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Published: November 5th 2007
Sorrento
Views from SorrentoWe arrived in Sorrento on Saturday from Montepulciano. The drive was about 4 hours long but was very scenic. However, Italians drive like crazy....NO RULES! Once we got to Sorrento, we settled into our B&B called Casa Asistrita. Another recommendation via the Rick Steves book. Great place. The rooms are very comfortable and they put on a great breakfast in the morning. Plus the cost is very reasonable.
We had trouble dropping off the car since we couldn't find the lot to go to. Apparently the business moved a while back so the GPS (Bonnie) took us in the wrong direction. Traffic in Sorrento is CRAZY....to say the least. The scooters and motorcycles drive everywhere with no care in the world about other drivers or pedestrians for that matter. After freaking out for awhile, we ended up finding the joint....but to our amazement, the office was closed. It was Saturday afternoon around 2:00 pm. Even though their sign on the door says it's suppose to be open. Anyway, we couldn't hang around so we left the car there and walked back to the B&B. That evening we ended up just walking around the streets and just off our main street,
Sorrento
Another view from Sorrento kind of in the back alleys, are these tiny little stores. We ended up strolling through there until we came upon a nice little restaurant. It was a nice evening so we ate outside and watched the people mill about.
Sunday, we decided to go to the island of Capri. Not Capri like the pants.....KAW pree. You must say it properly like the Italians do. This is a small island just about 25 mins west of Sorrento by jet boat. The island is about 6 kms long and 2.8 kms wide. Not very big. Plus it's hilly, so of course more hiking. Anyway, we arrived via jet boat around 9:00 am and started by taking the bus up to the town of Capri. It's not very big and there are lot of touristy stores. It didn't take long for us to see most of it, so we decided to travel higher up to the town of Anacapri. The bus system is a great way to move around on the island...never drive there!!! The streets are micro small....and I mean micro!!!! The buses are specially made by Mercedes for this island and are ...small but can turn on a dime.
Capri
View from Capri Once we got to Anacapri, again all we saw was stores and more stores. So to not waste too much time, we hopped back on the bus to travel to the Blue Grotto.
The Blue Grotto (Grotto Azzura) is a small cave located on the northern side of the island. Once you are inside this cave the sunlight shines off the limestone bottom and creates a brilliant blue, the bluest blue of all. We took the stairs down to where the rowers are....basically a guy in a row boat picks you up, takes you to another boat (which looks like something runned by the mob) where you pay for the entrance fee, and then off you go to the side of the cliff. There you'll see a very small opening with a chain going inside. The rower has to wait until a wave action occurs where the low spot of the wave is at the entrance. Once that happens.....woooosh...in you go. Once we were in there, the blue of the water is almost indescribable. The rowers sing inside the cave and it was remarkable. However, the rowers are husslers...they want a huge tip to take you back to shore,
Capri
Capri view. so be prepared. We told the guy okay, but once we got back to shore we threw him a few euros and took off. We still think the whole operation is runned by the mafia. There maybe a hit on us...who knows..
After the Blue Grotto, we went back to Anacapri for lunch. The food was okay...typical tourist trap though. Then we decided to go back down to the marina via a convertible taxi. Great experience. Once at the marina, we found out our tickets back to Sorrento was valid for anytime, so we decided to stay longer. We took the Venicular (Tram) up to Capri. We walked around all the high end stores (most were closed for the season though) and then we hiked all the way back down. Need least to say, we were very tired on the jet boat ride back. To finish the day, we had a great meal in another little hole in the wall near our hotel.
Wine count....33
Monday (Today!!!) we had hired a driver to take us to Pompeii and then to Naples and the Museum. Pompeii was very cool. You have to see this place. It's amazing to
Blue Grotto
Inside the Blue Grotto see how well perserved the ruins are. We only took 2 hours to see the ruins, but we recommend that you plan to stay for at least 4 hours. After Pompeii we drove to Naples....OH MY GOD!!!! Naples is very dirty and not a nice city to get around. Our driver took us right to the museum which houses a lot of Pompeii artifacts and mosaics. Wonderful museum. Naples is crazy and filthy. We wouldn't recommend anyone visiting Naples for too long.
Tomorrow we are off to the Amalfi coast. Can't wait. Arrevederci!!! Wine count now is......36
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