Nearly there in our catch up phase! I would do better but Erin was watching ‘Last day of Pompeii’ and ‘Gladiator’ on my laptop to help her better understand some of the things the kids are seeing which prevents me from writing until late at night at which point I’ve lost the will!
As I’ve already written, the trip to Italy is a little like learning to run a race when you’ve already started. I am behind myself in organizing ‘what’s next’ and so it was that I ended up booking with two companies, private or semi private tours to the three main destinations once already settled into our accommodation in Sorrento.
The accommodation itself was booked, like everything else in Italy, via Booking.com. We stayed at Grand Hotel Vesuvius. With many hotels already booked due to the start of the Italian school holidays there was much less available with ‘family rooms’. The room here was huge and the view of Sorrento and Vesuvius spectacular but the breakfast wanting and the hotel large enough to remind me of Thompson holidays as a kid. (I think they actually go there!) It wouldn’t be my first choice but for the amount of time we spent there it was great and very reasonably priced.
**(I’ve used various Internet agents/airbnb etc. during this 9-month trip and I’ve really come to like Booking.com for hotels and apartments. It’s quick, paperless and at every turn we’ve been able to find our chosen accommodation here when it’s fully booked on other web sites. To the point that our walking tour holiday in the Dolomites was cancelled by the company we booked through in the UK because the hotels were fully booked and I found the same hotels available on booking.com and have organized it all myself and saved a mint!)
We had four days in the area and as Sorrento is such a pretty town we wanted a day here to wander leaving us only three days to see quite a lot.
Sorrento in spring reminded us a lot of Sydney. It’s full of Jacarandas in bloom and the smell of jasmine reminded Erin of our home during Halloween (Spring for those in northern hemisphere). However the overwhelming smell of Sorrento is of lemons! Everywhere we went they sold something lemony. Soaps, drinks, gelato, buckets of lemons and a local drink called Limoncello (a bit sickly for us). There is a LOT of shopping and eating here and Steve even found an English bar for the football. It’s a really beautiful town high on the escarpment on the sea and I’m glad we picked this over Positano, which is a lot smaller and further away from Naple's airport.
Top of the kids list to see was Pompeii. However, we soon found out that Herculaneum (as explained in the BBC’s ‘last day of Pompeii’ available on YouTube) is available to visit and is equally (and differently) as interesting. Add in to this a hike to Vesuvius and I knew we had our work cut out to see all three in one day. No local tours were available that do all three in one day so some research on the web and I found a company called Rosata Tours, which could provide a private and fully personalised tour. In the space of an hour the owner organized us a private Mercedes people mover and driver for a day and a guide for 4 hours to take us through the two sites. The whole day cost 600 euros (380 car and driver and 220 guide) which sounds a lot until you realize that a group tour of about 50 people to see all three over two days would have cost our family nearly 400 euros. (More people would have been the same price).
The car picked us up at 8.30 and by 10 we were hiking up Vesuvius. Health Warning - Only those with good knees and ankles should attempt! There are no steps and its just gravel, which is hard on the legs coming down as there is quite a bit of ‘sliding’
The volcano is still smoking (last eruption was 1946) and the walk up (we were fast and overtook everyone), look around for 20 minutes and walk down took us an hour.
Pompeii is absolutely enormous and honestly our two hours there was not enough to see everything, however Pina, our outstanding guide ensured that we saw the relevant pieces and I could tell by the crowds who gathered around us when she spoke, that we were getting a far better perspective and education than the guide books and audio guides. She literally ran us round the site and used her experience and authority to push us ahead of some queues. The longest queue was for the brothel where Kyran refused to look up (ahh…bless) and Steve refused to come out….
Herculaneum was a ‘sea side resort ‘town for wealthy Romans, compared to the bustling city of Pompeii and had an equally interesting history. We were really glad we visited both as the volcano eruption affected the two sites differently and we received a lot of information on how the Romans lived.
Pina gave such a comprehensive and interesting account of the eruption, the previous history of Greek occupation, gladiators, gods, earthquakes and the demise of the Roman Empire that we couldn’t sleep later that night because our brains were popping with information.
We definitely did not feel we missed anything in Pompeii and our arrival back home at 6pm was with sore feet and a happy head. For us it was money very well spent.
Our other two trips were by boat.
1) A boat trip to Capri
2) A boat trip along the coast from Sorrento to Amalfi and back again. I’d been told to drive around the coast to Positano and Amalfi but as I get carsick this is not an option.
There are quite literally hundreds of options to do either of these by boat. Hydrofoil is the cheapest, large boat trips, semi private and private. We went the semi private route, which was a lovely yacht that held 12 passengers.
1) Capri, the holiday island of Roman Emperors is a lovely trip. Yes, it’s very touristy, but so is the entire area (Amalfi, Sorrento etc.) and coming to this part of the world one must expect crowds. Our arrival into the area coincided with the day the Italians and Americans started the school holiday and I think a week earlier may have been better (?!).
The boat stopped for several swimming breaks and even though the water is still a little cool, we at least dived in. We didn’t bother seeing the Blue Grotto (crowds were off putting) but on arrival into the small Capri port (piccolo) we caught a taxi to Anacapri and headed up to the top of the mountain on a chair lift. It was the only peace and quiet we had all day!
We weren’t given sufficient time to get to the Villa Jovis which was a shame as I would have liked to do this (it was this or lunch) as it was the famed villa of Emperor Tiberius who was Emperor while Jesus was alive. However, as I sit here in Rome having viewed literally hundreds of ruins in better shape I now don’t think I missed much as Villa Jovis, is, quite literally, a ruin.
2) Our trip to Amalfi and back was very different. I should say…too long! Almost a 10-hour day. The yacht took us from Sorrento, following the utterly stunning coastline to Amalfi. We then headed back to Positano where we gave our legs a good work out climbing to the top before we meandered back through the shops and streets. Both on the way there and back again the boat anchored for swimming breaks in the sea. Erin was concerned about Sharks (I think Belize got to her) but was swayed by the stunning blue of the ocean. I spent the day looking ‘up’ at the coastline which was incredible but got home with an aching neck which is still hurting 2 days later. I should have brought my acupuncture needles with me!
Of the three-day trips Pompeii was the best for the kids. They absolutely loved all the history and the guide bringing the ruins to life.
They were bored on the boats. How much coastline can one kid take? They liked the views from the top of Capri but unsurprisingly were not impressed with the swimming bays at the base of Capri and Positano and the other inlet bays we passed. They are used to the white sands and relatively empty beaches of Australia and are really starting to appreciate how lucky they are.
For the first time on this trip dinnertime is a breeze every night! Pasta and Pizza make easy meal options and secondi of meat and fish very yummy. Steve is already complaining that he is putting on weight (Perhaps the Gelato could be blamed???) In Sorrento Steve and I found a fantastic restaurant with some 10 pages of great wine (can’t remember the name of it sorry) and we allowed the IPADS so that we could pretend we were having an adult dinner!
Lots of pictures of ruins and coast.