Sorrento!

 

It was our first wedding anniversary and Italy was calling to us once again. We've already been to Rome and Venice though so our next adventure was Sorrento!

Truth be told it's not actually really all that far from Rome, I think there's a bus that gets you there in about an hour and a half. It's about an hour in the bus from Naples airport which is how we travelled there flying in past mount Vesuvius was pretty impressive. The bus takes you right to the train station in Sorrento and we wandered down to our hotel from there. It was hot but with the sea breeze not unbearably so, we wandered slowly with our bags taking our time and unwinding from London. We stayed at a little bed and breakfast apartment right near the st francis church and convent. Our room was pretty big and, though up a few flights of stairs, was beautifully air conditioned. We arrived on the day of our anniversary and had pre booked a fancy dinner to mark the occasion.

The lovely wait staff had decorated our table with flower petals and candles for us and for dessert the made us an amazing chocolate cake with happy anniversary on it and Vincenzo the mandolin player serenaded us when it came out.

The food was amazing, these we're little stuffed zucchini flowers and they were divine.

 

Here's Vincenzo rocking hard. At one point he played smoke on the water.

 

One last food porn photo, the Amalfi coast is famous for its lemons and this was a lemon spaghettini which was served in little lemon half. The lemon tasted so fresh, normally I'm not into creamy sauces but the lemon made this one so much lighter.

We had plans you know, we were going to go to Capri, ischia, Pompeii, positano. So did we? Did we bollocks. It was like when we arrived, a switch was flicked and we just couldn't go at the pace we normally did. We went no where,one day we walked to the harbour to catch a boat to Capri and then thought fuck it. We'd get up in the morning, have breakfast, wander around maybe go for a swim have lunch, have a nap, get dressed for dinner, wander around, have dinner, wander around, get and ice cream, watch the sunset and then retire to our room to eat sfogliatelle and watch italian cartoons. And we don't care what you think of us, it was awesome.

 

We went swimming at one of the beach clubs, it's expensive but the water was so cold and felt really soft and refreshing on the skin. Normally sea water make my skin feel tight and dry but not so the med. Little fish brushed against your legs as you edged ever deeper into the water before bottling it and running out again.

 

This was our breakfast view, there was a Dali exhibition on while we were in town which we went to. All over the place little Dali or Dali inspired sculptures popped up, they were really advertising this thing hard.

Each night we would watch the sunset from the cliffs edge near our apartment, sometimes before dinner, sometimes after dinner but you can't miss the sunsets while you're here.

We got seriously sunburt, the Mediterranean sun does not mess around with English skin. Being born in Australia was no protection to me, we spent the rest of the holiday hitting the aloe Vera and itching from the burn but we'd go back again.

During our little wanders we found a ceramics shop run by a lovely man called Nicky, whose wife Amanda was from Scotland we found this out when we first met him and had a conversation and we made a habit of stopping in and saying hello whenever we were passing. They were such a lovely couple! We got a few things to remember them and sorrento by, a huge bowl we use for fruit and vegis which we keep on the kitchen bench, a couple of tiles with views of sorrento and these house numbers which proudly adorn the front of the house now.

 

At their recommendation, we had our last dinner at a restaurant called the foreigners club. It was right near our apartment but originally we'd been put off by the name, thinking that it might be some place touristy. It was lovely though, good food, great views towards Vesuvius which by that point we were hoping would erupt, blocking anyone from getting in or out for at least another 10 days. We want to go back and spend longer and visit ischia. We don't want to leave it too long.