Blogs from Sorrento, Campania, Italy, Europe - page 11

We decided we needed a down day after yesterday, so spent some time today getting our bearings and exploring Sorrento. Checked a couple of things off our to-do list, including visiting I Giardini Di Cataldo, a family-owned lemon grove and limoncello "factory"--a bit of a misnomer, since everything is done by hand--right in the heart of Sorrento. We also did the required visit to the main piazza and to the duomo (main church), which contained an amazing paper mâché "nativity scene". I put that in quotes because it was huge and displayed a complete medieval village in amazing detail, with the usual manger scene being just a small part of the display. Eventually we found our way to the narrow pedestrian streets off the Piazza Tasso, which cater to the tourists, with shops galore, cafes, gelaterias, ... read more

This morning I woke up at 2 am. Not because of jet lag but because my friend/ room mate nakita has an extreme case of sleep talking. Last night she sat right up in bed and yelled "spider!!" and started breathing rapidly. I woke her up and told her that she was in Rome and not to worry but then she went straight back to sleep after that and didn't remember anything in the morning. Today we had an early start and drove to Sorrento through Pompeii. Pompeii was a city that was covered and destroyed but a volcanic eruption many years ago. The ruins were then uncovered many years later and are now open for the public to walk through. It is a massive ruin site that was built before Christ (over 2000 years old) ... read more

We landed in Rome and rented a Megane Convertible for our trip to Sorrento. We had a great ride down the Autostrada including our rest stop break. We love the rest stops on the autostrada where you can get an espresso or capuccino and a pastry. Arrive to the Crown Plaza in Sorrento, beautiful property with a terrific view of the Bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvio. Drive into Sorrento as the Crown is about 20 minutes outside, but on the main road. Followed the signs to "Centro" and finally found the center of town. What a find!! Corso Italia is the main street in town and there is a side street, Via Fuoro that runs parallel, and also has shoppes and restaurants. The shoppes are plentiful and fun to browse through, i even found a ... read more

Geo: 40.6263, 14.3757 Well, I figured out how to make the internet faster. Move out into the hallway and away from the 2 foot thick walls of our room! We got up on Saturday morning and walked down to the boat docksto go to Capri. The people at the hotel said that it was a 10 minute walk. Oh right! It was 1.4 miles mostly downhill. Anyway, we got tickets and boarded the high speed jet boat. It took about 20 minutes to get there. Just us and about a million of our friends. The place was a zoo! We got in line to buy tickets for the funicular. We got in line to take the funicular up to the village of Capri. We got in line to get bus tickets to Anacapri. We got in ... read more

I arrived in Sorrento, hot, sweaty, and a bit miffed that the "10 min. walk" to the hostel took more like 20 min. in the beating sun. Again I was told, "Today is the hottest day we've had this year!" Lucky me. I was brought to my hostel room, which in reality was a hotel room with 5 beds in it. The hostel was more like a hotel or resort, with a lovely pool, a pool bar, a restaurant, air conditioning, and just overall nice accommodations. I dropped off my stuff and made my way to the pool bar where they were still serving lunch for another 15 min. or so. I ordered spaghetti, and it was okay. A little pricey for what you got. I decided to take it easy, so I went back to ... read more