Sorrento and Capri

 SORRENTO & CAPRI


Today was a travel day, and like all days on this Tauck tour it began with a wonderful breakfast spread in a dining area that was set up for us. The options were many -- sweet or savory, healthy or decadent, meats and eggs or sweets, and always coffee and juice.  Before leaving for breakfast we left our bags just inside the door to our room, and when we returned from breakfast, they had vanished -- and would magically be waiting for us inside our room at the Grand Hotel Quisisana in Capri. Greeted by our old friends, soaking rain and low, thick clouds, we boarded the bus for Sorrento, a 45 minute drive.


A quick digression:  On each bus leg of the trip and seated meal Maria, our Tauck tour guide, would assign seats to encourage mingling among our band of 26 travelers.  While it's a little artificial and a tad uncomfortable for the introverts among us, it works.  Slowly but surely we're getting to know not just names, but people.

Despite the steady rain we loved Sorrento, a beautiful seaside town of about 16,000.  It's not on as steep a cliff as the other towns we've visited along the Amalfi Coast. It was apparent this wasn't Maria's "first rodeo" because she had developed some indoor alternatives to help us cope with the rain:  Visits to a jeweler whose family business had long specialized in making cameos, a maker and seller of Limoncello (a strong but tasty lemon liqueur) and other lemon products, and free gelato. Eventually the clouds remained, but the rain subsided, so off we went exploring and shopping.  Although Sorrento is larger, like Ravello, it didn't seem as congested and had a more laid back pace.  There's much to see -- churches, villas, the marina grande, and historic buildings like the Sedile Dominova. 


















At about 1:30 PM we caught the high speed ferry for the 40 minute ride to the Isle of Capri, a rock that is about 4 sq. miles and rises almost 2,000' out of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The beauty of the place is immediately evident from the time the ferry docks amid scores of boats at Marina Grande, as one gazes upward at the rocky cliffs. 


Capri Town, the main city on the island, can be accessed from the ferry by 3 options:  walking (basically scaling the cliff), the funicular (the "incline railway"), bus, or small convertible taxis that hold 3-4 passengers.  Tauck had organized a caravan of the latter for us, although since the clouds that had plagued us for 2 days were evident, the tops were on the convertibles.  Because no vehicles other than service ones are allowed on the narrow streets of Capri Town, we were dropped at the edge of town.  Immediately we had a late and relatively light lunch at La Pigna (translated to The Pine Cone, which is a symbol of abundance and quality in Italy). 




Having been thus sustained, we walked an additional 1/4 mile or more to our hotel, the Grand Hotel Quisisana, which compared to the Alamo Plazas and Howard Johnsons of my early travels, qualifies as opulent.




As promised, we were greeted in our room by our suitcases, and we stood open-mouthed for a few minutes taking in the grandeur of the sights around our hotel. Capri is magnificent!  After wandering around for awhile, we joined our Tauck group for a delicious dinner at the restaurant in the hotel.  As always, there was plenty of good wine.  We turned in early ... it had been a full day, and tomorrow promises to be more of the same.

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