Blogs from Sorrento, Campania, Italy, Europe - page 6

Geo: 40.6263, 14.3757Final day of walking today through varied landscape and terrain and along the narrow paths and streets of small villages. There were so many small plots of cultivated land we became reasonably expert in identifying each crop - peas, broad beans, artichokes, strawberries, potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and so many more... it seems that every household must have someone with a green thumb - as it all looks so healthy.We detoured to the small fishing port of Punta Lagno and had a very well deserved panini at Angelo's Bar and enjoyed chatting to the delightful Matilda who not only spoke Italian, English, French, German and Spanish but had recently graduated in Chinese! I felt very inadequate.Eventally we arrived in Sorrento and met up with both Murray and Martin who had arrived earlier that day. So ... read more

Ascona to Sorrento On our day scheduled to leave Ascona, as happened in Oslo and Lauterbrunnen, it was raining lightly. It must be time to go. The Hertz station in Locarno, adjacent to Ascona, is in the train station parking lot, so we dropped the car there and got on the train to Sorrento, Italy. A short trip to Bellinzona, change trains for Milan, then the new Italian high speed train to Naples, via Florence and Rome. The Italian trains may not have a good reputation, but the high speed rail is very quick, efficient, economical, comfortable, and on time. It is a delight to zip through the countryside at almost 250mph. In Naples, however, we had to shift to a different train company, Circumvesuviana, providing local suburban service south of Naples. It is the only ... read more

Morning walkabout in Florence, checked out all the historical sites - this place is so old. We ended up in the square of statues and the statue of David amongst others. Later a bit of light shopping. Florence is the home of Michael Angelo and Leonardo Davinchi in this area. Next off to Sorrento. Nice drive, skirting Rome and coming up on Naples or Napoli as the Italians call it. Quite a large and spread out city with Mt Vesuvius in the background. Naples is right beneath the mountain as is Pompeii. We pass thru a tunnel that is 7km long, but we have been told that we will be passing thru one in Lucerne, Switzerland that is 15km long and they are just constructing one over there that will be a train tunnel 56km long ... read more

The day started with a beautiful sunrise: Praiano farewelling us in style. We ventured North west to Sorrento today and whilst waiting for the bus discovered another secret of the building trade -DONKEYS! fully laden with bricks they trotted down flights of stairs to a building site at the bottom of the cliff! The road to Sorrento was much more gentle and the town very different. The views from the hills above showed a wonderful vista of the bay all the way from Sorrento, to Pompeii and Naples! Vesuvius was snow capped and thankfully inactive. Magnificent! Sorrento was bigger than we expected and in part more modern and ugly. However we discovered the old piazza and centre of the city, inside a huge fortified wall and were not disappointed with the old buildings, wonderful churches and ... read more

Geo: 40.6263, 14.3757We wake early. Connie is already anchored off Sorrento. The port here is too small for a ship this size and so we need to tender ashore. We breakfast in the Oceanview. I opt for a low carb brekkie of omelette, freshly made at the egg station, tomatoes and mushrooms. As Elite guests, being a sister company to Royal Caribbean our Diamond Plus status gives us something similar on Celebrity Cruises, we don't have to obtain tender tickets and already have some in our room and we can go ashore whenever we like rather than an allotted time.Before long we have travelled the short distance from the ship to the small harbour that sits below Sorrento. The place is busy with small ferries and boats taking people across to Naples, The Amalfi Coast and ... read more