It's fair to say we didn't really know what to expect in Sorrento - beyond it being a great point to base ourselves while we explored the surrounding coast. We had heard that it used to be the "go to" resort town for European nobility and rich society-types - but from what we saw - those days appear to be gone. Now its the "go-to" town for touristos who want to see where nobility and rich society-types used to hang out.
Sorrento is a reasonably big, small town. It's spread in quite a thin line along a very steep coastline - cliff faces abound with hotels built optimistically, almost perilously, at their top. There is definitely a "good" end of town and a "not as good" end. We were at the "not as good" for reasons of economy - but as it turned out, much happier where we were.
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| Bikes, bikes, bikes... |
We arrived at the train station and decided it wasn't so far to our hotel (because their website told us so) and we'd walk. It was a bit far. The wheels on one of our cases is not as tough as the wheels on the other 2 cases and walks like that one will probably not be possible anymore. There is a long, narrow street that runs the length of Sorrento with only one sidewalk provided at any given time, but it changes sides of the street at a moments notice, apparently without reason. So you can shuffle along single file and then abruptly the sidewalk ends and a few metres ahead you will see it starts again on the other side of the street. So you step down onto the narrow, busy, motorbike-filled (or "zippy" as Drew described it) road, take a breath and streak across to the other side, join the sidewalk there for about 50 metres before repeating the process. I digress...
We arrived at Il Roseto in the early evening and were relieved to find a quiet, green, cottage-like place away from the "zippy" chaos outside. They have cultivated a large lemon garden where breakfast is served each day and there are blossoms on all the trees as well as a variety of other plants also in full spring bloom. Lots of red bottlebrush (that I have always thought was an Australian native, but that I have seen all over Greece and Italy - along with lots of gum trees too) and also roses, lavender, fuschias, geraniums, herbs and lots of other things I didn't recognise.
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| Il Roseto - Lorry thinks about his next blog entry |
Our room was big with a second floor bed for the kids and enormous shuttered windows that opened up onto the garden. Much to the delight of the kids there were also some tame-ish cats here. Kids have gone nuts over cats most everywhere we go, but mostly they have been a tad on the mangy side. So there was lots for the kids to explore and play with, including a pool. Was a really nice little bed and breakfast type hotel. Despite the idyllic location, however, the owners both seemed really quite depressed and kind of moped about sadly. It kind of put a downer on the place after a day or two. Started trying to dodge them. It's possible they just didn't like us of course. But what are the chances of that????
On the first morning in Sorrento we exercised our new found right to sleep in, again, and then after a bit of school-work we set off to explore Sorrento a bit and find a bus to take us to Amalfi and Positano - along the infamous Amalfi Coast road. We had originally planned to hire a car and do this route, but repeated horror stories of the drive put us off and we have no regrets at all about going the bus option in the end. Its a white knuckle ride! In fact, even getting on the bus took guts and bravado. The Italians, in this neck of the woods at least, are not known for their sidewalk courtesy. We got our tickets and made our way to the little bus stop to wait for the Amalfi bus - behind the 8 or so other people who were already there. At the last minute, about 40 teenagers came to join us just as the bus arrived and clearly any queueing code of practice is not widely recognised here as they began to mass mob both the doors knocking oldies, kiddies and everyone else out of their way without a look back. It was an epic struggle for about 3 gruelling minutes. When the dust settled, the adults stood clinging to whatever pole or handle they could find and the poor, tired teenagers rested on their self-righteous bums and pulled out their cell phones so they could ignore the extraordinary view to come. How old do I sound??!
The road to Amalfi IS all it is cracked up to be. The views are spectacular, the road is nuts, the drivers are both. Our bus driver earned several loud rounds of applause as he manoeuvred his way through the tiniest - and I mean tiniest - of gaps, squeezing past trucks, cars and campervans - leaving literally millimetres to spare between us and the tiny barrier designed to protect vehicles from a sheer drop of 100+ metres to the Mediterranean Sea. Awesome.
Positano is a real life postcard. As you approach the town it appears to literally cling to the side of the mountain in the most uncertain way. Tiny apartments and boutique hotels jigsaw in next to each other - all built on crazy angles to the cliff face. Coloured in creams and russets and aged to perfection, it's like a fairytale.
We stayed on the bus until Amalfi though - as the thought of fighting our way onto another bus didn't appeal. Gorgeous town in much the same way. It has a nice, if somewhat surprising, fountain, a lovely Piazza, with dark steps leading up to an ornate mosaic church... and then 10,000 tourist shops. Surprisingly it still has a very nice feel to it - narrow walking streets, decorative nooks and crannies and stairways. Then you order lunch and every cafe is charging $8 for a serve of chips that would fit into a tea cup and it feels a little less charming.
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| Nice faucets |
We ran into some people we had met on our second day in Crete 4 weeks earlier which was pretty amazing. Two Aussie couples on a boat cruise all through the Mediterranean and Aegean and who were now just finishing up before returning to Rome to fly home. Small world! Or small part of the world anyway.
After a good poke about we boarded the bus home, and happened to see the same french family that had been on our bus TO Amalfi. They had 3 gorgeous girls, the eldest about Zoe's age, and so the five kids spent most of the ride home trying to communicate. The most effective way seemed to be through song in the end. Very cute.
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| The Amalfi-Sorrento Choir - "Frere Jaques" was a favourite |
Next Day we took a self-guided walk about Sorrento taking in some of her key attractions and feeling like we had them covered off reasonably quickly actually. There are some interesting things here, but overall I think you go somewhere like Sorrento for a holiday to mostly relax and poke about only a little. However, we are travellers (!) hunting down cool things, and we reckon you don't need long in Sorrento. We did learn some stuff though...
Inlaid Wood
Sorrentonians are very proud of their Wood Inlaying skills - Dembos getting proud of their laying-in skills but that's different. We stumbled into a massive workshop/showroom with an enormous range of products from tiny trinket boxes and matchbox covers to enormous dining tables. They showed us how they actually create the minute paper thin slices of wood and fit them together and then create the most amazing patterns and pictures. Was fascinating actually and easy to get caught up in the intricacy and detail - to the point where you start imagining a particular coffee table sitting in your front room.... and then you have to walk away.
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| This whole picture is made from tiny pieces of coloured wood... |
Ye Old Mill
Our little walk took us past a massive crevice, or chasm, or some appropriate word, in the ground. Caused centuries ago by shifting volcanic rock (Sorrento landscape was probably largely influenced by the eruption of Mt Versuvius in 79AD). The split is now about 30 metres accross and about 50 metres down to a fast flowing stream at the bottom. At some point many, many years ago the townspeople built some precarious stairs down inside it and constructed a mill that could harness the power of the water to grind their wheat. The old mill building is still there, but the humidity of where it stands has had the last word and now it is covered in the most amazing moss and creepers have invaded. Its gorgeous. Cant get down there anymore but kids would have LOVED to.
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| Only cheap accommodation in town |
Lemon Grove
Sorrento, and the whole area actually, seems covered in lemon trees. These people love lemons. The locals are obsessed. They have lemon wars to see who can create the larges lemons - and some are as big as footballs - seriously.
Its as though their contribution to the spice trade of old was the provision of sugared peel, lemon balm and scurvy cures. Lemons, lemons, lemons. They have harnessed this simple citrus to aid their souvenier trade and you can now buy lemoncello at every single store in Sorrento as well as lemon soap, lemon lollies, lemon shaped magnets, ceramics with lemons painted on them and lemony skin products. We skipped most of these and visited the Lemon Grove - a small lemon tree enclave in the heart of sorrento. There are maybe 200 trees here - set out in rows with paths between and benches so you can absorb the goodness of lemons and that lovely scent of their flowers away from the buzzy world outside for a wee bit. Oh and you can purchase a lemon or two on the way out (at a rate not unlike Perth prices which surprised us given the sheer abundance of the fruit).
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| Lemony Thicket.... |
Public Beach
One thing we've had to get our heads around is the concept of the private beach. Or rather, the hard to come by and somewhat relegated public beaches. In Sorrento there appears to be one public beach... and this is it.
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| La Publico Beacho - Molto Piccolo |
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| Better perspective when viewed from above |
We happened upon it from high up on the cliff - where the view across to Naples in amazing - and decided to go check it out below. From above, you can see that there are several private beaches that have been decked and are fully catered should you be willing to pay the price obviously, but the public beach is harder to pick out until you get down there. Its a cute walk down though - via many many steps and then through a massive rock cavern. A wade in water was mandatory after that.
I fully admit this is being posted quite a while after our visit but will say that I am not mentioning the food we ate there not because I dont remember it - but, well because it wasn't that memorable. Also because the old pizza and pasta thing is beginning to lose its novelty - would kill for a decent salad!
We left Sorrento the next morning for AnaCapri, confident we were ready to move on and sure that lemons would never seem the same again.
x
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