A Sojourn in Sorrento

We rose early and had a light breakfast in our favourite piazza. It was very pleasant. Packing was virtually finished, so we cleaned up the apartment and left at 10am to take a taxi to Roma Termini, the main train station in the city. The taxi driver had very little English and was quite talkative, so this gave me a chance to really let loose with my Italian. We talked about everything possible, and I managed to not only speak to him sensibly but understand maybe 60-70% of what he was saying. I felt really chuffed by this and when he told me that my pronunciation was really good, he emphasised, “really good” a second time, I may have blushed out of excitement. In fact, the conversation to the station was the most Italian I have spoken at one time since we arrived here.

Roma Termini is big with multiple floors. We had pre-booked our tickets and seats so all we had to do was find the correct platform, once they posted it, and head for the train, a high speed train to Naples. It was very comfortable, and it took about an hour to do the 225 km. I could not but help think of the Newcastle Sydney train trip of around 165 km that takes just under three hours, surely the snail of the East Coast.

We only had one problem with the trip. We did not realise that Naples Afragola and Naples Central were different stations. In order to get to our connecting train to Sorrento, which again, we had paid for, we had to get off at Naples Afragola. We did not. The train terminated one station further, at Naples Central, and no trains with that company go to Sorrento from there. After five minutes of consternation, we bought new tickets from Naples Central with a different train company and boarded the not so fabulous Circumvesuviana which travels around the Bay of Naples. It takes about an hour. It was packed to the rafters and pretty darn hot. We stood, along with many others, for the whole journey, protecting our bags and trying to keep positive. A busker with a violin and sound system boarded at one station and he entertained us for a short while but he made very little money from our neck of the woods and moved to another carriage.

We arrived in Sorrento and headed straight for our hotel, the Hotel Michelangelo. It is super comfortable and is airconditioned wherever you go. I only mention this last, because the humidity here is off the charts. We went to the SkyBar and bought a nice cold spritz each and then took a long walk through a citrus garden and thence down the cliffs to the beach. We photographed the Bay, the volcano, which looms over the Bay like a sleeping giant, and the cliffs. The water of the Thyrrhenian Sea, part of the Mediterranean, was so inviting, we unshod and dipped our feet into the cooling waters with blackish sand from Mt Vesuvius underfoot. I must say, walking back up the cliff-face afterwards nearly did me in. I thought I was fit enough for these kinds of stairways, but in this level of heat and humidity, my body just about gave out by the time I got to the top.

We showered and went out for dinner at a semi indoor outdoor place and then went for a walk along the main street of Sorrento, along with hundreds of others. It was wonderful. We each bought a belt from a leather store and dropped into a church to check it out.

It’s been a huge day. The trip here took longer than needed due to our ignorance of the stations. Our feet were sore and on fire, and our bodies ached. We had planned a four and a half hour tour of Pompei tomorrow morning at 7.30am in the heat of the morning sun but after thoughtful deliberations, we decided to cancel. We are heading out of town over night the following day, so we felt like we might be pushing things somewhat. Instead, tomorrow, we will take things a bit easier, discover a little more of Sorrento and swim in the Mediterranean. Pompei can wait till another time. After all, its waited since 24 August 79AD, so it can wait a while longer for us to discover its fascination.Read more