Sorrento

With Bari in the rearview mirror, we headed for Salerno and the Amalfi Coast. Beautiful scenes from Italian movies, rapturous descriptions from friends & family, and amazing photographs in travel guides convinced us it was a Must-See! Fortunately for Donna, Sam did the driving! A Must-See it might be, but  her eyes were closed.  A Lot! 

So, imagine Highway 1 in the Big Sur area, but imagine it several feet narrower.  And the traffic is bumper to bumper going in both directions. Now imagine that about every 4th vehicle is a tour bus. Now add in motor scooters and motor cycles zipping in and out of the traffic – on curves, in tunnels – it doesn’t matter. It was Donna’s great fortune that Sam was driving. He was unflappable, even when a HUGE tour bus came  around a curve and almost took out our front end. Sam put on the brakes just in time and the tour bus driver inched his way past us. Whew! Close call!

We arrived in Sorrento a bit shaken and looking forward to our Airbnb. As has happened a few times on this trip, GPS was not exactly accurate and sent us on a wild goose chase up into the hills on a road that was about 6″ wider than the car. An angel on a motor scooter re-directed us and an hour later we arrived at Villa Elena – a bit of paradise about 30 minutes outside of Sorrento. Elena is a Russian woman who came to Italy 18 years ago, married Tony, had a son and is managing what is a small farm with chickens, produce and a vacation rental. To say the tomatoes were abundant is an understatement – about 10 rows with about 10 plants in each row! Plus zucchini, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, herbs, amaranth, lemon trees…the list goes on! Plus two dogs and too many cats to count! The chickens are jealously guarded by Jerry, the German shepherd. He takes his job quite seriously and will not eat chicken meat!

Elena is friendly and out-going and generous and speaks not one word of English! Donna’s weak Italian was called into service again, and by the time we left her villa,  Donna and Elena were sharing thoughts about husbands, cooking and children.  

The following day the choices were Pompeii or Herculaneum. We had heard from an English couple that Herculaneum was smaller and less crowded, but also had better preserved ruins. So, Herculaneum it was. Still suffering from extreme heat, smaller and fewer fellow tourists sounded appealing. 

Herculaneum was the richer of the two cities. There are more expansive houses, more impressive mosaics, and more lavish marble in the ruins. Herculaneum was also destroyed in a different way than Pompeii, which has affected how well its ruins are preserved. Although a much smaller city, its ruins are also more dense, better preserved, more complete. The slower-falling ash covered and preserved wood and other organic objects (beds, roofs, doors, and even food!) better than in Pompeii. This also gave residents an opportunity to escape, which they did by sea. And recently archeologists discovered skeletons that had not been vaporized because they died from fumes and heat in some protected storage rooms near the sea.

The next day we had to choose between a leisurely meal and a wander around Sorrento or more culture, heat and crowds in Naples. Again, smaller & fewer people won out. We headed to Sorrento. Sorrento is a popular tourist spot overlooking the Bay of Naples. As you walk along the west side of the city, you overlook rugged bluffs and beautiful beaches with sun chairs and umbrellas. The Mediterranean is an enticing dark blue. The flowering shrubs and trees were in full bloom, despite the heat!  The motor scooters were everywhere and the noise drove us indoors for lunch.

Just out of pure luck, we found Cafe Tasso It was peaceful and quiet and despite choosing it for its tranquility and acoustical isolation, we ended up having one of the most spectacular meals of our trip so far. It was perfect! And they had quite a collection of erotic donkey ceramics!

Views from our table at Tasso. Sculpture gallery featuring equus asinus reproducing equus asinus.

After lunch we wandered a few blocks down to the heart of the tourist area – narrow cobbled streets with souvenir shops, leather stores, jewelry shops, trinkets, olive oil, limoncello … and a million swarming tourists! There was nothing we haven’t seen before, so we didn’t stay long. We took a taxi back to the car, which we had parked far outside the tourist area, and drove back to Villa Elena.

The visit to Naples the next day ended up being somewhat abbreviated due to heat and LuLu. The parking at the Archeological Museum was being renovated, so there was no covered parking. That meant that we took turns going in. And we were feeling pressure to get on the road to Rome, so it was a short visit for both of us. The sad news is that while we were both able to see the model of Pompeii and a lot of amazing art, we MISSED the room with the Roman era sex toys! Can you believe it?

So now, we’re off to Rome in 90ºF plus temperatures! So much to see! Will we see it all? Hard to tell!

Love to you all,

Sam, Donna & LuLu

July, 20,2019