Sorrento

We spent 4 nights in this lovely seaside town in the south of Italy. Our hotel was located on the main street near lots of restaurants and shops which was good during the day but noisy at night. The first night we were awake due to noise from party goers on the street and the second night we were woken up at 5am with work men putting up barricades and stages for the Giro d' Italia bike race. We had seen posters up for this. We did not know it was the famous Italian bike race like the Tour de France and that it would be starting from the piazza just down stairs from our hotel room. We had planned to take the bus to the Amalfi coast that day so with the roads closed we settled down to watch the bike race from the comfort of the outside terrace in our hotel. It was funny listening to the antics of the announcers as they talked over each other and never drew breath. Cadel Evans was there with the rest of the Australian team. 

After the race we walked up to see if any buses would run and found that they where so we ran up to the main street and travelled to Amalfi for the afternoon. The bus goes around the coast line sometimes too close but we arrived safely. We walked around the streets and spent the afternoon eating gelato and climbing the narrow stairs around the town. 

On the Tuesday we took a organised tour of Pompeii and walked up Mount Vesuvius which was awesome. We had a guide around Pompeii who kept giving us info about the sex lives of the residents. He started with showing us the brothels and how to recognise them to explaining how women would be killed if they took a lover while married so they would sign up to be prostitutes for a couple of days to satisfy their needs. I think he was making some of it up but once he started you couldn't stop him. It was really funny. One couple had their 5 year old with them who wondered by the house had a lot of beds. I told them they would have lots of fun telling her later that she had visited a brothel. Between stops we had lunch with a lovely couple on the tour with a young 18 mths of boy. The wife was from Finland, the husband from Scotland and they live in Belgium. What a multicultural family. 

We found this great restaurant which was very reasonably priced. We went twice and both times he gave out free starters and free lemon liqueur which is famous in Italy. The service was great, the food devine and the wine cheap. I was in heaven. 

We were sorry to have to leave Sorrento as it had a nice feel, lay back style and lots to do. Off now to Roma.