Adventures from Sorrento

Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Sorrento, Campania, Italy
Wow, I am way behind.  It has been a very busy few days and I'm scrambling to catch up.
Saturday morning, we made our way down to Garibaldi train station and caught the Campania Express to Sorrento.  The Campania Express is the tourist version of the Circumvesuviana commuter trains that run around the Bay of Naples.  You pay more but you get a seat, rather than being packed in like cattle.  With a few wrong turns, we found our little B&B, Maison San Paolo, right in the heart of the pedestrian core of the town, and then spent the afternoon exploring a bit and trying to arrange the tours that we would be taking over the next 3 days.
First trip up, on Sunday, was a boat tour of the Amalfi Coast.  Up early to grab our brioche and Americano and got on a shuttle bus to a marina a little bit down the coast.  There were 12 people on the boat, plus the skipper and guide, and it was a lot of fun.  A really great way to see the Amalfi Coast.  We made stops in Amalfi and Positano for a couple of hours each, plus a couple of stops to swim off the boat.  Amalfi and Positano are both very pretty towns but they are crazy busy, particularly Positano--the harbour at Positano is an absolute zoo. It was a long day but really worth it.
Monday's trip was a bit shorter.  Up early again to meet our guide for a walking tour, "The Path of the Gods", along cliffs above the Amalfi Coast.  There were only 3 of us, plus our guide, on the trip and it was really interesting, if somewhat draining in the heat.  We stopped at a house of a local goat herder for some homemade goat cheese (100% goat, which is apparently a rarity), homemade wine and some bruschetta.  We did a loop, going out on a lower path and back on a higher, less used path.  There were a lot of people out on the paths but it wasn't crowded.  It was really interesting to see what we had seen from the water the day before from a completely different perspective.  But it was hot--the beer when we got back to the bar where our guide had parked her Fiat Panda (which I mention because I will be driving one starting later this week) tasted especially good.
  In the afternoon, our project was to do laundry at laundromat that we had located the day before.  Then we had a really fun and tasty dinner at TavernAllegra.  It's a very touristy place with an old guy (the owner I assume) who tells stories and sings and a musician who plays a mixture of Italian and American music all nght.  They saw me keeping time on the table and brought me a drum to play along.  Just a fun place.
Then, on Tuesday, another full day excursion, to Ercolano (Herculaneum) and Pompei, with wine tasting and lunch in between.
First, Ercolano, which is a much smaller site than Pompei (although only about 20% uncovered at this point, as it is in one of the most densely populated areas in Europe), but is much better preserved because it was actaully covered in lava, whereas Pompei was covered in volcanic ash and pumice, when Vesuvius erupted, so there is a lot of interior detail in the houses.
  Pompei, on the other hand, is massive and you get a great perspective of how the city was laid out and all of the public spaces and roads, but there is less individual detail preserved in the houses and other buildings.  Of course, we only saw a tiny portion of it in our few hours there.  In between, we had a very tasty spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce and tasted 3 very nice wines at a vineyard on the slopes below Vesuvius.
A very long day by the time they got everyone (this tour had 21 people on it) dropped off and we got back to our room.  Then a very nice fish dinner down on the waterfront in Marina Grande.
Today, off to Capri!

Comments

Jukia
2018-09-12

Fabulous photos! They look like postcards but it looks like it’s impossible to take a bad shot! I loved the photos of the other spot that was covered in Lava rather than as as in Pompei. How old would you say that City was? Enjoy your travels!

Mabel & Rick
2018-09-12

We loved the Amalfi Coast. Enjoying your travel stories and pictures.

2025-02-14

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