Last night, we made a last minute change of plans and decided to go straight to Sorrento instead of spending the day in Positano and then travelling on to Sorrento. We settled on this mostly due to cost - the ferries were quite pricey and we would have to hire the Positano porter service to hold on to our bags during the day. This also gave us some time in Sorrento and allow us to continue moving in a relaxed pace. The original plan would've resulted in us being in a rush and worrying about how we would get to Sorrento - transport options just weren't very good on the Amalfi coast.

Breakfast in Amalfi

Our accomodation had given us two breakfast vouchers which could be redeemed at multiple cafes in town. Because we didn't eat breakfast the day before, we cashed in both :) The first place (Bar Della Valle) we went to was a cafe which the owner of the accomodation highly recommended. It wasn't hard to see why. The staff were very friendly and they had a wide variety of food on offer. We were entitled to anything on the menu and a drink - very generous!! We both ordered a panini (but it was more like a toasted sandwich as came in sliced bread) and a juice. Mine had a thick slice of mozarella, ham and eggplant. It was quite tasty! Very generous.

After first breakfast, I popped into the ceramics store (Ceramica Vietri In Amalfi Di Bruno Salvatore) I was eyeing the night before. It was right next to the cafe. I spent an ungodly amount of time choosing 2 teacups and a shot glass to buy as souvenirs. They all had lemons (the symbol of the Amalfi coast, I suppose!) hand painted on the front.

It was time to pick up second breakfast before we headed to the ferry pier. Off we went to Pasticceria Caffetteria Leone, which was one of those cafes that sold only pasteries and had a bar where you order coffee at. We were entitled to one pastry and drink each. I picked some croissants and juice but the lady only gave me one bottle of juice :( I didn't say anything as we were in a hurry.

Ferry to Sorrento

At the pier we purchased our ferry tickets to Sorrento (via Positano). Then we joined the queue and waited for over 30mins. The ferry was late, surprise surprise. When it finally arrived, I quickly went up top to get us some seats but most were taken, so we had to sit sideways. The ferry was to take 1.5 hours and make stops at Positano and Capri before terminating at Sorrento. There was a man (a waiter?) who sold drinks to us passengers. Most people were keen to sit and relax with a beer but for me, it was best to lay off the alcohol. Not to mention the prices were a bit exorbitant! There were loads of silly Americans who tipped him well, so I imagine it was a lucrative trade.

The ferry ride was ruthless. We were travelling quite fast and there was a bit of wave activity so it was pretty uncomfortable and I ultimately felt unwell. I was already feeling crap before the boat had even arrived into Positano, and it only got worse from there. A suggested we sit below but I didn't want to walk down the stairs while the ferry was moving, so I had to wait until the ferry settled down for disembarking at Capri. Fortunately, the bottom level had many unoccupied seats so I was able to lie down, which is always something that helps.

Because I wasn't feeling all that great, I didn't manage to take pics of the entire journey. I put away my camera after Positano.

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Sorrento

I was so happy to get to Sorrento and be on land again. By the time we got to Sorrento, we were quite late and off schedule. As usual, we had to tell our hosts at our accomodation when we were going to arrive, and we were a bit crap about updating them.

The town of Sorrento was situated on a cliff, looking out onto the Gulf of Naples. To get up the cliff you could walk up the multiple switch backs or take the lift, which was not free. With luggage in tow, we of course took the lift. We walked to our accomodation, which was a good 12 minute walk. Again it was just someone's apartment that they had converted into a B&B. There was no lift so we had to lug our things up 8 flights of stairs, and it was quite a hot day :(

The room itself was quite nice actually. It was quite spacious and the bed was large but comfortable. You could change the room lights to a blue light which gave the room a neon blue haze. This was a bit of a strange choice to me as it felt like you were in an Aquarium or something.

“Lunch”

It was late afternoon and we had not had any lunch, so we set off to find some food. I was not super hungry (due to the ferry ride) but still wanted to eat something small. We decided on a burger place, N'hambu, and shared a “burger” which was actually more like a panini. It had a lot of sliced ham, pesto and cheese. It was tasty enough, but a rip off.

We then stopped at I Giardini di Cataldo, a lemon farm and limoncello producer. You were supposed to be able to take a peek at their lemon garden but we couldn't see much and wasn't sure where we could go (well, we didn't want to tresspass!). I had read that they did little tours where they explain the process of creating limoncello but it wasn't apparent to me and I didn't really bother seeking it out. We could however, see a large kitchen where limoncello was being bottled. It was less exciting than it sounded.

They sold gelato, so we bought some. We had two flavours - lemon cream and chocolate. It was decent.

We did some sightseeing. There isn't a whole lot to do in Sorrento but there were a few interesting things to look at.

Vallone dei Mulini (Valley of the Mills)

This was a valley that just appears out of nowhere. You're walking through town, walking along a road, which then becomes a bridge and suddenly there's a huge drop on your right and there's the valley. Inside the valley are a couple of flour mills which have been standing there since the 13th Century but is now completely overrun with plants. It was quite beautiful and I actually would've loved to have been able to go down there to take a good look at the mills but unforunately there was no access.

Chiostro di San Francesco (Cloister of San Francesco)

This was actually really close to the Sorrento lift, so we had walked past it before. The cloister was located inside a really inconspicuous building; you wouldn't know it was there unless you were looking for it.

The cloister was built in the 14th Century and is part of a monastry dating from the 7th Century. It was surprisingly tranquil and I enjoyed the architecture.

Right outside the cloister and monastry was the Sorrento lift and a park with a view. The park was situated right on the edge of the Sorrento cliffs, so you could see right into the Gulf of Naples, Mount Versuvius, and the rock pools below. Versuvius was quite a distance away so it was kind of faint but it was a great reminder of how big Versuvius really was. I wished we had time to go up to the crater! Maybe next time. I wouldn't say no to visiting Naples again, even if it was just for the pizza.

As with every other bit of coast line I've seen in Italy, there was no beach. :) The poor Italians!

And with that concludes the sightseeing we did in Sorrento.

Shopping

We walked over to Corso Italia, the main pedestrian street of Sorrento and nearby streets for a browse. I bought some postcards on the way. We stopped by a shop called Nino and Friends and ohhhh my goodness, what a great experience. Upon walking through the entrance, a man greeted us and was carrying a tray full of chocolates for us to sample. We thanked him, grabbed one piece each and popped it into our mouths. They weren't bad. Not even 5 seconds later, he was back with another tray of samples, this time, biscuits. These were filled with lemon cream and were delicious. I had barely enough time to process things when he was back with yet another tray of goodies. This went on and on at least 6 times. We even asked for repeats to help us make up our minds and he graciously obliged. Now THIS was customer service. Like, how am I supposed to know what to buy if I dont't know how it tastes? A grabbed a basket and we started filling it up with the things we liked. We were quite indecisive as lots of things we had tried were good but the prices were not as friendly as the service ;)

In the end, we sampled so many things - lemon chocolate dragees, pralines, biscuits, chocolate covered candied orange and lemon peel, limoncello center dragees, meloncello drops, limoncello drops, pistachio spread, chutney and TRUFFLE PRODUCTS such as truffle POWDER and truffle spread. It was awesome. I would've bought the whole shop if I could. We made some tough choices (heh) and ended up with boxes of lemon cream biscuits, lemon almond dragees and the pistachio spread. Pics are in the last post of the trip.

I was so full when we finally left the shop. We walked past more shops and I had a hankering to try some real meloncello after really enjoying the meloncello drops from Nino and Friends. Unfortunately I did not like the real deal (they must've added a tonne of sugar to the drops to make it more appetising). A helped himself to more limoncello samples.

I was feeling a bit queasy for some weird reason (too much sugar and alcohol in the space of 30min?) so we went back to the accomodation and I had a nap. Really TMI but I tried using the bidet for the first time ever. It actually wasn't that bad! I might be a convert…

Dinner

It was quite late when we finally headed out to dinner. Sorrento was no Rome or Naples so this meant we had a difficult time looking for a feed. The place I had in mind was closing up; thanks Google Maps! Many of the places that were still open were either expensive or had lots of terrible reviews. One of the restaurants we inquired at was unfortunately closed but the manager gave us a suggestion, which was located at Piazza Tasso, a main square of Sorrento.

Syrenuse, the recommended restaurant seemed quite affordable, which was a surprise due to its location. We agreed to go inside after a quick glance at the menu. After ordering, we were given a plate of small snacks, including nuts and little crackers to nibble on. I ordered the lasagna and some meatballs for A. Unfortunately both were quite mediocre, although I've had worse lasagna. 6/10 #ipinions