Positano!

Found a perfect place to take more pictures!  We had to head out since it was getting dark. 

We made it to Sorrento to catch the sunset from our hotel.  My friend didn't want to risk driving on that road in the dark.

We did some light window shopping and headed back to Sorrento.  Since we had some light bites earlier, we wanted to treat ourselves to a BIG dinner!  We freshened up again (it was HOT in Italy) and headed back out in the town.  With the recommendation of the front deskman, we settled for a sea food restaurant nearby.  A mini bus picked us up and we arrived shortly.  My friend got discouraged because she wanted an authentic Italian dinner.  She felt we got stuck in another tourist trap.  I feel that Sorrento in general is catered to tourists anyway, and doubted we would have been able to find that type of restaurant.  It is what it is. 
After dinner we walked around to find some nightlife action.  We heard some loud music in the background and tried to find out where it was.  It turns out it was a wedding taking place in a hotel.  A woman was screaming from the outside to shut the party down because she couldn't sleep.  Good luck with that one!  Italian weddings could last til dawn!
It was after midnight and we headed back to our hotel.  Check out was at 11am, so we wanted to take advantage of the breakfast before we left.  It was an exhausting day but well worth it!