South Italy

Sorrento at night

As you may have realised blogging and a baby don't really mix. =) So here's my attempt at catch up. In September (2 months ago) we went to South Italy. Mainly Naples, Sorrento, and the Amalfi Coast.  In our guide book it said..."if you don't like Northern Italy then don't travel further south." Oops... we have never been to Northern Italy so we figured we would wing it and do the south first and see how it goes. 

We stayed in Sorrento, which was amazing. The hostel we stayed in looked like an expensive hotel and the the location was central to everything we wanted to see and do. Sorrento the town was great. No pushy sales people, very nice and patient people. I really liked Sorrento and they loved loved loved Sophie! Baby's are really welcomed in Italy. 

Sorrento daytime

Any way, Sorrento was amazing but Naples was super scary.  We should have known what we got into by the bus ride from Naples Airport to Sorrento.  Trash everywhere, it really looked like Mexico. And then I read that Naples is the home of organised crime.  And one of their main businesses is trash collection. Le sigh.... In Naples the city (which we visited only for the main archaeological museum) I felt very unsafe. We walked through town being harassed all the way. By the time we made it to the first pizza place I'd had enough so we got back on the train and hot tailed it out of there. 

Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius

The best part of our trip was visiting Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. (I've dreamed of visiting these places) Both are half way between Sorrento and Naples. And both are totally worth a visit!  This is the place were you can see the effects of a natural disaster. Pompeii is huge!!! And the best example in my opinion of Roman life. Pompeii was a town of rich and poor living together. You can walk through buildings, on side walks, in streets and see how they lived. And this was very important to me as a history lover you are actually able to walk where they walked rather than walking on plates of glass to protect mosaics. Vesuvius just as interesting and amazing for the view of Naples bay. Vesuvius is still an active volcano although it's currently resting.

Positano

We also went on a tour of the Amalfi coast. This is were many films were made. And I could see why the moment the bus turned the corner and you could see the amazing cliff faces.  There is an island you pass on the way to Positano which was owned by a famous male ballerina. (Love that some who made beauty was inspired to live somewhere so beautiful) Positano is amazing, I wished we had time to stayed longer. The town of Amalfi was beautiful too with a big church at it's city center and lots of tourists. It's the main bus stop on the coast.

Baby eating squid

All in all I would love to go back to this area of Italy. The food was great, the espresso was hot and the lemoncello was cold.