Sorrento to Capri to Roma

Good evening from Rome - or rather - near Rome, where we have checked into a hotel for a VERY short stay. This morning, the plan was to leave at seven AM for Capri, but we were delayed a bit (again) by several of the girls. (Aside: Parents of graduating students - if you are looking for a graduating gift for your daughter, please consider a watch - especially if her first name ends with an 'A'.)

Eventually, we made it to the Sorrento port and boarded the ferry for Capri where we spent several hours walking, eating, and enjoying the lovely weather. We then took another ferry to Naples, where Osvaldo, our driver met us for the trip to Rome. He has now left us to get up to Venice for tomorrow and we will be travelling to the airport with an American group from Houston. We also have a new tour guide, Marianna, who joined us for the last two days after Mary headed north to take care of a trip of older ladies who are doing a spa tour - yep, you read that right - based out for Florence for a week.
 

The 1st photo is by the ferry port this morning. The 2nd is from the Capri gardens, and the 3rd is in the main piazza in Capri. Not sure what the guide is saying, but the girls look interested. 

We are now at a fairly nice hotel. It's old and with a lot of character, but very clean. Each room is decorated differently. Some of the girls found the rooms to be rather disturbing; they do look they are from an old mansion, redecorated of course, with high ceilings, different wall paper, and different furniture in each room.

We won't be here too long as we have a departure by bus for the Rome airport at  ... wait for it... 3:30AM for our 6:35 AM flight to Munich. We suspect that several of the girls will not even wrinke their beds tonight. It'll be a fatigued group that arrives at Pearson International on Sunday evening, and it will be interesting to see who's on the Madonna campus on Monday.

In Sorrento and Capri, we travelled some of the time here with a group from Chaminade. They joined us for the Capri ferry rides and also the small boat tour around the coast of Capri. Not too, too much shopping was done today. Capri is quite expensive and a good number of the shops don't even display prices. We saw the hotel at which DiCaprio and Clooney stay ... at 1000 Euros per night! Nevertheless, overall, a few of the girls will be close to their declaration limit, we think. Not sure if anyone actually went over the allowable purchases - yet - but we know that our stay in Heathrow airport will be tempting for the shoppers and those left with money.

... and just to finish off, here are a few of the girls with members of an Italian boys soccer team who were on Capri at the same time as us. Shortly after taking this photo, our guide Marianna, told us that the MCSS girls broke the boys' hearts when we left. Shattered dreams on the romantic island of Capri - the Madonna legacy.

Not sure if we'll be able to post again before getting to Toronto. If we can find a wifi connection in Munich or London, we'll see if we can send a travel progress report. If not, see you in Toronto in not too, too long.

Ciao a tutti.