VISIT POMPEII, SORRENTO, NAPLES, CAPRI & TRAVEL THE AMALFI DRIVE

All these places were visited during a 5 day holiday in Italy during the month of April 1997.

We stayed at the Carlton International Hotel in Sorrento:

Sorrento is a very picturesque place:

Just a short train ride from Sorrento is a vey famous place- the ruins of Pompeii. We paid the fare of about £1.90 and on arriving we found the gates closed. Owing to a staff meeting it would not open until 1.0am and it was now only 10am. Jacqueline suggested we get back on the train and carry on up the line to one of the world's oldest cities Naples. I bought the tickets and then found I had misread the timetable. There was half an hour wait for the train which would then give us less than an hour in Naples thus leaving us insufficient time to see Pompeii. We abandoned Naples and crossed the line again to go back to Sorrento.

Jacqueline knew I was disappointed at missing out on Pompeii as we would probably not revisit this part of Italy again.

Talk about indecision! We changed our minds again and returned to the Naples platform. Naples here we come:

Our stay there was very brief. Just enough to eat two trays of chips, Italian cream cakes and the best cup of Cappuccino we have ever

 tasted.

We arrived back at Pompeii at 12.50pm to find about 400 people queuing to get in. We were in for 1pm and had about two and a half hours to see what this did:

VESUVIUS. In 79 AD the volcano literally blew its top. The resulting lava flow buried the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities lay buried and undiscovered under 20 feet of ash until 1748 when excavations began. Many inhabitants were buried beneath the volcanic ash. During excavations a technique was developed whereby plaster was pumped into the hollows left after the corpses had decayed:

This preserved the death positions and produced a plaster cast of the buried person:

We spent the remainder of the afternoon walking round the ruins:

12 miles from Sorrento is the beautiful Isle-of-Capri. We shunned an organised tour, £15, in favour of a ferry ticket costing only £4.90:

Capri is a single block of limestone 4 miles long by just under 2 miles wide.

Approaching the island.

Just sampling Capri's over-priced coffee.

Many famous people are buried in the Island's " Foreigner's Cemetery", including Gracie Fields. You have to be quite old to remember her songs "Sally" and " The Biggest Aspidistra in the World".

Anyone visiting this part of Italy should not miss what is known as The Amalfi Drive.

This coastal drive is arguably the world's most beautiful and thrilling sightseeing road.

Picturesque villages cling precariously to the steep sea-cliffs.

The Amalfi Coast roadway has only occasional railings to keep your car from potentially plunging into craggy, breaker-washed sea boulders far below.

Our 5 night holiday was short but very rewarding.