Return to Sorrento

Our final destination on Teri's tour of Italy, was the town Sam and I love to return to: Sorrento!

Those of you who know me remember that 11 years ago, I had the misfortune (or good fortune, depending on how you look at it!) of landing in the hospital in this little town on the Bay of Naples. I usually use the term "good fortune" because during my stay in the hospital of Sorrento, we met the family of Agostino Colonna, who was also being cared for in the cardiac ICU, and our lives were changed forever.

This kind and generous family owns two hotels and several rental apartments in the Sorrento area, so they speak English well, and they helped us with the language barrier we had with most of the hospital staff. They also allowed Sam to stay in their hotel, while he waited for me to be released. After we left Italy that year, we kept in touch with the man's son, Marco, and including this most recent visit, we have returned to Sorrento eight times!

Marco provided the three of us with two rooms at the Hotel Cristina, overlooking the Bay of Naples, with a spectacular view of Mt. Vesuvius to the north, and incredible sunsets toward the west.

While in Sorrento we explored the main town, shopped along the narrow pedestrian streets, saw the hospital I stayed in, and thanks to Marco's generosity, had a few dinners with him and members of his family. 

Using Sorrento as our base, we spent one day driving along the amazingly beautiful Amalfi Coast, something Sam and I have done many times.

Along the way, at one of the many stops we made for photos on this scenic route, there was a roadside vendor selling fruits, vegetables, and puppies! Now I'm not big on dogs (tend to be more of a cat person), but these little guys were adorable!

After reluctantly leaving the puppies, we headed a little farther up the coast and then up the steep, winding mountain roads to another one of our favorite places, the lovely town of Ravello.

There, we had a delicious lunch at a wonderful restaurant called Cumpa' Cosimo, run by a very cheerful Italian mama, who is called Nettie.  We have had our picture taken with her in the past: with our daughters in 2003, and with a family we led on a tour in 2007, so we thought it appropriate to do the same for Teri. Nettie hasn't changed a bit over the years, and her pasta is still yummy!

On our way back, we got lucky and found a spot in the town of Amalfi's parking lot, so we parked and walked into the main piazza. It was fairly crowded with locals and tourists, so we did a quick tour of the town; past the Cathedral of St. Andrew, and up the very narrow main street. We watched dozens of laughing children running down the street as they were let out of school, looked in shop windows, and then had our daily dose of gelato for dessert!

 

As the end of her trip drew near, I know it was very difficult for Teri to say goodbye to Italy. To be able to catch her early morning flight home, we needed to drive to Rome the day before (about a 3 hour drive from Sorrento), so we decided to make a stop at Pompeii on our way, and did our own short tour of the ancient ruins.

But all good things must come to an end, as they say, and after lunch, we continued on our way to Fiumicino, a beach town, where Leonardo DaVinci Airport is located on the outskirts of Rome. We watched the sunset as we drove along the autostrada.

And after a delicious last dinner at a really good restaurant near our hotel, we saw Teri's last Italian moon over the warm Tyrrhenian Sea.

(Don't forget to click on photos to enlarge, follow links when words show up in blue, go to my Flickr page to view a few more photos from this trip, or Sam's video for his video of this portion of the trip.)