The first part of this review/blog has been compiled prior to the trip. This part is included under ‘The Planning’. The second part. ‘The Reality’ will be/has been completed after the location has been visited.
The Planning:
This is the only city (apart from Cannes) on this trip that I have visited before (and loved). On the last occasion while in Sorrento sipping lemon juice, I visited Pompeii, Capri, Positano and took drives generally around the Amalfi Coast.
Most Sorrento hotels located outside the town have fabulous shuttle buses and so getting to and from the hotel is a breeze. You don’t need a car in Sorrento if you are going to stay in the centre. But, if you want to drive around/visit other places and not be part of an ‘planned excursion’ a rental car is needed. In any event, since I am flying into Salerno airport getting to Sorrento would be a mare. There are buses but with the need to change buses several times, it would take you all day. There are also ferries that would get you to Positano and then you can bus it from there but, again, wasting a good deal of time.
Mid-August in Sorrento is going to be heat blistering. It is also going to be packed with tourists, as is most of the other destinations in Euro Flight 2015. As a result, hotels are very expensive. I really dislike paying lots of money for hotels. But, on this trip it looks like I don’t have much choice.
Sorrento: The Hotel Choice
I wanted a hotel with a pool. I didn’t care if it was in the centre of Sorrento or outside provided either it had parking or a shuttle bus respectively. So I booked the Hotel Antiche Mura through Expedia. Below are some of the photos from the hotel website.
The hotel is smack bang in the middle of Sorrento. It has a private garage for the rental car. I think this has been a great choice.
The Reality
This is my second time in Sorrento. The place has a magical charm. It’s carefree, warm, lively and cosmopolitan. The people are friendly, the food is great and the scenery beautiful.
We had a hire car arranged in Salerno (our airport of arrival) so we could drive into Sorrento. Getting from Salerno to Sorrento is nigh on impossible without a car. Yes, you can get buses, trains and hydrofoils but it is a faff and would take up most of the day. We were late taking-off from Elba. We wanted to leave at 0800 local but since the airport doesn’t open until then take-off is always going to be later. We left the runway at just before 0840.
The flying trip was great. Once again air traffic was asking for time estimates at odd places along our route but we managed to find them on the map. Radio communication with Roma was very difficult. Radio reception is just so poor. It wasn’t just us, other planes were having the same problem. Most of the radio TX was just Roma or a plane asking , “say again” because of the poor reception. At one point I just decided to take decisive action and descended to 1,000 feet and notified Roma. On that occasion I did get a reply, “Zulu Delta that is perfect, thank you”.
If you fly down the Italian Coast (as we were) then you have to be 15 miles off the coast as you pass Rome and Naples. Unfortunately the weather was such that this meant we couldn’t see the coast which was a great shame. Thunderstorms were predicted for the area (including Elba) but I worked out that if we took off early we would be in Salerno just before all hell broke loose with the the weather. Clouds were building and you could see the starting of a storm (albeit in the early stages).
We had some great views of some of the islands as we coasted along and took some good footage. Below is a still capture (poor quality) taken from the plane en route.
On arrival at Salerno we quickly got out the plane and rushed to the main terminal to get a taxi to get our hire car. We had booked it for 1130 and the office closed at 1200. We were going to be late but we asked a member of staff at the airport to call the hire car company and tell them we were on our way. As soon as we got the car I breathed a sigh of relief. Everything would be simple from here on.
We drove back to the airport and unloaded Zulu Delta and loaded up the car. Once again, staff at the airport were fantastic. They didn’t allow us to unload the cases from the plane…they did it. They wouldn’t let me push the luggage trolley….they did it. Really friendly, kind and helpful.
The weather has been mixed so far. The first night, thunder and lightning (the storm we escaped). One day of gloriously hot sunshine. Yesterday, rain and sun and rain and sun. Some beautiful cloud formations (see below [click on an image to see the album and click ‘X’ in top left corner to close] ).
We’ve shopped, strolled and eaten. Today we’ll probably relax by the pool and then later jump in the car and drive up the Amalfi Coast and eat outside Sorrento. We dined the first night at L’Antica Trattoria which is somewhere we’ve eaten before. The food is not the cheapest but it is beautiful. Actually, when we look back at how much food we had and the quality it was cheap (especially since the Euro exchange rate is good for us). Below is a few snaps taken for no particular reason (see below [click on an image to see the album and click ‘X’ in top left corner to close] ).
Last night we ate at Via Marina Grande which used to be Sorrento’s main port but is now just a hub of smalll fishing boats and a scattering of restaurants. We chose a restaurant run by the fishermen’s co-operative because it looked the most basic. I had a plate of grilled white and blue fish with grilled sardines. OMG….it was to die for (see below (when I decided to take a photo I had already eaten 25% of the fish).
My plate of grilled fish.
Tomorrow we leave Salerno Airport at about 1730 local time to get fly to Dubrovnik. Fun, fun, fun!.
2015 Euro Flight 