Sorrento
Trip Start
Jul 30, 2007
1
11
25
Trip End
Nov 2007
Loading Map
Sorrento,
Italy
Monday, September 3, 2007
JENN - Headed off early, up and out by 0730 and we head off to Sorrento, half way there I take over driving and we turn off the freeway towards Napoli and am pretty pleased with ourselves as we are not even lost yet. We have learnt another rule to the compulsory getting lost law with each campsite, that is if they make the last 30mins of driving pure panicking hell then you don't have to be lost on either end. Pulling a caravan and huge car through narrow lanes and through the centre of every small town from Napoli to Sorrento, sharing only the road with a few hundred lunatics seems to result in you finding the campsite without a hitch, but also without your mind. Rob in the passenger seat (which is definitely the worst I can concur) and me, total silence other than "watch him", "shit" "of fuck" and "watch the back broke our scared silence. The narrow lanes lead you up the shire cliff face which Sorrento sits upon. The narrow roads and bricked walls on the road means that every bend you take you have to swing out into their lane, which if fine because you can wait, however while your doing this the locals create another 3 lanes beside you overtaking and I cant explain the positions and centimetres they managed to squeeze out of nothing. Everyone beeps their horns, to say hi, admire the car, because they are annoyed, to tell you they are there or just because they like noise (we now take no offence or notice for that matter). We reach the site which sits over looking the Sorrento harbour on the cliff top, the site beach is visible onto of this sheer cliff with netting to stop you falling off, its only about a kilometre straight down a dirt track and back!! I had images of Sorrento as more aussified sort of beach area, with stretches' of volcanic sand with beach bars and cafes, but its all on a cliff so no usable beach.
Not a bad view from the campsite
We sleep... too shattered and wait for our panicked shaking to stop, walk around and settle in.4/9/07 Day 37
JENN - Lazy morning before we head off by local bus into the city centre, its raining, so our record remains!!! We decide to wander around in the rain anyway, as its still hot is quite nice really. The plan for today is find our way around and find a supermarket for food, so off we head, no map, no idea but at least it ensures you get a good general look around, because for most of the time we were lost. With the hectic drive still on our minds we keep spotting things we think we recognise from the way in and get more lost. We find our way back to where the bus dropped us off to find the supermarket 100 yards from it in the opposite direction. We have a coffee (fantastic coffee in Italy) and Rob a beer (unusual I know) and watch the world go by and solving the universes problems, but as Rodgy would say, we didn't write it down, so we will have to repeat the possess another time. We do the shopping, with Rob stepping in to help an Aussie couple with the complicated fruit & Veg procedure in Italy and even finishes with a Mick Dundee "no worries" before joining me again. The meat in Italy is horrible, yet to find a decent steak or sausage and how do you ruin a sausage?? So we get chicken to marinade and hope for the best. Rob buys more insect spray because he is having a one man war with about 1 million tiny ants which seem to be everywhere on this site. The white powder (ain barrier stuff) on all the pitches makes me believe we are not going to win, but Rob is anything if not persistent.
Yes, it rained
Head home on the bus and settle in for a quiet night as its still blowing a storm with distant thunder and a cool nip to the air now. 5/9/07 Day 38
JENN - We have a lazy morning in the sun with plans to head off to Sorrento for the afternoon and stay for dinner to see Sorrento by night. We head off by the local bus into town and find the tourist information and get our hands on a map at last... finally we will be able to find all the hidden treasures of Sorrento. We Walk down to the port and walk around the tops of the cliffs that surround the coast, the colour of the water is stunning but its lightly raining so its not at its best. We wander back into town and walk down all the streets we missed yesterday, which was remarkably few, it really is just a beach side town. We head into the centre square for a drink, but apparently are invisible as the waiters blatantly ignore us so we move into the area which hosts the theatre and town buildings with the hope of refreshments. We have a drink served by a charming older Italian man and settle in, only to have my jibby tummy which seems to have developed a taste for bugs to raise its ugly head again, so we head home earlier than planned. Rob has dinner and I try the abstain theory as we are out all day tomorrow.
6/9/07 Day 39
JENN - Today Pavarotti died and I threw up on top of the only active volcano on mainland Europe!! We are picked up by coach at the campsite for our all day tour of Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii by a very large but friendly Italian man who looks very much like Pavarotti the opera singer who humorously introduces himself comparing himself to the man himself for 5 minutes, only to end with..
Ditto
He died today at 0600, laughing stopped. We head onto mount Vesuvius which the last 1km you have to walk with a minimum gradient of 10 degrees. We walk to the top and its shattering more for me than Rob, my calves are killing me but we get there(obviously Mr. Pavarotti didn't come with us). We reach the top and have a volconologist guide to talk you through the geology and provide information on the site. I will have to leave it to Rob to tell you about it as having finally reached the top, my stomach bug decided to reap its revenge with nausea, stomach pain and a desire to faint. I panic as we are on a volcano with the only toilets back at the bottom, no trees to hide in and about 200 tourists in sight. I say a swift goodbye to Rob and head down only making 300 metres before the inevitable happens and continue down to the bottom. Rob arrives after to tour and we head back onto the bus to see Pompeii with my stomach back where its suppose to be for the most part. Pompeii was really interesting with buildings and artwork from the 2nd century BC. The vastness and completeness of the lost city are amazing, although most of the statues (other than one) mosaics and frescos have been removed to a museum. This was only after 160 years of pillaging on a unprotected site up until the 1700's. There is still 28% to be excavated so hopefully it is untouched, they expect it to take 120 years. Roman baths, ancient pluming and ingenious road and sewerage systems remain, along with a brothel which has pictorial frescos which acted like a menu for customers of different languages or unable to read, amazing, with rock beds in small rooms.
My life is hard!!
Apparently it is twice the cost to have the youngest lady, thus the picture has a man with 2 penises to symbolise this. They do love a phallic symbol, which are suppose to bring you luck as a it is life. There are penises all around the city in the top of buildings and one in the pavement on a road. Our guide tells us that Italian man touch their left testicles when they wish for luck. Some men I know must be the luckiest people on earth!! Its an amazing place and I wonder if these are the oldest buildings that remain, unfortunately because they have been excavated and are now exposed, they are being damaged and fading even as we speak. We catch the bus back and the sky is bright orange with the smell of rain in the air, the storm finally arrives at about 2000 though comes and goes. Rob amuses himself with the X-box while I am updating this and organising the photos. 7/9/07 Day 39
JENN - After writing the log last night the storm broke well and truly with water everywhere, Rob loving fiddling and moving things took off his glasses to stop them getting wet and promptly steeped on them. A lot of swearing followed, some which he normally isn't allowed to say in front of me. His only pair of glasses with a chip to both lenses and both out of the now deformed frame, things didn't look good. So Roy as I now call him, wearing his prescription sunglasses continued to play x-box until bed. So today we obviously went into town to find an optometrist to see if they could be fixed after finally convincing Rob it wasn't a good idea to try it himself. The old man in the store looked as angrily at Rob as he did last night, shaking his head and looking plain annoyed at us. However despite him picking them up and dropping them to the counter while lifting his shoulder and breathing out, 30 mins later we have a passable and more the point usable pair of specs. We had a drink in town and wandered around, but spent the morning lying in the sun and listening to comedy programmes on the MP3 and reading. Robs mode is much improved after the glasses being fixed.
8/9/07 Day 40
JENN - Easy, restful day, unlike the fraught ones we usually have!! Did nothing to write about, so I wont.
