Sorrento II, Positano, Amalfi

Sorrento - looking down at Marina Grande


So many shops selling ceramics

Had a delightful day just enjoying Sorrento, wandering the streets, checking out the tacky tourist shops (which are in the most beautiful side streets!) and then finding some true locals and lovely restaurants a few streets off the main stretch.

Damn! They're closed!

The private beaches

Walked down to Marina Piccolo where the boats arrive from/leave to Napoli, Capri, Positano, Amalfi etc. Stretched our legs along the shore looking close up at the private beaches and their ‘outfits’ – the fancy sun lounges, the pontoons with slippery dips on them, the umbrella drinks and fancy snacks – might pretend to be rich and ‘check-in’ to one of these for some pampering before we go!

L'Antica Trattoria

Welcoming Americans...we did not eat here

Climbed back up to town level for some lunch at one of the most delightful restaurants we have been to so far on the trip (and had, probably the best meal). The restaurant was L'Antica Trattoria and it is more for a splurge dinner than a lunch, but we decided to try the lunch and we were thrilled with the result. Firstly, we were nearly the only people there so the attention we received could not be faulted. A complimentary champagne to begin the meal and some tuna mousse on mini toasts. Our €18 ‘light lunch’ menu consisted of the following (in perfect smallish servings – which allows for the indulgence of a number of dishes!): deep-fried courgette flowers (zucchini flowers), followed by handmade seafood filled ravioli, then salad, then lemon delice (the lightest, most luscious lemon cake). Our waiter was so sweet that he added some complimentary tiny cake and chocolate selections to go with coffee afterwards. I think we will have to go there again before we leave. Our mission is to discover more little gems like this restaurant in the days left (and doing lunch instead of dinner is a bargain!)

Marina Grande

After this we walked down more steps to the Marina Grande which is really like a whole other town, completely separate to the rest of Sorrento (and I think the locals like it like that!). We watched two different weddings unfolding on the piers below us as we descended – one, a lone couple, both wearing black pants, she with some gorgeous, chiffony-type latte top, he with a casual open necked shirt, both looking so stunning and stylish!; the other the full cream duchess satin number, train, veil and deep red accessories, and beaming family members running after them throwing rice. Congratulated both brides as they prepared for their photo poses who giggled their thanks with beautiful smiles.

Bride and groom number 2

On the beach at Marina Grande, Nic made friends with this dog, and when she stopped walking along, he lay at her feet. Happy fellow he was too.

Noble beast...the one laying on the sand!

The view of Vesuvius from our balcony

Positano


The next day we arose prepared to do the trip to Capri, planning on catching the ‘early’ 8:25am hydrofoil. Ha! Could hardly move on the wharf area and missed the boat cause we couldn’t find the ticket booth in time. Got freaked out by the crowds and decided, instead, to pop over to Positano. Not quite the same crowds, but still a little intense. Didn’t stay too long in Positano, but enough time to enjoy some of the beauty of the place. Stunning skyline that will not change (due to strict building regulations!).

From there decided to bus it to Amalfi for lunch. Interesting experience. Not a fan of the bus trip at the best of times. Only 18 kilometres, but the longest 18k’s of our lives! Very crowded bus, filled mainly with school girls from Napoli on an excursion (there are an amazing amount of school kids on excursion at every place we have been to!). There was one girl in particular, very vivacious and charming, who was determined to entertain us and her friends and, of course, herself (!) by engaging us in conversation in broken English, which inevitably failed at which point she would burst into song. Highly amusing, if a little tiring – just like being on own school excursion.

Amalfi town

Dude in fountain copping a perve

Arrived at Amalfi just in time (to stop Nic being sick on the bus!). There were at least 10 other buses and coaches parked at the Marina and a great sea of people burst forth battering the walls of the city and flowing through the arches into the town square, pushing up the first street and dribbling into various shops ready to spend their money. The tide eventually dissipated – shops, restaurants, galleries, and the church managing to hold the vast quantities of people and for a moment, the street was still, waiting for the next tidal wave to batter its cobbles. It felt a little like being swept along with the bull-runners at Pamplona, only a lot slower and, probably, less dangerous.

Cathedral at Amalfi

The Cloister

Worm's eye view

St Andrew's Crypt

The Cathedral in Amalfi town was very impressive. It is “Amalfi Romanesque” (a mix of Moorish and Byzantine flavour) and it houses the remains of the first disciple, St Andrew, in its crypt. And a pretty flash crypt it is too!

After this we decided we had had enough of crowds and just wanted to go back to our current ‘home’, Sorrento. We had planned on catching the bus to Ravello, but when we saw the crowds for that and took into account Nic’s upset tum, we scratched it (sorry Brian and Jo!). Something for next time!

Goodbye Amalfi

That's engineering!

Caught the boat back (there was absolutely no way Nic was getting on another bus that day!) and thoroughly enjoyed the ride standing on the back of the jet boat looking for Sophia Loren’s house on the coast – we think we saw it cause we saw an old Italian man with love in his eyes pointing and saying her name (*sigh*).

The view from our hotel of Sorrento may be becoming tedious for you, but it's not for us!

Sorrento I, Pompeii, Herculaneum

Now, yes, the beginning of this post is not Sorrento, but it's on our WAY to Sorrento, so bear with us!

Farmhouse outside Tourves

Tourves main square

Our last day in France was spent mainly travelling leisurely from Cassis to Nice via the lesser roads (not the autoroute) which gave us the perfect opportunity to drive through many a gorgeous French town.

Nic in Le Jardin Restaurant, Antibes

Stopped in Antibes for lunch – another lovely seaside town without the crowds and hype of Nice.

Lonely but very cute bears


You cannot BELIEVE how disappointing it was not to have this toyshop in Antibes open when we were there! These bears were sadly in need of a loving home! (And there are many we know who could give them one!)

The outer wall of Antibes

John after his swim in the hotel pool in Nice - Nic thought it was too cold!

Stayed the night literally across the road from the airport which was very convenient for our 7am flight.

Arrived in Naples late morning (via Munich) and hopped straight on a bus to Sorrento. Didn’t even want to think about tackling Naples with our luggage. It was a shock to the system coming from the beauty and affluence of the south of France to the quite poor area between Naples and Sorrento. Some areas were very dirty, slum-like in appearance, even small pockets that looked like shanty-towns with their corrugated iron shacks. We started to get a little concerned when time passing and kilometres travelled didn’t really alleviate the graffiti-covered walls and housing-commission style highrises. Finally caught glimpses of the ocean between the washing flapping from balconies and the screaming vespas dodging tour coaches.

A park on the top of the cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples

The view directly down to one of the many private beaches on the shore

Red boat

Practical, yet oh so cute, delivery scooter

Sorrento is a happening place. It’s geared for tourists so most of the shopkeepers, waiters, souvenir-peddlers have good English. In fact, the majority of the tourists seem to be Americans (with a few Aussies, Poms, Germans, and Kiwis thrown in to spice things up). The main square, Piazza Tasso is a roaring, atmospheric cauldron of vehicles and pedestrians, neither caring much who has right of way, but very few getting huffy about having to wait for the other who got there first. Scooters are mosquitos that dart in and out of cars and buses, freaky in their brazen flouting of common sense and caution. They do have that warning buzz, just like when the bloody mozzie is coming in for the strike as you are drifting off to sleep at night and you swat at it blindly in the dark. We have seen so many different types of drivers and passengers on these little gnats. A favourite was the one with a little mutt balancing between his two owners having the time of his life, hanging on, tongue flapping in the breeze. The one with mum and kids was pretty cool too.

Mum and kids on vespa

Typical sidestreet ristorante

Our hotel, Il Nido, is 5km out of Sorrento on a hilltop overlooking the bay of Naples, Sorrento and Vesuvius (when it’s not hidden by pollution!). There is a free shuttle bus that takes us into town and picks us up, so the out-of-town thing really isn’t a problem. In fact, it’s a blessing being away from the noise and having the most wonderful views to stare dreamily at while sipping wine in the afternoon before popping up to the terrace restaurant (or ristorante – we are in Italy now) for the best value meal in town.

Sunset from Hotel Il Nido

Street in Pompeii

Plaster cast of victim of Vesuvius

Went to Pompeii and Herculaneum the following day. It was a very big day, indeed! Caught the Circumvesuviana train at 8:26am and tried to get to Pompeii early to beat some crowds, which worked till about 10am, then it was on! Gigantic tour groups everywhere, even a bit of jostling going on if they thought you weren’t getting out of their way fast enough.

The great theatre which held about 4,000 people...

...The little theatre which held about 1,800 people

Don't worry - he's just asleep

The site was so massive, so much larger than imagined. It was helpful to have seen the documentary/reinactment on TV about the eruption last year; otherwise it would be difficult to imagine the beauty and scale of the homes and baths from these remains of mosaics and frescoes. One unexpected addition to the site was the presence of stray dogs. We saw 7 in total – mostly asleep in the shade (they probably did their socialising with each other at night!).

John with the theatres in the background

Apollo's bottom in the Temple of Apollo...of course the REAL Apollo's bottom is in the Museum in Naples - this is a copy

Mosaics...


...and frescoes, wonderfully preserved

Modern frescoes!

Caught the train again around lunch-time to Ercolano (which is between Pompeii and Naples) and thoroughly enjoyed this extraordinary site. They obviously haven’t uncovered the whole of the city, but what is there is amazingly preserved – it was buried by boiling mud that hardened and protected it, whereas Pompeii was buried in ash and pumice.

Herculaneum - notice the boat houses at what would have once been the shoreline, over 300 bodies were found there

We are glad we visited both and that we did it in the order we did. The intimacy of Herculaneum was fantastic to see after the grandeur of the much larger Pompeii site. There was one house in particular at Herculaneum that was still so lovely with it’s mosaics and frescoes – the House of the Deer (Casa dei Servi), named for the statues of deer being attacked by dogs in the garden courtyard. This house would have had the most stunning views of the Bay of Naples as well – it was right on the top of the cliff (with the boat houses, where they found hundreds of bodies, directly underneath it).

Mosaics and frescoes from the garden of the House of the Deer

This statue is the reason the house was named so

Intersection of streets in Herculaneum site

Fast food joint, Herculaneum style

After our day steeped in history we returned to Sorrento, ate ice cream in the town and shuttled back to our lovely balcony to drink our chilled local white and eat some cashews.

Another perfect day