Beautiful Sorrento

After an incredibly hectic journey for the last 20 kms coming into Sorrento with traffic at a crawl (or stand still) we have finally made it to our rooftop terrace apartment. I have passed though Sorrento on a number of previous occasions - and I can confirm the town is perched on the cliffs of a beautiful coastline; it has a very quaint and busy little center; and has long been a tourist favourite. The last time I stayed here was about 25 years ago - and not much has changed (except for a big increase in traffic)!

Here are some views.....

Looking across across the bay from our rooftop terrace - Mount Vesuvius in the distance on the left

Night-time view from the terrace

Looking down on the town over the port and harbour

Our first planned activity while here in Sorrento was to visit the ruins of Pompeii. Just 15 miles away across the bay - and with the crazy road traffic - it felt like we could have swam it in less time than it took to drive there!! But the trip was worth it.

Pompeii, a bustling city of 11,000 people, was buried under 4 to 6 metres of volcanic ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The city was abandoned and it lay buried until excavations in the 17th and 18th centuries uncovered much of what we can see today.

A portion of the ruins - with the treacherous Mount Vesuvius just showing in the background

Inside one of the few buildings with an intact roof (the blue from lapis lazuli showing in the wall frescoes) 

Part of a theatre used for music and other live performances

So at the end of our first full day here, we chose to walk through the town center to view the tourist shopping and find a nice eatery for dinner. The restaurant I wanted to visit (which does not take bookings) had a long queue of patient patrons waiting for a table to come free. Having already done our 10,000 steps around Pompeii earlier in the day - we flagged the idea of waiting in a line. As it happens - I am glad we did that. The restaurant we chose as an alternative proved to be a great choice....

We could have dined in air-con comfort inside, but al fresco style in the alleyway outside is better

Panko crumbed cod in a tomato cream sauce for Brenda, and "spaghetti alle Sorrentini" for me

Both dishes were absolutely superb! Brenda's cod fillets were cooked to perfection and the tomato cream sauce was almost licked from the plate (well mopped up carefully with a slice of bread). My spaghetti dish was one of Sorrento's signature dishes - a simple freshly made pasta with just oil (with a hint of chilli), a few chopped walnuts and some fresh herbs, and finished with a pistacchio crumb topping. Definitely my favourite pasta to date on this trip.

Tomorrow we plan to drive south and do a round trip of the Amalfi coast. I just hope the traffic isn't too crazy. We have to get to a rather special restaurant that I made a lunch reservation for (over a year ago) - so we need to be on time for that as Italian restaurants won't hold a table for late arrivals.