But 2.8kg of Limoncello Isn't Going Last Me Very Long

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I decided to get up extra early to walk down to the harbour for some early morning sunrise photographs. I was a little indecisive as to whether to take pictures looking down on the harbour from a viewpoint above or down on the harbour itself. In the end, I did both, but as a consequence of my indecisiveness, I ended-up going up and down all those steps twice.

I walked past Franco's pizza restaurant at 5.30am and it was still open and full of people, who were obviously finishing their night out with a pizza. Clearly, that's the Italian equivalent of the British all-night kabab shop.

Despite the fact that it was ok for the four of us to get in a taxi from the airport, when we tried to book the taxi to take us back to the airport, we were advised that taxis are only for up to three people so we would need to get a mini-van. And that would cost us €240. Sadly, that's now something else for me to need therapy about.

The early start also meant that we would miss breakfast, but at least there were the "breakfast boxes" waiting for us.

Alternatively, there was always Franco's, but sadly we didn’t have time and I'm really not sure about pizza for breakfast (cakes and Prosecco are fine, but I draw the line at pizza). Perhaps we could have gone there for pizza and then walked down to the square where there were taxis waiting in the evening. There might be some early in the morning and they might take four people, but then there might not, so it just wasn't worth the risk.

The mini-van had nine seats, which was a complete waste for four of us. Now I should have got on board with the Italian culture and followed the examples of the people around the train stations and harbour by setting-up an unofficial ticket office in the hotel reception to sell on the spare seats.

The drive back to Naples airport was no where near as mad as the drive from the airport (see Lemons, Mutant Lemons, Lemon Merchandise and, in a Moment of Madness, a Lemon Drink), but there was still a lot of cutting-up and swerving going on. It didn't take as long as we were expecting and so we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

A part from the quality of the driving, we noted a couple of things on the journey. First, given that Vesuvius is still classed as active and obviously has a history, I'm a little surprised that Naples seems to be built so close to it. Second, fuel is even more expensive here than in the UK, which is surprising as I always thought it was us that paid the most.

It was pouring with rain, so we had definitely picked the right day to go home.

We dropped off our bags and true to form (see Gaining Weight at The Disaster Airport) our bag had increased in weight from 21kg to 23.8kg. As it was early, the bag-drop was still very quiet and the Italians don't like rules, we managed to get away with it, but I sadly had to come clean and explain to my wife why I had bought 2.8kg of Limoncello.

There's a McDonald's in the airport terminal and my wife would have loved a McMuffin, but amazingly at 9.00am and in an airport terminal, the McDonald's was closed. We opened up the breakfast boxes (well, actually, they were bags), which each consisted of a sandwich, a bottle of juice, a cake and a croissant. We were happy with that, although I was disappointed about the lack of homemade marmalade and there only being one cake.

The airport duty-free seemed to consist of mainly Limoncello, but I wasn't allowed to buy any more sadly.

There's a real contrast in the airport. After the duty-free, we walked along the upper level of departure gates and it was full of shops selling Italian designer suits, Italian designer shoes, Italian designer bags and the like. The EasyJet flight was departing from the lower level, which was a complete contrast. If I knew what the Italian version of Primark is, then that's what's on that level. Clearly, they think that there's no point on wasting designer Italian labels on us EasyJet passengers.

We went through to get our passports checked and stamped as, apparently, the gate was about to close. However, we then spent the next hour being herded from one room to another and then onto a crowded bus like we were cattle. I love EasyJet.

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Photos

Harbour View
Sorrento harbour in the morning.

Harbour Buildings
The cliff side and buildings alongside Sorrento harbour.

Sorrento Harbour Sunrise
Another harbour view - rain clouds blocking the sunrise.

Mini-Van
Way to big for four people - I wonder if I can sell tickets?

Breakfast Box
Filled a hole (but no McMuffin).

Limoncello
Definitely the thing to come home with.

Rainy Departure
We've picked the right day to go home.