Up The Farway Tree

Ciao!!

We are home after a lovely week in Sorrento and back to gale force winds, rain and a fallen tree - but I will save that for another blog.  Here are some pictures of our trip..

Looking over Marina Picolo in Sorrento, which is on the Neapolitan riveria, being around an hours drive from Naples.

Monastic cloisters in Sorrento - the monastery is now an art school but the cloisters are still open to the public.  I really loved the cloisters as they were so peaceful and had beautiful climbing roses in full bloom.

At the hotel pool with Andrew trying to read his kindle and me being bored and playing with the camera!  It was lovely warm weather - about 24/25c but not hot enough to go in the pool, which was rather chilly to say the least.

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St. Michaels Church in Anacapri.

These are Votives around St Anthony's tomb in the Basilica in Sorrento where he is the Patron Saint.  I read when I came back that people left these as an offering when praying to a Saint, or in thanks for a prayer answered.  There were lots of little plaques of body parts - including these lungs in this picture - which I assume were related to prayers around illness.  Apparently in Sorrento a lot of these votives were from Sailors, as he was also the saint for navigation.  I have always known St Anthony to pray to when you need to find something and a friend gave me a little statue when I was waiting to 'find new lungs'.  He was also one of my Aunty Agnes' favourite saints and when I lost my wedding and engagement rings (long story) she had half the Church putting money in his box!  The rings did turn up and I did find some new lungs.  I lit a wee candle at his statue for Aunty Agnes.

From the island of Capri.   This is about a 20 minute boat ride from Sorrento, so we visited for the day.  Capri town was very upmarket with expensive jewellery stores and designer shops.  We then took a bus further up the island to Anacapri, where is was a little quieter and had lovely winding streets.  From here you can take a cable car ride to the very top of the island for amazing views.  The cable car was great fun and I managed to get on and off without falling over :-)

The ruins of an old mill in Sorrento.  We found this by accident but then looked it up in the book later as we had no idea what it was!  It was down a steep drop in the water and at night it looked quite spooky.

We went on a trip to Mount Vesuvius, which famously erupted in 79AD covering the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash and mud.  It has continued to erupt and the last small eruption was 1944 -but they say it will definitely erupt again and it is likely to be on a massive scale!  The bus takes you so far up the mountain, then there is a windy path to the top, where you can peer into the crater.  We of course had to go to the top.  My lungs behaved impeccably (although it was very dusty) but my joints were a struggle - however when I nearly overtaken by two elderly ladies I was most determined to get to the top haha.  It was worth the climb and the views were amazing.

We then went to visit Pompeii, which had been completely covered in ash.  It is gradually being excavated to reveal the remains of Roman buildings and streets.  It is a vast area so we only covered a small part, but with a guide, we probably did see the main features.  Amongst the ruins you could see for example, a bakers over, where a bakery would have stood, and many shop fronts.  The pavements had scores from chariot wheels, and they had reconstructed the small amphitheatre where gladiator fights would have taken place.  There were a couple of bodies on display which has been 'frozen' in the ash, which was both fascinating and macabre in equal quantities.  I was more disturbed by the preserved dog!  Speaking of which, there were so many stray dogs in Pompeii and we must have passed at least 7 large dogs lying around in the ruins.  I was confused because there were signs saying not to touch the stray dogs but they had collars on.  I read when I came home that a charity has stepped in, who vaccinated, feed and care for these dogs while they look to rehome them.  I don't feel so bad about them now - I wanted to bring them all home :-)

This is another view over Sorrento.  There are no beaches as such, but these bathing platforms, like piers into the ocean with sunbeds.

Having a strawberry juice - made completely from crushed strawberries - yum!

Outside St. Francis' Church - where there are benches looking out over the water.  Second picture is back in the monastic cloisters in the evening since I liked them so much!

We took the bus up the Amalfi coast, which has some breathtaking views and some rather windy, narrow, rather scary roads!  This picture is Positano, a small village perched on the cliffside.  The 2nd picture is St. Andrews Cathedral in Amalfi, of which he is the Patron Saint.

We took a boat trip from Amalfi to the Emerald Grotto, which is a cave bathed in a green light.  The cave wasn't that interesting to be honest, but the boat trip was nice!

On the last day - one of the small streets in Sorrento which wind around the Old Town and where you can pass hours just wandering around.  Especially when you have a memory and sense of direction like mine..

And now back home to some howling gales.  Seb was caught by surprise when we went to collect him and did quite a lot of tail wagging before he remembered he had to be huffy!  So he was a bit off hand and indignant for a while and then decided to be my friend again :-)