Bongiorno!

Well I'm back from a week of eating my way around part of Italy with nearly 500 photos to boot. Don't worry I'm not going to publish all of them just a small sample to tempt you!

We stayed in Sorrento which is on the Bay of Naples, opposite Mount Vesuvius. I think we were far enough away that if it had erupted we would have been safe. However, a good portion of Napoli (Naples) would be in big trouble if that long overdue event took place.

Apparently the locals will get 14 days warning before the next eruption, however, with a population of 800,000 in the 'red' zone, it would be a dogs breakfast just getting everybody moved away in time.

This is a photo of Mount Vesuvius from across the bay in Sorrento.

A lot of Sorrento is perched on the edge of cliffs, with many hotels having access to sunbaking platforms via many many stairs.

Our hotel 'The Grand Hotel Capodimonte' was perched on the side of a hill overlooking the bay and part of Sorrento.

Unfortunately the weather was far too cold to even dip our toes into these tempting pools. Mount Vesuvius is in the background.

The main piazza in Sorrento. Amazingly I've managed to snap this whilst there was no traffic. This area, like the rest of the city, was packed with cars and scooters. You take your life into your hands just trying to cross the road. Although there are marked pedestrian crossings, the Italian drivers simply don't stop. I worked out that it's like a game of bluff, you have to look confident, like you're going to step out in front of the oncoming traffic, but be mindful and ready to stop if the traffic doesn't believe you are going to continue. In the end we worked out it was better to follow the locals across the road, as they would just brazenly step straight out.....

Sorrento is full of lots of narrow little lane ways containing shops and restaurants...and tourists...it's really annoying trying to get shots off with hundreds of tourists in the way...

Quite often we would come across a little grotto with the Virgin Mary, surrounded by flowers and candles (lit at night).

An old door with sunflowers and a glimpse of another religious statue.

Like most of Europe, there are many beautiful churches to be seen. Sometimes I just photograph the doors....

Love this one!

As you can see the interiors are very ornate.

I even found an interesting letter box on the side of one particular church.

 

This was the courtyard adjoining the Convento Di S. Francesco set up for a civil service.

Some of the funnier sites we saw were food related....

fresh produce just hanging around two stories up..

parked on three wheels....

and on four wheels.

In the 'Ristorante La Favorita', the balustrade was an old grape vine...and yes the food was great!

Everything that I ate, and I ate quite a lot, was very fresh and mainly local. I've never tasted such fantastic tomatoes, the purple grapes were amazing, the mozzarella....the pasta....

The olives, I think, must have been just picked off the trees and flung onto the plate because they were so fresh. Everywhere in the region these trees were growing, even alongside the swimming pool at the hotel.

This is not a great shot, but you can see the green nets which are strung up underneath the olive trees to catch the fruit as it drops (or is shaken) from the tree.

My other vice, other than eating myself stupid, is drinking espresso. The coffee in Italy is fantastic and will put hairs on your chest!

Finally, another favourite, is Limoncello. This is a speciality of the region, with lemon trees producing a particularly large variety of the fruit of which the zest only is mixed with a small amount of water, sugar and alcohol to produce this very citrusy digestive.

It really does burn off the barnacles on the way down!