Pages

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

Italy Day Two - a day in Sorrento

Second diary extract from my Italy diary.

So the first proper day of our holiday. We woke early and were dressed and down at breakfast by 7.20am. The food was lovely again. After breakfast we came back to our room to collect our
backpacks and then went and sat on the balcony whilst we waited for the shuttle bus to arrive at 9am. That was 9am Italian time which was 9.10! However, it was only a 10 minute ride into Sorrento and the bus leaves the hotel on the hour (!) every hour and picks up in Sorrento on the half hour, and is included in the cost of the holiday, so an extremely useful addition to our trip!

When we arrived in Sorrento town the first thing we did was to go and suss out where the train station is for our trip to Pompeii. We then just went for a wander. We ended up walking down hundreds of stairs to get to the marina and there found out how to get to Capri.

We wandered along the shoreline looking at the private and public beaches and then came to the lift to get back up - well worth €1 each!

The view from the top, looking over the bay and to Vesuvius was stunning, but a little hazy from the heat.

After visiting the cloister of the church of St Francis,

we made our way to a cafe in the middle of the square and Hugh had a coffee whilst I had a granita. We watched the world go by and the amazing traffic - very scary!
view from the cafe of the square in Sorrento
It was then on to the supermarket to get some drinks and lunch to take back to the hotel. As we had some time to spare before the bus left for the hotel we took a walk to the lemon and orange grove in
town and tried some limoncella. Of course we then had to buy a bottle! We were advised to go and have a look at theit factory around the corner which we did - they peel the lemons by hand!

After a wait in the sun the bus turned up and we came back to the hotel where we sat in our cool room and made ham rolls for our lunch.

After a siesta we both changed into our swimming costumes and went down to the pool where we managed to get loungers. The water was lovely and refreshing. We swam and read books for the
rest of the afternoon before returning to our room to have a cup of tea/coffe and shower ready for dinner. We are now waiting to go down to dinner, having sat on the balcony and had a glass of
limoncello each.
Tomorrow we are off to Capri.

8 comments:

Sian said...

It looks gorgeous! I'm looking forward to reading about Pompeii. I achieved a lifetime ambition when I got there!

Missus Wookie said...

Lemoncello is lovely - makes a gorgeous frozen yoghurt too :)

Looks like such a lovely place to visit.

scrappyjacky said...

Makes a good trifle as well!!

Beverly said...

My knees would let me climb the stairs but the descent would have been brutal. Love that photo! When we were telling friends recently about making our limoncello we decided we really must go to Italy and drink it in the proper atmosphere. Your post just confirms that as we really must go to that factory!!

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

Wow, that is a LOT of stairs! Lovely post, Becky. I'm really enjoying your Italy trip! :o)

alexa said...

Stunning photos - no wonder you needed an afternoon rest after all those steps! Lovely to see somewhere I ave never visited.

Maria Ontiveros said...

A perfect combo for vacation - interesting wanders and relaxation!
Rinda

Anonymous said...

When I came to that picture of the stairs I couldn't help but say "O My God!" I don't even think I could walk down them without my legs shaking by the time I got to the bottom and forget about climbing back up them. Looking forward to seeing what day 3 brings.