Have Bag, Will Travel: Sorrento

As you might have noticed, my "Have Bag, Will Travel" blog series is a bit sporadic in the fact that sometimes I talk about cities and other times I talk about countries. That's because often times, I didn't spend enough time in one country to talk about it as a whole, or I loved one city too much to just glance over it in a post about the country itself. That is the case with Italy. My previous post about Venice is a testament to my love for an individual city. Such is the case with Sorrento.

I traveled around Italy twice when I was abroad in Europe. After my study abroad program, I took a month off before coming home to backpack, and I had no idea how taxing that can be. Carrying a 50 pound backpack through train stations and airports, trying to find cheap hostels to stay in, getting on late trains and getting off them early in the morning isn't the most relaxing way to spend a month's vacation. But I can't complain.

Toward the end of my time abroad, a friend from high school met up with me and we bounced around for a week. By this time, I was reaching the end of my trip and wanted to detox from all the travel. Thus we decided to spend a week in Sorrento, Italy and take day trips to Capri and Pompeii from there. Best decision.

Sorrento is a gorgeous city in the Amalfi Coast area of Italy. It's a resort town with amazing seafood restaurants and little shops that sell handmade sandals and other trinkets. My friend and I ate our way through our fair share of fish and gelato, while walking along the rocky cliffs and sun tanning on rocks. We got up late and let ourselves breathe. We drank wine at sidewalk cafes and rode on boats to the famous grottos in Capri. We put our history knowledge to the test and hiked through Pompeii, but most of all we just took a moment to enjoy our remaining days in Europe.

Traveling can be exciting and exhilarating, but it can also be taxing and tiring. Too often, I found myself trying to cram as much as I could about a city in a small amount of time. Ultimately, I was missing out one of the most important parts of traveling: getting a feel for a city. If you run around from place to place you miss out on just sitting and letting the city speak to you.

By taking the week to relax in Sorrento, I let myself reflect on my semester abroad. I let Sorrento itself speak to me, and just like meditation, I felt myself unwind. Take the time to breathe and enjoy the city as if you have all the time in the world, even if you don't.