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Published: September 16th 2009
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Day 508 (1/09/09) Steps 11271
Up bright and early we boarded the train to Pompeii (as always keen to beat the crowds). We arrived half an hour later, hired a audioguide and made our way round the four hour recommended tour. Pompeii formerly a lavish and rich city was partly destroyed by an early quake in 62AD and then in 79AD
Mt Versuvias erupted covering the city until the 18th century. It is amazing preserved ruins of cobblestone streets, lavish palaces and gardens, shops, laundrymatts, bakery's and a brothel (complete with paintings illustrating the services available) and body plastercast in contorted positions.
After a refreshing lemon 'slushy' we returned to the sleeping Sorrento as everything seemed to be closed for siesta. We wandered the near empty streets. After a late lunch the streets came alive again and we enjoyed a beer in the park as the sun set (but forgot the camera!).
Day 509 Steps 7549
Bound for Capri Island. We waited for our pickup at our neighbouring hostel, which was unfortunately delayed for a hour and a half (apparently someone important died causing a massive traffic jam) but recognised some familiar CSU faces (its a small world) which passed
the time as we swapped travelling stories. We finally boarded our lovely boat with another seven people and our captain Francesco. Zooming across the turquoise waters under the brilliant blue skies we pretended briefly we were millionaires. We arrived to Capri Island with three hours to explore the island. We knocked back the 100euro taxi offers and headed off on foot to Capri town, arriving at a swish piazza packed with expensive cafes and boutique shops. A glimpse was enough and we got the next bus to Anacapri. Here we stopped for a quick lunch and got the cablechair (somewhat resembling your backyard swing) to the top of the mountain, a picturesque twelve minute ride up, leaving us five minutes to navigate the peak stunning views for a few pics and twelve minutes back down.
After a lengthy wait for the bus back to Capri (they all seemed to be going up... but not coming back down) we had little time to spare, not enough to take a wrong turn from the piazza. But we ran down to the port (a km of stairs in thongs) making it just in the nick of time. Once all back on board we
toured the island, first stop the white cave, named as one of the stalegmite vaguely resembles the Virgin Mary . We swam inside and then climbed up for a closer look at the 'virgin'. Stopping in a smaller cave which our captain suggest looks like a smaller version of the blue grotto (which we took his word for!).
Back to the boat, next stop was the Green grotto, aptly named for the irredescent green colour once inside. On our way back to the mainland we passed the Blue grotto which was closed due to rough waters (but we'd been convinced its probably not worth the extra ten euros for two minutes anyway). After a fantastic day we arrived back to Sorrento grabbed some antipasto from the supermarket and headed home...exhausted.
Day 510 steps 14825
Our last day in Sorrento and we were yet to see the famous Amalfi Coast. We caught the bus to Positano (reputably the most attractive of the Amalfi villages). We took in the amazing views and headed into maze of streets for a expresso and apple strudal, amongst the designer clothes shops, art exhibitions and typical tourist souvenirs all at exorbitant prices. Next stop, was
Nocelle, a tiny village 30minutes by bus from Positano on the Path of the Gods walk. We regrettably didn't have enough time to complete the walk, but climbed up to a good view point for a few pics before getting the bus back to Positano. We had planned to go to Amalfi town for lunch but with the delayed buses we opted to stay in Positano splashing out at Bruno's restaurant on some seafood pasta's and wine overlooking the ocean. Before we knew it, it was time to return to Sorrento to collect our bags and catch the train to Naples. From Naples we boarded the next train to Rome, despite some confusion when our original train was delayed 90minutes. We arrived in Rome and we greeted by a very friendly guy trying to assist people finding there hotels (once we realised he wasn't trying to sell us something... the effects of long term travel starting to show) we gratefully took his map and checked in a Hotel Aquarium, met by a fiesty old lady (clearly up way past her bedtime), dark wallpapered room and airconditioner we could figure out how to work but neither of us wishing to return
to reception.
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