In my last post, Mick's 60th - September, I told you about our visit to Pompeii. That was on the Monday. On the Wednesday we visited the island of Capri.
Again, we made our own way there catching a ferry from the port in Sorrento. We'd caught the first shuttle bus from the hotel at 9am but in hindsight, we should have caught an earlier ferry than we did because Capri was packed and there was so much queueing. It's a beautiful island though.
The first thing we did when we got there was take a bus from the port up to Anacapri, the mountainside town on the west of the island. The buses were supposed to be every ten minutes but we waited ages in the queue until we finally got to the front and onto a bus. The roads are not for the faint hearted, twisty turny and barely wide enough for two vehicles.
From Anacapri we took the Monte Solaro Chair Lift to the highest point on Capri. Again, a very long queue. I'm not a lover of heights but the chair lift isn't too high from the ground, passing over gardens, vineyards and lemon groves, and takes about twelve minutes each way. The views are amazing.
The chair lift takes you to the highest point on the island where you can take in 360 degree views looking out over the Faraglioni Rocks, the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. There's also a restaurant. We came back down on the chair lift before exploring a little of Anacapri and having a meal in a lovely restaurant there. Afterwards we got a bus back to the port, yes, another long queue. We would have liked to have explored Capri Town on the eastern side of the island but we just didn't have time after all the queueing. I think the secret to Capri is to arrive early to avoid the queues.
The Friday was our favourite day, we climbed Mount Vesuvius. We took a train to Pompeii and then a bus which takes you to the upper parking area at 3280 feet. Vesuvius stands at about 4203 feet so you have just under a thousand feet to climb. This photo was taken from the bus before our ascent.
There's a steep gravel path from the car park which takes you to the crater rim. It's a bit of a cardio workout but there were a couple of children doing it, and some oldies. For me, the hardest part was coming down again, goodness, my knees were complaining.
It's so worth it though, it was quite emotional reaching the rim, especially after visiting Pompeii and knowing the devastation that this volcano wreaked in the past and will again some time in the future. It last erupted in 1944 during WWII destroying nearby villages.
The views from the summit over the Bay of Naples are amazing.
Looking down into the crater. How amazing is that, to be able to look down into an active volcano, it takes my breath away just thinking about that.
Of course, visiting Pompeii on the Monday and climbing Vesuvius on the Friday all tied in and we looked out from the third station, the final resting and turnaround point, and somewhere down there is Pompeii.
We raised our glasses of wine and thought about the volatile forces of nature and those who have succumbed.
In between our excursions we spent some time in Sorrento. Again, we didn't get to see everything we wanted to, there's so much more to explore if we return. We loved Sorrento, such a pretty city, a scenic cliffside resort, bustling with tourists.
I just loved the historic stone alleyways where you could pick up souvenirs or sit at a pavement cafe for a drink or something to eat.
The architecture of these alleyways feature limestone and lava stone arranged in a grid formation characteristic with the ancient Greek-Roman world.
We ate wonderful meals, pasta in restaurants overlooking the Bay of Naples whilst watching the sunset.
Pizza at alleyway restaurants. Actually, this was a wonderful place to eat, fabulous food and attentive staff. The evening of our visit to Vesuvius, a perfect day from morning till night.
Desserts a plenty. We shared this Torta Caprese, chocolate and almond flourless cake. It was scrummy.
We ate more than our fair share of gelato. Of course, Sorrento is famous for lemons and the lemon flavour gelato from Sorrento is something else. Mick was sampling the tiramisu flavour here but he concurred with me that lemon is best.
We had such a wonderful week and we may return to the area at some point in the future, there's just so much to do there, you could never get bored.
What an amazing trip! It's a good job there is a bus and a chairlift to get you so high up but the remaining path looks really close to the edge. Eek!! So worth the trip for the wonderful views. I could just eat one of those lemon gelato, I love lemon desserts, even though it's a bit gloomy outside.
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