I am currently writing up my holiday memories for my scrapbook on the holiday so here is the first (long) installment of many to follow.
Return
to Sorrento which is exactly what I did this summer, this time with Mike and
Jamie too! Return well I visited
Sorrento about 30 years ago, so this was a welcome but long overdue return. Oh and what a return, we had a truly wonderful,
memorable and wholly inspiring holiday – it was utterly joyous for all of
us. I will hopefully, at some point, add
some pictures of my original visit to Sorrento.
I
am planning to write in some detail about much of the holiday as there is much
to write and revel in reliving each and every moment of it. We left home Monday 30th July,
Mike was just finishing a stretch of nights so once we had the final bits
packed and loaded into the car – he stretched out in the back seat whilst Jamie
and I were in charge in the front.
Jamie
and I had dropped Binnie at the kennels first thing Monday morning, which for
me is the most dreaded part of any holiday, and we were ready to go spot on our
allotted time. I thoroughly enjoyed the
drive to Gatwick which passed without any problems at all, well except for the
regular middle lane hogger who seem to be so prevalent on our motorways these
days.
We
had decided to make use of one of the drop off services and arrived at
departures to find they were ready and waiting to take the car from us and we
were free to head into departures. At
only £8 more than a leave your car at a base service this was most definitely
worth the little extra as we had no time to wait and left our car a 1 minute
walk from departures.
Once
into departures we located Thomson check-in and were through that whole process
in about 5 minutes – again without the slightest hassle which was
wonderful. So relieved of our baggage we
were now free to enjoy our time at the airport, Mike and I quickly downed the
cans of Bellini we had in our hand luggage and then we headed to security and
to airside.
It
was here we had our first minor issue, as Jamie and I got through with our hand
baggage only been given the usual checks, Mike sadly didn’t! Mike had to go through a bit of a process and
was requested to remove quite a lot including his shoes. At one point I was a little concerned that
they may take him away for a cavity search but that didn’t happen!! He was eventually sorted, why they had picked
on him we were not sure, but we did hear them mention that a senior manager was
lurking around so I guess Mike got the full show for his benefit!!
Once
airside we decided that we would head for a bite to eat and got a seat in
Garfunkles very quickly and we enjoyed a very leisurely meal – I had ham, egg
and chips which was utterly lush and enjoyed a good part of a bottle of Rose
which was pretty good too!! Jamie and
Mike indulged in milkshakes and Jamie had lasagne and Mike the long waited for
full English breakfast and all were pretty good – if a little pricey but that
is to be expected at the airport.
After
eating we had a wander around the shops and picked up a couple of bits in duty
free, such as aftershave for Mike and some new foundation and powder (Clinque)
for me. It was here we hit our first
snag which was Jamie’s ipod was not happy and was refusing to synch or pick up
a network (this was, it turned out, to his being overly eager when it was being
updated and the updates had not finished).
The advantage of this was that he would have to get stuck into a book
whilst waiting for and during the flight – so no bad thing!!
As
I am usually (overly) anxious to ensure we are sat at or very close to the gate
so (well) in advance we headed that way – enjoying the travellators en route
(they are fab!!) It really didn’t take
us long to get to our gate and we were there in plenty of time but we didn’t
seem to have to wait very long either.
It was here that we (or rather me) hit our second snag (although if you
think of it really Mike’s chat with security was actually our first so as they
say things do come in three’s!!) which was my Kindle had not charged and I was
now unable to charge it until we reached our hotel. This was very annoying as I had charged it
all through the night before but clearly something had not synched (again!) – so
I too was left reading printed material and listening to my mp3 for the flight.
It
seemed quite quickly that our flight was called and boarding happened efficiently
and easily – we never rush to get on as i) our seats are pre booked so they are
not going anywhere ii) if you wait until the end everyone else is on and
settled and you can get to your spot, stash the bags and sit down without others
wanting to barge past and iii) once you are on and seated it tends not to be
too long before you are on the move and not wedged in cattle class for any
longer than is absolutely necessary!!
We
boarded in our usual positions – Mike next to the window – because he likes to
look out, Jamie in the middle (he gets to look out and be next to both of us)
and me on the outside because I like to be near the edge so feel less
claustrophobic and more able to people watch!
I handed out the bits – mp3, books, money etc, stowed the bags and
settled down. After buckling up we were
taxing!
The
flight was a relatively simple affair, we had not ordered food so had a few
nibbles with our drinks (rather yummy prosecco – more of which over the next
few days!!) which we enjoyed very much, chatted and listened to some
music. I have to say I am not overly
impressed with my new mp3 as it is not compatible with Napster which is something
they failed to say on the Amazon review but it is only for travelling and when
I’m walking or biking so does largely fulfil its brief.
The
flight passed without any problems and quickly only just over 2 hours. We only managed 1 round of drinks as the
service was slow – I think next time we will order 2 drinks at the same time.
By
the time we landed at Naples airport it was just starting to get dark but we
were all very very excited to have arrived.
We got off the plane and into buses quickly and it was HOT (!!)
lusciously so. At 8pm in the evening it
outstripped anything we had in the whole of our summer!
We headed into the airport and to our
carousel, where Jamie and I were on grabbing duty whilst Mike was going to
stand back and look after hand luggage.
Our bags seemed to take an eternity and we had quite a bit of amusement
as the same 3 bags (or parts thereof) kept circling their way around the
carousel. Eventually the bags from our
flight started to filter through and we picked ours off, whilst having an
enjoyable conversation with a newly married couple waiting for their bags. Where do these odd bits of baggage come from
but it did remind of the brilliant Rhod Gilbert sketch about his baggage in
Ireland.
We
then headed through to the reps and were despatched towards our coach, on the
way to our coach we passed a rep who kind of niggled me but only because of the
way he pointed us to our coach when we were heading that way anyway and had it
all under control, but more of him in a later instalment. Seated on the front seats Jamie and I were
looking forward to our trip to the hotel and taking in all the sights of Italy
we were so looking forward to seeing and the maniacal driving so beloved of the
area. Mike was behind us and he, still
catching up on sleep after night shift, fell into another deep sleep.
We
got to see a little of what was to greet us the next day and managed to catch a
glimpse of Vesuvius in the dark. We
travelled through the tunnels I so vividly remembered from my trip there oh so
many years ago. Our rep on the coach was
lovely but had an unfortunate name in translation ‘Tittie’ but she was used to
the humour it generated in some of the British tourists – well use to it by
now!! She was very informative and her accent
was lovely. So we reached our hotel in
just over an hour from the airport.
There
was what appeared an unusual way of doing the drop off – as we were dropped in
a coach park – but our hotel was only 1 minute from the coach park so as we
later realised it made perfect sense and it also meant our hotel in relation to
getting a coach (for trips etc) was ideally suited!!
We
walked the minute to our hotel and got ourselves booked in, we were given our
voucher for the restaurant and told that we needed to head there quickly to
catch it before it closed. We took our
bags up in the tiny lift and then headed to the Restaurant Tasso for the first
of many very nice meals!! Any further
impressions of the hotel would have to wait as we had a couple of pressing
engagements the first of which was to have some food.
As
most of the hotel stays in Italy are half board we were really pleased when the
food turned out to be good quality, tasty and offered plenty of choice on the
menu. Jamie was getting quite tired by
this point and really didn’t want to think about anything but a pizza and the
restaurant was very accommodating as it wasn’t on the menu that night. Mike also headed for a pizza too, whilst I
opted for the vegetable soup to start and a chicken dish with a walnut sauce
for main course. All was very acceptable
and I think we all followed the meal with an ice-cream which was of course
lovely.
We
had been told in the coach from the airport that there was a celebration taking
place that evening in Sorrento, it was a celebration for the patron saint of Marina Grande, one of
the three marinas in Sorrento. So during
our meal we heard the celebrations begin.
Mike being utterly shattered headed back to the hotel but Jamie and I
invigorated and very excited headed into Piazza Tasso (the main square and
central hub of Sorrento) to take in the atmosphere and just generally find out
what was going on.
We
weren’t sure exactly where we were heading but just followed the sound, the
crowd and the fireworks. We found a
great place to watch the fireworks from and really soaked in the
atmosphere. The rep on the coach to
Sorrento had told us about the end of the festival of St Anna, the patron saint
of Marina Grande, one of the little harbours of Sorrento. The fireworks were very colourful and uber
loud – much louder than ones from home!
The
fireworks went on and on for quite some time, in fact so long we were just
beginning to think about heading back, when they were obviously drawing to a
close. We began slowly to make our way
back to Piazza Tasso, past shops and buildings which were going to become very
familiar over the next few days and made our way back to the central square
which was still buzzing, even though it was nearly midnight by this point.
We
headed out of the square on the other side and were not quite sure how far away
our hotel was, but in the time it took us to wonder, cross a road, pass a
handbag shop we were back at the restaurant and then back at the hotel. So it seemed the first part of our planning,
that we were very close to the centre of Sorrento, was just as we had
hoped. We were literally 30 seconds walk
from the main square – it was the perfect position for us – just what we had
wanted.
We
got back to the hotel, found our room to find Mike had not fallen asleep but
had seen most, if not quite all of the fireworks, although without the
atmosphere that we had managed. The
hotel room looked pretty much what we were expecting and was clean, tidy and
had everything we were going to need. The
hotel is a four star but perhaps more equivalent to an English 3 star but clean
and comfortable with everything we needed and a balcony with a sea view and a
view of Vesuvius so quite acceptable.
I
had a quick look through the hotel information, the information from the
holiday reps, dumped my clothes, cleaned my teeth and headed into bed. The bed was large and looked as though it was
going to be pretty comfortable. I
checked out the balcony too and noticed that it was even at this late hour very
very warm. We all were looking forward
to what the next day had to offer but were by this point also very very tired.
Ciao
Sue
