Three of Us in Italy – Part 3

Heading South

We had spent four days in Rome and visited many of the major sites, doing a lot of walking in the process. By the time our first Sunday arrived, we were packing our suitcases and heading south to Sorrento, taking our first of four train rides in Italy.

We picked up our train at the extremely busy Roma Termini train station, taking about 2 hours and travelling at 260 km/hr to the main station in Naples, Napoli Centrale. Barb and I have always loved taking trains wherever we have travelled, getting to see the landscape as we pass by and always much more relaxing than flying. On our way south to Sorrento, there was a lot of rain, but by the time we arrived in Sorrento, the rain had stopped, and we expected nothing but sunny weather for several days.

Sorrento is a much smaller town, and unlike in Rome, we were never more than about a 10-minute walk back to our hotel, unlike the typical 30-45 minutes getting back to our hotel in Rome.

Lemon Everything

Just about anything to do with Sorrento has some connection to lemons. Every shop has not only limoncello, a liquor made from lemons, but lemon cookies, lemon soap, and we even bought a lemon Christmas ornament and lemon hand cream. Even in restaurants, many of the items on the menu have some kind of lemon seasoning. It’s lemon everything.

The Coast

It’s now Monday, and today we have made plans to take the ferry from Sorrento to the Amalfi Coast, visiting the popular town of Positano. We only made the decision last night to book ferry tickets, but we knew long ago in our travel planning meetings that we would be going to Positano at some point while we are in Sorrento. Barb and I were last in Positano last year on one of our cruises, and it’s a spectacularly beautiful town, but also the reason why it’s perpetually busy with tourism. Nonetheless, it’s a must-see place when you’re in this part of Italy.

The weather in Positano, and really throughout the entire time in Italy, has been sunny and warm, usually in the low 20’s so we’re usually all in short sleeves. The few times we’ve worn jackets on cool mornings, they’ve usually come off by noon.

On the day we took the ferry to Positano, there was some strong wind, which resulted in the spray from the boat crashing against the windows on only one side. On the way back to Sorrento, one of the windows of the ferry flew open and a bunch of people, including some of us, got soaked with seawater.

Short Stay – Long Stay

While we only planned to stay in Sorrento for just three days, the shortest part of our trip, when we were leaving to move to our next destination it was an early start that day getting to the train station. Two trains later and our first car rental, we ended up driving 2.5 hours to the Tuscany region, arriving about 10 hours after we left Sorrento, definitely an exhausting day.

For eight days, our longest stay in Italy, we’ll make this old farmhouse home. Located in the Chianti wine area, we’re a few minutes’ drive from the small local town where we’ve bought groceries and supplies, and this will be our base to explore the area. The countryside in this region is spectacularly beautiful, and it appears our biggest challenge when driving is not finding places to pull over to take more photos.

Speaking of which, the many photos that I’ve been taking have been getting uploaded and can be viewed here.

I’ll post again in about a week, and by that time will be at another unique destination.

Baden