Monday, August 17, 2009

#240 Istituto B. Gesu

Our next accomodations were also from in "The Guide to Lodging in Italy's Monasteries". We stayed in the Istituto Bambino Gesu in downtown Sorrento. The place is run by nuns and was causing Don flashbacks to his Catholic grade school education. The hillside location had amazing views of the ocean, Mt. Vesuvius, and Naples across the bay. The place was a reverant and historic setting. You can see that the boys bedroom had a 20 foot ceiling with painted detail on the vaults and a statue of the Virgin Mary in the corner. The drawbacks were the lack of air conditioning and the train that passed outside our window every 30 minutes during the night.

Nonetheless, with a party of eight including four children, these alternative accomodations were a bargain compared to standard Italian hotels. We rented our three bedroom apartment at Bambino Gesu for only 120 Euros ($170) per night. The alternative would be two standard hotel rooms at probably $250 each per night. There are literally hundreds of lodging places like this nunnery that can be found all over Europe, especially in Italy.

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