Sorrento and Capri

Heading down the coast

Heading down the coast has to be one of my favourite sentences to say and do and, to do it in Italy with the Herr, kids and Grandma was such an adventure. We caught the cheapest train from Rome to Naples. After a restless wait for the platform to be announced, a divide and conquer mission to get seats and the tickets validated simultaneously (only one machine working on platform) which caused the kids to ask the big question, "Will Dad make the train with all ouf our tickets?" answer being "I really hope so!", wild waving to confirm tickets were validated, Herr F jumping on the first carriage he could and walking through the train to join us we had a lovely, air conditioned ride to Naples. It was hot, I have probably mentioned that a thousand times and Naples train station isn't my favourite place in the world but it was easy to find the connection to the Metro to Sorrento. Those trains mostly aren't air conditioned so our main aim was to get Grandma a seat (though she is a trooper and would have survived) as the trip is about an hour and a half. Mission accomplished easily and after not too long enough people had gotten off and on that we all managed to tetris our way into seats and sweat off some of the gelato eaten in Rome.

 

Walking is probably the thing the kids don't like about our holidays as we do tend to overkill that part. It often leads to meltdowns of varying intensity and duration but we all get there in the end and see lots of things we wouldn't have seen from a bus or a train. Though, next time we promise a taxi in the scorching heat we probably shouldn't reneg. You would have thought we'd learnt our lesson in Rome.

Walking and waiting... these are things we excell at.

And are both worth while as we got to do these things...

Pompeii with our tour guide the Monkey. Actually we tried to find a guide at the gate but there was a serious lack. Herr F and I have been before, I think this was Herr F's third visit but we both felt that this was the visit we got to see the most and understood the most. Maybe it is because they have opened more parts or have it better signposted but it was probably because of the curiousity of the kids, our brains trust and maybe a better map. We all had something we wanted to see and this lead us around from the forum to the theatre to the colosseum and back past the brothel (this was accidental as we hadn't highlighted this feature of Pompeii)  to the  House of the Faun and to the artefacts including the figures and household items. At the end of the day we were exhausted but everyone was elated to have explored this magnificent place together. The bonus at the end of the day was the Metro back was one of the few air conditioned ones, you have never seen 6 happier people.

To back track a bit, upon arriving in Sant'Agnello at the hotel Purple to do our exploring of Sorrento and Pompeii Herr F and I realised that we hadn't really done our "best places to swim in the Mediterranean" homework and were mildly surprised that the coast of Sorrento is all cliffs with access to the water through hotels. Needless to say our hotel didn't have beach access. That said, we loved our little hotel and enjoyed that we had to bumble through with a few Italian words as only one person on the desk spoke English. The kids and I had a great view from our room and we all had the best view from the window at the end of the hall. 

So, with the sea so tantalisingly close I googled the best way to swim in Sorrento and the answer was; the hotel pool. Luckily our hotel had a pool. The kids claimed it to be the best pool every, but in reality it was a 1980s above ground pool that went heavy on the chlorine and paled in comparision to the one we could see next door but, the fact it was there, cool and not crowded made it fabulous. So instead of paying 40 Euros to access the sea we admired it from above, explored on foot, swam in the hotel pool and sat in the lemon tree garden imagining the amazing parties we could have if it was ours.

That said, you can't get to the Mediterranean and not go swimming, so one day, instead of taking the cheap ferry we splurged and took a small boat trip to the Isle of Capri! It was pure luxury. Door to door shuttle bus to the boat and only 12 people on the boat, of which we were 6 and colonialisation states that we were entitled to imagine it was our very own boat.

The weather was amazing, it went from cloudy and atmospheric to brightly sunny. No one wanted to wait the hour line at the Blue Grotto so we went straight for the smaller grottos, at a more relaxed pace.  

After we had asked many times if we could jump in and had been told to wait we finally dropped anchor and the 6 of us wasted no time jumping in to the most amazing water ever. There was a brief moment when, as parents you really hope the swimming lessons worked and then they popped but up laughing and skrieking with joy you breathe a sigh of relief. Then we continued on to Capri to swim there and look around. Probably should have taken Grandma and the kids to the town but the water was so nice...the beach not so but oh the water. On the way back to the harbour we were surprised by a quick dip under a freezing cold waterfall. The captain angled his boat in and we all got to stand on the backboard and be refreshed by the amzingly clear water. 

After the treat of a lifetime we spent the next day exploring Sorrento's tourist streets, swimming in the pool,  eating in at the "Little Burp" restaurant where we'd had take away from the night before, taking in the view and atmosphere one last time and sitting in the hotel garden playing card games and catching up on travel journals.

Sentimental moment here as I want to say thanks kids and Grandma for joining us on such a wonderful holiday. I will treasure these memories and know you will too.