We are in Sorrento

It was an early check out from Hotel Regno but we will be back for one more night.

we were picked up by the mini bus at 6.50 am and circled Rome picking up a few more people and meeting the big bus for our 5 day tour to Naples Sorrento, isle of Capri and Amalfi.

About a 3 hour drive to Naples with a pit stop along the way. our guide Guiseppe, Pepo for short, was fun and fluent in Italian, English and German. The local guide in Naples Wilma was very good and it was a quick 1 hour tour in the heat and we got to see part of the port and the industrial area on the way in and out. Then we were off to Pompei for lunch and a tour of old Pompei with views through the haze of Mt Vesuvius along the way. Lunch was pretty good and then we met up with Wilma again and she would be our guide through Pompei as well.

Pompei was amazing and I could not believe how intact part of it was and the mosaics and artwork, considering the town was buried in ash since 79AD. This was a great 2 hours and although it was really hot it was worth it and Ves and I learnt so much.

After that it was goodbye to Pepo as he was heading back to Rome with half the bus load and the rest of us were going on to Sorrento. We drove along the winding road around the Bay of Naples with sheer cliffs on one side and vistas of the small townships and blue waters of the Mediterranean to our next stop and 2 nights in Sorrento.

We made friends with Sandra and Robert from the Bay of islands and Scott and Belinda from Mornington Vic. We ended up travelling with them to Amalfi, but more of that later.

Our hotel, Grand Vesuvius in Sorrento was nice and we had meals included which was a real bonus. The hotel was a bit out of town on the upper slopes with magnificent views of the bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvio, even through the haze, caused by the high summer temps and high humidity. The night lights were also really nice as we could see some fireworks and the twinkling city lights of Sorrento and along the edge of the distant shores of Napoli on the othe side of the bay.

Tomorrow we are off to Capri and the blue grotto where the sun shines in to a cave in the side of the rock escarpment of the Isle of Capri.