Rome and Sorrento
We were made very welcome at the hotel and were helped with our luggage up the few steps into reception. As we had arrived on an early flight, the hotel advised us where we could get some lunch and off we went to explore. I am glad we weren’t driving there, as it would have been ‘interesting’, cars were parked all over the place, on the pavements, across two roads, in places that would be a traffic warden’s dream of largess here!
We had purchased a Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Pass and this was very useful. We boarded near the Coliseum and saw many of the places we visited later by foot. We did a tour of the Coliseum. I had visited it many years ago, but I had forgotten was just how big it is.
We felt like we walked for miles in those few days. Rome was generally very busy. We were told that April came into the high season, though we weren’t there during Easter.
We visited the Spanish Steps, walked up to the top and looked down over the city. We also walked to the Trevi Fountain where we threw a coin in the water when we could get nearer enough and made a wish. Also we went to the Pantheon which very impressive and also very busy. We walked past the Altare Della Patria, Piazza Venezia, which looks a little like a wedding cake.
It was rather late in the afternoon when we made our way to the Roman Forum, so we only walked around at ground level, but looking up we thought there must be some fantastic views from higher up. We strolled across the Ponte Sant’ Angelo, which was closed to traffic due to repairs been made to the bridge, to see the Castel Sant’ Angelo building and looked over the bridge at the Tiber River. We walked to the Vatican and we just wondered around the area, but didn’t go in. The weather wasn’t very good, so we dropped into a small café for a drink and a sit down!
In the evenings we found a little restaurant near our hotel, which we understand is used by the locals. It was very reasonably priced for food and especially for wine. The tables were sort of outside, but were enclosed by plastic coverings with windows. Some of the tables spilled partly on the road, still within the plastic coverings! It was quite ‘cosy’ as all the tables were close together meaning you had to squeeze past other diners to reach a vacant table was near the window! It did mean having lots of conversations with different people, some who were local and some also on holiday.
Next stop was Sorrento! We decided to go by train between Rome and Sorrento. We were told to go to a certain platform for our train, but it turned out to be the wrong one, our tickets said Platform 10 but the platform was empty and we couldn’t see anyone we could ask. We were becoming a little worried when over the loud hailer we heard that our train would be leaving from Platform 3 in a couple of minutes. I don’t know how we managed to get to the train without causing injury to other travellers!
We had booked first class and it was very comfortable, once we had found how to store our cases. We took a taxi from Sorrento station to our hotel. We were on the top floor of the hotel and it was lovely. There was a bottle of champagne in our room. We sat on the balcony in the evenings before going for our meal.
We walked into Sorrento itself, occasionally stopping to look at the view. There are lots of little alleyways with some shops all the way along these little streets. Quite a few shops were at selling leather goods. We had dinner sometimes in the town. There was plenty of choice of the type of food on offer, which was good for a very fussy person like me. A couple of times we ate in the hotel, a very pleasant restaurant with lovely views of Vesuvius.
We decided to go on an excursion along the Amalfi Coast. It was lovely but it is not apparently recommended to drive this coast as it can be very dangerous, (maybe this was propaganda by interested parties!) It was very popular and consequently quite crowded, but worth seeing.
We visited Positano, a village clinging to the side of the mountains and Ravello with its busy square. Ravello is an UNESCO.
We also went on an excursion which took us to Salerno and to Paestum which has three temples said to be the best preserved Greek/Romano temples in the world.
Part of the reason we wanted to go to Sorrento was to visit some very well know archaeological sites. We went to Herculaneum and Pompeii. We went by local train, quite an experience, with plastic yellow seats on the trains. Everywhere was covered with graffiti, on the trains, on the stations and even in one case on the station signage, so we had no idea what the station was, fortunately not a place where we needed to leave the train!
We spent about three hours in Herculaneum in the morning and the weather was alright then. We had lunch in the town. Later we went to Pompeii, this was during the afternoon and then it poured and the strong wind blew. But we were interested in the sites and managed to enjoy both, despite the rain and the wind. To recover we went into the Pompeii’s little café and I had a hot chocolate, whilst my husband had coffee which he enjoyed.
But the best hot chocolate I had was in a little café in Rome. Delicious!
Maybe, as we threw a coin in the Trevi fountain I will be able to visit the café in Rome again, where I served that wonderful hot chocolate, but only if I can remember where it is!