Day Trips from Sorrento

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Day Trips from Sorrento

Pompeii, Positano

It's been a beautiful but sometimes difficult week in Sorrento. The weather has been unkind to us at times and the rain seems to have overheard our daily 'where to' conversation and arrived five minutes before us. We haven't let this dampen our spirits (pardon the pun) but it has meant that from time to time we had to imagine the postcard view instead of experiencing it first hand. Sorrento is a beautiful and very noisy town. The atmosphere is great and the people very friendly. We discovered early in the week a beautiful cafe nestled in a cobblestoned alley way and this became our favourite haunt, not only because it had wifi internet access but because the family who owned it were absolutely lovely! They treated the girls like queens and the food was exceptional. They were the only place in town that would cook whatever you wanted, so the kids (and occassionaly us) would order bacon, eggs, chips and beans - no problemo!

Pompeii.
Monday was our first sunny day so we decided to catch the train to pompie. What an incredible, moving place! Imagine for a moment. You go about your everyday life, doing what you do, paying the bills, off to the square to meet the girls for a coffee. You recall that the volcano was a bit moody last night but you pay it no mind. After all it's a volcano.

Two hours later every living thing within a hundred mile radius is dead. Think about it, look around. Gone.

When Vesuvius erupted it threw a blanket of ash and rock two miles into the air at over 250 miles per hour. It rained down mostly on the City of Pompeii, in places up to 50meters deep. Not a single living thing survived. 22,000 people, dead.

The Palatine Hill, Colosseum, Roman Forum. All awe inspiring places. Windows into history even. Yet as you gaze at the thirteen bodies preserved in the ashes of Pompeii in a place known as the Garden of the Fugitives it it is hard to remain untouched. Most haunting of all is the look of utter despair still plainly visible on the face of a father or mother (we don't know which) watching their family members draw there last breath. Powerless, fated.

We hope you enjoy the images. They say more than we ever could.

Positano

Took the bus to Positano today. Gee, that sounded simple didn't it? If you call hurtling along a road only two metres wider than the bus itself, carved into the cliff face with shear rock walls on one side and at time over a thousand foot straight drop on the other simple. Not to mention sounding the horn at every blind corner in order to avoid head on a collision with as yet un seen traffic coming the other way. Oh, and did we mention that the horn was sounded so often that at one point we mistakenly thought the driver was actually trying top play 'That's Amore”. So after an hour of white knuckles we arrived at Positano. Even the rain could not detract from it's beauty. As it clings to the escarpment you perpetually feel as if it would take so little for it to come crashing down into the ocean below. A kaleidoscope of colour and architecture, this fishing village come place to be seen for the rich and famous is every bit the promise of the brochures.

With its narrow winding streets, designer labels and Italian style, Positano charms, captivates and leaves you breathless ( in more ways than one if like us you had to leg it back to the bloody bus stop at the top !) No seriously, it's magic.

Ciao for now,
Tim and Kerry

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Comments

[Ellen]

fantastic
Wow loving your holiday blog.couldnt get onto this one for a while but ran into Kristie at the shops and she told me what to do .You guys was our topic of conversation. lol.