Buongiorno Sorrento

We awoke to the beautiful sunrise of Sorrento and to Rahul the butler delivering our breakfast.  Oh this was going to be a good day and it didn’t disappoint despite the literally rocky ride in the tender to shore.  That was certainly interesting!

Vittorio was waiting for us at the dock and escorted us to his Mercedes mini van which would take us on the most picturesque ride ever along the Amalfi coast.

We began by driving through the square of Sorrento where Dom recognized a furniture store ‘Jannuzzi’ that he recalled taking a photo of with our boys when we visited here about 10 years ago.

Our first stop was Positano where Vittorio left us for about an hour so we could stroll through the town and down to the seashore.  The water is so crystal clear; the mountains surrounding the water so green; the hillsides comprised of rows upon rows of lemon trees that I first thought were vineyards which I have become so accustomed to seeing on the hillsides of Southern California.  Vittorio explained that the hillsides are so deep that the owners still use donkeys to haul up the lemons they handpick off the trees.  And, of course, every other shop boasts its lemon products, from linens decorated with lemons to bottles and bottles of lemoncello to lemon soaps and lotions to lemon drops to lemon pasta.  You name it and it is made of lemons.

From Positano we travelled to Ravello.  If we thought Positano was picturesque, Ravello is even prettier.  The annual music festival begins tomorrow and will continue for the next 2 months.

Groups of impatiens and marigolds were being feverishly planted as work continued on the construction of the stage.  Image how amazing listening to a concert must be while experiencing the breathtaking panoramic views.


Vittorio had called ahead to owners of a mountainside restaurant telling them we were coming.  We were the only patrons and ate our pizza and salad while eating up the scenery at the same time.  Like eating pizza in Heaven, I imagine.

We thought we would share the large pizza but Vittorio explained that the normal portion per person is an entire pie so we had them box up our 2 halves so he could take them home.

On to the town of Amalfi which I must admit I was not impressed by.  It was so crowded and consisted of rows of rows of the same shops.  We did climb the 60 stairs up to the cathedral which we decided we better do to walk off the pizza calories.

Travel time from Amalfi back to Sorrento is about an hour so we needed to leave enough time in order to catch the tender back to the ship before it sailed away without us.  Luckily we did not hit any traffic so we had extra time to explore the town of Sorrento.  I had heard Rick Steves rave about David’s Gelateria which supposedly is the oldest and best in Sorrento.  Of course Vittorio knows the owner and so he took us directly there.  David did not disappoint.

The tender ride back was even more rough than the morning ride but with the help of my seasick wristbands, I was fine.  We are sailing away now on our way to Catania Sicily.  I am excited to see Catania as it is the one major city we did not get to see on our trip there a couple of years ago.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s entry....
(I am still having issues with importing the photos to the blog so please see them separately.  :-()