Andiamo! Citalia Magazine Winter 2023

THE PERFECT BASE: SORRENTO
We highly recommend going to Pompeii
with an expert, as it’s not like a museum
where everything is labelled, and I’m sure
we would have missed a lot even if we’d
taken a guidebook with us.
We were at the ruins for about three and a half hours. It was
fascinating! I think next time, we’d also arrange a trip to the lessvisited
Herculaneum, as we hear that’s a more complete site.
We arranged a similar day trip by train to Mount Vesuvius. We joined
a minibus to take us to within 500 or 600 ft of the top, and then we
climbed the remainder up to the summit, which was rather steep.
Walking around the rim was probably one of our holiday highlights,
and we’re so glad we did it. We were really lucky as there’s frequently
a big cloud that hangs over Vesuvius, but that day we had the most
spectacular views over the Bay of Naples.
You can't go to Sorrento and not eat well. While there are plenty of
restaurants with canopied tables and waiters in waistcoats encouraging
you to come in, we found a very unassuming place with just tiletopped
iron tables and plastic chairs called Manneken Pis. We noticed
that despite it being crowded, people would pause to look at the
menu, decide it didn’t look very special, and move on. They missed out!
We stopped there for lunch one day and enjoyed an excellent Caesar
salad, and the food was so good we returned twice for dinner.
We also went twice to a lovely, ‘typico’ Italian trattoria called Taverna
dell '800, which was the only 18th century tavern in the town.
They were very welcoming, and we enjoyed dishes of seabass and
porchetta. For fish, we found a few really good seafood restaurants
right at the end of the Marina Grande, including one where you can
sit out on the jetty.
We discovered one shop in the Old Town that produces their own
limoncello, and so we stopped for an ice-cold limoncello and made a
few purchases as you do. We got chatting to the owner and he asked us
our names. A few days later, as we were walking past, the chap called
out, “Hi Phil, hi Carol” It was great, we almost felt like regulars.
A 7 night holiday in Sorrento starts from £689 per person.
Speak to one of our Personal Travel Planners on 01293 765061
Winter 2022/23
Andiamo!