Amalfi and Sorrento - Part 2
We stayed at a good hotel located in a fantastic little coastal town on the Naples side of the Sorrento peninsula. A fact which offers daily sunsets of fabulous dimensions as you sit on the terrace of the Hotel Mary in Vico Equense sipping gin and tonics watching the great orange orb descend over the distant isle of Ischia each evening.
What I particularly liked about staying in Vico Equense during the end of busy August was that it is just to one-side of the most popular parts of the Sorrento and Amalfi area. Beautiful, yes - but nowhere near as filled with tourists. Indeed, the only visitors you see in and around Vico and its two bays are Italian holidaymakers.
Not that this being slightly to one-side of the main tourist area is in the least bit inconvenient - the entire area is well served by an excellent public transport network which we used to go out sightseeing or walking. The peninsula is served by a fast and efficient railway which is just 10 minutes walk from the hotel and by numerous bus routes - although we relied on a specially chartered coach the one day we took it really easy went sightseeing along the entire length of the Amalfi coast.
So, that’s the basic set-up for the holiday - now for a few details of the things we enjoyed. On the first day we took a look bus high above Vico Equense to eventually alight in one village and walk up to Santa Maria de Castello. And this is where the wow moment hit us - we’d not realised that by walking just a few metres past the church in this altitudinous place, we’d be treated to absolutely stunning views of the entire Amalfi Coast.
View from Vico to Capri
With the popular resort of Positano lying many hundreds of feet below, a handful of us decided to ignore the August heat and descend by ancient Roman donkey track, down, down, down, all the way to the shoreline. After a two-hour trek and a pasta lunch in one of the many seaside restaurants amid the crowds, we climbed aboard a ferry to return to Sorrento - a truly picturesque voyage which took us right out around the cliff-lined peninsula. It was then a matter of taking the ten-minute train ride back to Vico to end what was one of the best days out I’ve had in years.
Another day took us to Pompeii - and, again, there’s not much about this I can say here because everyone will have read many things about this hapless town before. However, I must mention the guide used by RWH because, let’s face it, endless old ruins can become a bit wearisome no matter how historic - especially when you’re among giant crowds on a cripplingly hot day. But Gaetano Manfredi is simply the best historic guide I’ve ever witnessed in action. Born and bred a few metres from the ruins, he is a third generation guide to the place - and he really does what he boasts: i.e. put flesh on the bare bones.
I was enthralled by every minute of our two-and-a-half hour tour and would recommend anyone planning a visit to Pompeii to contact Gaetano through his website - www.pompeiitourguide.com.
After that we let a four-wheel-drive bus take the strain - and what a strain it was. It hauled us nine-tenths the way up the mountain which caused Pompeii so much infamous grief. The final 25 minutes to the top of Vesuvius was done on foot, but there’s a well laid path that takes you to the lip of the volcano where you not only see the smoking crater but get unbelievable views of the Bay of Naples.
I’ve mentioned another day when a luxury coach came to pick us up and ferry us along the coast to Amalfi, which is a fabulous town despite the madding crowds. From there the bus climbed all the way up to Ravello which is stunning - boasting, as it does, not one but two gardens of worldwide renown. We went to the exquisite demesne at the Villa Cimbrone which was a favourite haunt of the Bloomsbury Group. Most famous of all though is the fact that Greta Garbo and her then-lover, the conductor Leopold Stokowski, used the villa several times as a not-so-secret secret bolt-hole in the late 1930s.
The Belvedere - or Terrace of Infinity as its sometimes called - offers the best views of any garden in the world. I am by no means the only person to have made that claim, but, be warned, do go out there if you suffer from vertigo. By the way, the great thing about doing all these things with a Rambler Worldwide Holiday guide is that they know local traders, like the owner of a little cafe in a back street near Villa Cimbrone who will spoil you once he knows you are with RWH.
On another day we explored the streets of charming Sorrento - yet another location that needs no description from me. This world famous resort is every bit as charming as its endless travel write-ups claim it to be - but I must put a word in for the excellent Foreigners’ Club which boasts endless panoramas of the Bay of Naples and the best gin-and-tonics south of Venice. If you like the novels of Graham Greene or the short stories of Somerset Maugham - then this place is a kind of wondrous living museum.
Another day saw us travelling right out to the very end of the Sorrento peninsula by local bus to an aptly named town called Termini. It really is the terminus - you can’t go any further - but you can hike to the top of the church-crowned hill that looms over the actual point (Punta Campanella) to enjoy some of the best views available from one single spot anywhere in Europe.
This really is a land of panoramas and belvederes. A vertical world of fabulous food and wine, great charm and some secret corners that still remain available only to those willing to don walking boots and hike.
