It’s been a long, memorable trip this fall for me but adding this little wonder in Southern Italy has been a highlight.
The ferry to Sorrento from Naples was perfect. It took about 35 minutes and the sunny weather allowed for nice views in all directions. I could see Mt. Vesuvius, Capri, Ischia, and Naples behind me as we tore across the Gulf of Naples.
Sorrento is really three parts: Marina Piccolo, Marina Grande, and the proper town high above the water. It’s a pretty place but still busy with cruise ships and tours in October.. I heard that Rick Steves is going to stop recommending it in his books because it’s just too crowded. He thinks maybe he ruined it, but people have been coming to and admiring this area for centuries. Even the Romans vacationed here. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC.
I arrived at the port in Marina Piccolo and the taxi drivers wanted €25 to get up to the town but I waited for a shuttle for €2. I already had the idea that Neopolitan taxi drivers were a ripoff. There is no Bolt or Uber there. At this time, I didn’t know about the lift to get to the Sorrento street level, and walking up with my bags was unthinkable. I got to my place and made myself at home, did some laundry, and enjoyed my deck for a while.
I monitored the arrival of my friends from their niece’s wedding in Scotland and eventually went to meet them. I figured the two marinas connected, but I was wrong. I walked down the steep stairs to Marina Piccolo but had to come back up to the town of Sorrento on the lift for €1.20 then walked down to Marina Grande. I thought I was following the Google Maps directions, but it was too hard to see how to do it in the dark.
We eventually met up and had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant which their driver had recommended. I had gnocchi Sorrento style and some salad along with a selection of fish and pizza appetizers which their starving 20-something kids had ordered before we arrived.
The next day started early at the Marina Grande because they had rented a boat and captain for the day. We sped out to Positano and explored the town. I had a Lemon Delight with a coffee as Stanley Tucci recommended in his show, “Searching for Italy”. We turned back and had lunch at a neat restaurant on the water in Nerano. We were the only guests.
Back on the boat, we were ready for a swim. The water was clear and beautiful and there were many small fish swimming around. We had limoncello prosecco cocktails when we were dried off.
The following day we had our tour to Pompeii. It was a great day with a fun gal named Lulu as our guide. The coach ride there was fun because Lulu told us the history of the towns and their religious processions as we passed through.
At Pompeii we were grouped into smaller parties and our guide was a tiny woman who had been leading tours at Pompeii for 24 years. She mentioned several times the agony of all the days in summer when the temps are 100F with high humidity. We were lucky it was only in the high 70s and it was lovely except when we were standing in the direct sun. We spent all morning slinking around to find shade.
So, here’s the story of Pompeii and the fateful day that ended the lives of 2000 – 10,000 people. The town was started by the Greeks as a retirement village. The Romans took over and added an aqueduct, the two theatres, and the stone paving on the roads. Pompeii was famous for its olive oil and wine. Many people were wealthy and owned slaves to do the hard work. Slaves were of any nationality, age, and color – they were the spoils of war and wealth.
Probably on October 24th, 57 AD, a little cloud shaped like a pine tree arose above Mt.Vesuvius. It was likely autumn because there was coal in the heaters and fall foods in the pantry. There was a strong wind toward the south that day. If it had been to the north, we’d refer to Naples, which is 100 years older than Pompeii as the famous buried city instead. Observers from afar and survivors described what happened.
After the cloud formed a slow trail of lava could be seen on Mt. Vesuvius. No one was injured by the lava. Soon a lot of pyroclastic ash started falling on Pompeii and Herculaneum. The reaction most people had was to go inside because burning rocks falling on you hurts. This was their undoing. They should have run from the ash cloud, because it rained down for 24 hours, burying the city many meters deep and collapsing the flat roofs which in turn caused the oil lamps to ignite and burn everything made of wood. Some folks did run and survived.
The ash solidified and when they started excavating Pompeii in the 1700s, they used the rock debris and ash to build roads and buildings. People were frozen in place as they died. Since their bodies decomposed, leaving only bones, there was a hollow space where their bodies had been. A lead archaeologist filled the cavities with liquid plaster and then when they chipped away at the rock around the hardened plaster, they had the uncanny molds of people just as they died. You can almost see the expression of pain on the face of the man (probably a beefy gladiator) found outside the arena as he tried to shelter his face from the burning ash.
We had a wonderful tour, learning about the daily lives of the people of Pompeii. We saw the baths where they cleaned their bodies with olive oil and a metal scraper. They traded gossip at the baths then stepped outside to have lunch at a snack bar across the street. Diners stood at the marble-covered bar to eat beans, bread, olives, fish, and cheese. It looks remarkably like the bars of Italy today.
We entered former shops, which had sliding doors. Note the photo with the grooves in the threshold. Some restaurants had a BBQ grill in the corner. There was a place to grind grain into flour and the oven just to the side. They use the very same technology to bake the best bread and pizza in Italy today.
We learned how the carts passed along the streets and people used the stepping stones to avoid the muck in the streets. We saw the water stations for the common people, and our guide demonstrated the way a jar or bucket would have been lowered into the tank, then showed us the worn part of the stone on one side of the well where all those buckets were pulled up, filled with water and had scraped the side of the stone.
The Romans had designed the aqueducts at the correct slope to always bring water from the nearby river, but also not to come into the cities too fast. Water was delivered to the baths, to the wells, and directly to the homes of the wealthy and shopkeepers. There was not a separate neighborhood for the wealthy. Their much larger and well-decorated homes were scattered around Pompeii. Slaves lived with their families but their shelters were much more crude.
We saw one of the two amphitheaters, which were used for plays, music, animal auctions, and socializing. Wealthy politicians paid for the entrance fees for events to buy votes of commoners. So, nothing new under the sun.
Sara and I had a nice pasta lunch when we got back to Sorrento in a restaurant on a tiny street.
On our third day we went to Capri on the ferry. I had heard it was overrun with tourists and tacky shops. I was pleasantly surprised. Again, this is probably because it was October and not August. We had purchased the bus trip to see the island and hopped on our first of three trips to Anacapri. We liked exploring the shops in the cool air. Then we dropped down to Capri and had lunch at a nice hotel. We looked around some more and admired the extraordinarily beautiful views of Capri and the Amalfi Peninsula. We returned to the port and rode back to Sorrento. We took the lift up to the main street and said our goodbyes.
