This holiday arose from a chance conversation the previous winter, when Alun mentioned that he wanted to see Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was time to get the atlas out and find out exactly where they were (if Italy is a boot, we are looking at the front of the ankle!). Another chance conversation at work led to a reasonably priced, organised holiday, advertised in the local paper, which would take us to all the sights we could want, at the same price as a basic package.
Let's get our bearings...
Courtesy of a publicity leaflet, this map. Scroll down so you can still see Napoli, then work southwards round the bay to Sorrento, that's where we were staying. We travelled back round that bay several times - just above the purple motorway is Pompeii, further west is Vesuvio the volcano, then just after that is Ercolano, or Herculaneum as was. From Sorrento we also went south-west to the island of Capri, and on another occasion due east along the coast through Positano, Amalfi, Maiori, then inland to Ravello and back home. We also went into Napoli city centre to visit the archaeological museum.
Below is a summary of what we saw and did. There are links in each section to further pages, and links in these other pages to bring you back here. Please note the unusual section at the foot of this page...
And when you've had a look, click here to e-mail me some feedback. Thanks!!
How
did he get there? There is a yearly festival in our town called the Straw
Bear festival, which goes back ages but has been revived and added to in recent
years. It involves dressing two men in straw bear suits, parading them
round the town on leads as part of a huge procession of musicians and dancers,
and eventually burning the Straw Bears, once the men have been taken out of
course!
One of the pubs in town, The Bricklayers Arms in Whittlesey, just to give it a plug, is a focal point of the celebrations, and has a small collection of model straw bears and similar. The done thing is to take Little Bear on holiday (whether Mary and Colin know or not), and to take photos of him doing different things, to prove where he has been. He has been known to send postcards too, and twice has got off with a girl bear. Such is his busy schedule that a recent arrival, Orange Dog, has to take over some of his travelling engagements. Little Bear has been to Germany, Africa, Mississippi, various other places and now Italy. Click here to see what he got up to this time...
We
stayed at the Hotel Villa Letizia, which is a couple of kilometres above
Sorrento town on the road to Casarlano. In common with a lot of the
outlying hotels, the route into town is too far and too steep and bendy to attempt on
foot, and they lay on a courtesy bus into town several times per day. The
setting was lovely - the hotel was formerly an olive press, then a brewery, and
various artefacts can still be seen. It is set amid orange, lemon and
olive groves, very quiet apart from dogs and cockerels in the morning. The
food was all Italian - the hotel being a restaurant in its own right - no steak
and chips or caramel pudding here! Click here to see
more...
Sorrento
dates from the time of the Etruscans (click
here for a good website about them), who came from Tuscany in the 6th century
BC and conquered the Campania area, which was then held by the Greeks. Its
main claim to fame is the poet Torquato Tasso, after whom the Piazza Tasso
(left) was named - note the statue. Also, De Curtio wrote a song "Ritorna
a Sorrento", which is allegedly the second most famous Italian song in the
world!
More recently Sorrento was made popular by English tourists in the early 19th century, when Naples was no longer popular with those doing the Grand Tour. Even today the English tourists outnumber other nationalities as far as we could tell, but there are still plenty of locals to dilute the effect!
Sorrento sits on a cliff with a ravine down the middle, overlooking the Bay of Naples with good views of Vesuvius. It still has an old town made up of the original parallel Roman streets, each about 10 feet wide and now lined with shops and a few bars. The population is about 15,000 - people that is, and half as many again in scooters! The main products of the town are intarsia, or inlaid wood items, and limoncello, a liqueur made from lemons grown locally. It has its share of churches and museums, and an impressive array of shops, including designer outlets. One favourite watering-hole was the Foreigners Bar, run by an Englishwoman and her Italian husband. The food is 50% Italian, 50% international/English, and there is a good tourist information office within the premises. Click here to see more...
As
just mentioned, one of Sorrento's main products is furniture and other items
made from intarsia, or inlaid wood. This involves using thin sheets of
different woods being cut out, using paper templates, by a machine which looks a
little like a cobbler's last, and which uses a fretsaw. They are then
fitted into the main piece of furniture, and the overall effect smoothed and
polished.
There are many cheap imitations of this furniture to be had, where a picture is made of paper, stuck onto the wood, and then varnished. One test is to hold a cigarette lighter to the surface of the item. If it burns, it is a cheap imitation.
Prices ranged from 16 Euros for a small box which would take two packs of playing cards, to several thousand Euros each for chests of drawers, dining sets and hallstands. The picture on this page shows a dining table - sorry about the quality, it was a case of the flash bouncing off the shiny surface, or this! Click here for more photos...
Where
to start! The city was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in
AD79, which covered it with layers of ash, and Pompeii remained hidden
until the 19th century, when the local ruler Carlo III di Borbon ordered its
excavation. The site is huge - at least a couple of square miles have been
uncovered, with street after street of mainly roofless buildings, comprising
houses, shops and temples. Within the buildings there are
quite a few mosaic floors and murals which are still in good condition.
Today you can walk around it at will, and even the fraction of the whole which
is accessible would take several hours to examine thoroughly, and more is being
uncovered all the time. You can buy paper maps, or hire an audio guide, or
even, if in a group, hire a human guide as we did.
Click here to see more...
Herculaneum
was quite a "des res" area, rather than a working city like Pompeii. It
was named after Hercules the god, and like most of this area, was founded by the
Etruscans some centuries before Christ. A little further away from
Vesuvius, in the AD 79 eruption it was covered more in mud than molten lava and
ash, and the buildings are generally more complete. The remains were
discovered in the 18th century by a rich man digging foundations for a very
grandiose villa within the modern city of Ercolano, which you can see at the top
of the scene in the picture. Herculaneum was more deeply buried and harder
to excavate than Pompeii, and the modern city prevents much of it from ever
being excavated. The site is a lot smaller than Pompeii, seemingly a few
hundreds of yards square, but still needs a few hours to see it all. Our
guide, Enzo, accompanied us here as well as to Pompeii, and completed a
hat-trick by taking us round the Archaeological Museum in Naples too.
Click here to see photos of Herculaneum...
This
seems an appropriate point to picture the many finds which have been removed
from Pompeii and Herculaneum for safety and to preserve them. The museum
is a huge imposing building, all marble and ornate high ceilings, in the centre
of Naples. Enzo took us round again, and this time with no walkie-talkies
we had to stay close and listen. Because of the ever-present time
limitations, we only looked in a small part of the museum at the finds from the
sites we had so far visited. It was also a bit challenging to see the
exhibits and edit our tour colleagues out of shot. Because the flash
bounces off a glass case, it was also a bit challenging to find the fancy
settings on the new camera (haven't read the manual yet). One way or
another therefore it was difficult to note what came from where, except that the
House of the Vetti and the House of the Dancing Faun were mentioned frequently.
In all cases the statues in the museum are the originals, and those on the
archaeological sites are copies. Click here to
see more...
It
was thanks to one of our guide books that we happened upon this amazing place.
We had booked for a trip over to the Isle of Capri, but did not want to follow
the herd that day, so after disembarking, they went in one direction, and us in
the other, on foot, uphill, on a very hot day.
Capri is very mountainous, indeed the mountain where the Villa stands is just over 1000 feet above sea level. The Villa Jovis was built by the Emperor Tiberius during his reign between 27AD and 37AD, and used as his winter palace. He had other villas on the island where he lived in the summer. Tiberius was a bit of a lad, with quite strange appetites, and it is said that if walls could speak.... Click here to see more pictures of the Villa Jovis
Contrary to popular belief, this volcano isn't extinct. It last erupted in 1944, although not causing any great devastation, and that lava flow has plugged it for the moment.
I had read about the idea of walking up to the top and looking over the rim, and even my Italian expat friends in Peterborough said it couldn't be done. Well we did it, and lived to tell the tale.
Click here to see pictures of the great intrepid explorers boldly going where the unfit shouldn't go!
The
island of Capri is a few miles out to sea from the Sorrento peninsula, just a
short boat ride. It is the place which gave its name to the Ford Capri car
in the 1970s, and for some decades has been a place where the rich and famous
have gone for holidays or to live, and since it has become relatively affordable
(3.5 Euros for a coffee!), the masses have gone too. So much so that we
went on a Monday, to avoid the busy Sunday, and the place was still heaving!
Some of the main attractions to be found there are Capri Town, which you get to via a funicular railway, the other main village Anacapri, the chair lift which takes you to the top of the highest peak, and the Villa Jovis which we have already seen. Click here to see pictures of our visit to Capri...
If
you head eastwards along the coast from the tip of the Sorrento peninsula, that
is, away from Naples, Vesuvius, etc you come to a very mountainous and scenic
stretch of coastline onto which the road clings precariously, so much so that
coaches are now only allowed to go in the easterly direction, and have to come
back inland. The best
way to see the Amalfi coast is by boat, and you can either go on the public
boats, or charter your own as our group did. This wasn't part of the
itinerary, but Adrian the tour manager fixed it on the day. In the
following pages you will see various towns along the coast, millionaires' pads
and caves. Click here to see more pictures of the Amalfi
coast...
If travelling round this area independently of our tour, you would have chance to see dozens of beautiful churches with varying styles of architecture in common with the town around them, and painted all different colours. All the ones we saw were Catholic in persuasion - although there was evidence of modern evangelism, especially in the suburbs of Naples. Most of the churches photographed were dedicated to the Virgin Mary - this isn't a cop-out! What seems to distinguish them is who paid for them to be built, usually local aristocracy or local boy made good.
Also if you were an architectural buff, you could note that most cupolas on top of these churches are green and yellow, these being the colours of growing plants, symbolising new life. This is as opposed to blue cupolas in Greece which symbolise the sea, and spartan dark grey in Germany. Anyway, we managed to catch quite a few churches. Click here to see them...
Our
visit to Naples was too brief. The main purpose was to visit the
archaeological museum, but also have a look round from the coach, which limited
the photo opportunities a bit. It was a bank holiday the day we went, the
advantage being that the place was not quite so packed, the disadvantage that
everything was closed apart from a few tourist cafes, and of course the museum.
A couple of unusual things which we saw there were firstly a political demonstration and secondly a Neapolitan wedding!
The city is not as dirty and crime-ridden as its reputation, although we were accosted by children begging in the arcade shown in this picture. Click here to see more photos of Naples...
Everywhere
we go there seems to be a show laid on for the tourists, including their
particular folk songs and dances. So far they have all been good quality,
but this particular one was the classiest yet.
The theatre, although small from the street, turned out to be adequate for the 30 or so coach parties in it. If you paid top prices you could be up on the balcony having dinner watching this. The cast were amazingly talented, their voices sometimes a bit much for the sound system, but better than not being audible. The content of the show was a series of typical Italian songs and dances, performed in three acts which each had a theme. Click here for more pictures of the show...
It
seemed like all food in this area was based around mozzarella cheese, prosciutto
ham, tomatoes and some sort of carbohydrate - fine for me because I like these
things. The hotel food was amazing, considering the low budget package
holiday we had chosen. Our hotel was a restaurant in its own right, and
only served Italian food, no steak and chips or caramel pudding here (no I tell
a lie, the latter appeared once). Dinner usually consisted of a choice of
three starters (a full plate of pasta), followed by a choice of three main
courses being meat, fish or vegetarian, then a dessert which was either fresh
fruit or gateau. We only ate out for lunch, and that did vary quite a lot
according to circumstances. Drinks in the hotel were put on the tab -
caffe latte was cheapest at 1 Euro, so I soon developed a taste for it, having
not touched it before the holiday. The pizza in the picture was found in
Amalfi - the hotel didn't do them at all, probably too downmarket for them.
Click here to see our menu and a few photos...
The
main places to find the shops were in the network of narrow Roman roads called
the Drains and the main street above this area, both in Sorrento, and in Capri
Town, which had mainly designer outlets. Along the Amalfi coast you could
find roadside stalls selling fruit and veg you had never heard of, as well as
massive mutant versions of the familiar things. In various tourist traps
there were also shops full of ceramics, very similar to what we had already seen
in Crete the previous year. Another good hunting ground might have been
Naples had the shops been open that day, and indeed the street hawkers would
happily sell you a rip-off Vuitton handbag for about 35 Euros, the real thing
costing about 250 Euros. Around the Pompeii site there were lots of
souvenir stalls. Click here to see us window
shopping...
We
travelled with Riviera Travel, which seems to advertise mostly in newspapers,
and although we thought we were a small select band when we were picked up in
the middle of the night at Peterborough services by minibus, it turns out there
were enough people to fill two large coaches, spread out between our hotel and
one other. Nevertheless, people chat, and their faces become familiar as
the week unfolds. Unfortunately we didn't always get as far as names,
identifying people by what they looked like, or where they were from. And then there's the unforgettable Adrian, one of the best
tour managers we've ever met actually, who had the unenviable job of staying in
the hotel with all 50-odd of us, and seeing to our needs and wants without even
an hour off! Click here to see all the
characters...
This apparently is one of the rituals of the holiday, to arrange a special
dinner in the hotel, get in some entertainment and , er, do what exactly, on the
final night. The wonderful Adrian had gone to a lot of trouble to
organise all this, five-course meal, nightclub singer who is apparently well
regarded thereabouts, all of us in whatever smart clothes we had packed, or not,
and even Adrian did a turn on the karaoke (he's quite good actually). The
English were ranged at tables at one side of the stage, and the French
contingent at the other, and a lot of the songs were in English - didn't do much
for the Entente Cordiale. Still, many people imbibed cordiale or something
stronger and made a party of it.
Click here to see all the photos, done one table at a
time, in the best Hello! tradition...
Well, that's about it. We've seen and done quite a lot considering it was a one-week holiday. We took part in all the included trips, and a couple of extras which Adrian organised due to popular demand. It might be worth going back again one day, just to linger a bit in some of the places, and see others which we just couldn't fit in. Well, we loved the place, the food was gorgeous and the people so nice and friendly, considering they were outnumbered by tourists at every turn. Definitely recommend the whole experience.