Spontaneously in Sorrento

We didn’t pay careful attention to the train schedule and found we would have to wait quite a while to get to Paestum, where we were planning to see some Greek ruins. Instead, we hopped on a train to the seaside town of Sorrento. It’s an interesting mix of tourists and fashion enthusiasts. We sat on a bench near what we supposed was an exclusive hotel overlooking the sea. We watched guests arriving in Mercedes and BMWs (not driving themselves, of course), and being greeted like celebrities (maybe they were!). We strolled the cliff edge overlooking the sea, and wandered narrow streets. The place is jam-packed with small lemon groves—like the size of our backyard, but everyone had them. Of course we had to try a lemonade or two from a street vendor.

It was a beautiful sunny day for our outing. Even better, we found that the ferry could get us back to Naples in less time and with more comfort than the train. The view of Vesuvius from out on the water shows just how much of the top has been blown off (probably not just from the eruption that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 1st century).もっと詳しく