I’ll say again that we love our little place in Marina Grande. The apartment is very cute and we love the patterned tile floor. And our view of the main street and the harbor gives us a look at the goings on.
This morning we decided to walk up to the main square of Sorrento and see what the town looks like and see the view from the top of the cliffs. Although the thought of walking up to the top wasn’t all that appealing, the walk wasn’t at all difficult and took only about 15 minutes. We had an easy grade through cobblestoned small roads and not too many steps. What was frightening was the cars, scooters, and motorcycles zooming up or down the very narrow streets, alleys really. Many times we had to press ourselves up against the wall to allow enough space for a car to pass, and the drivers are all speeders. Along the way we visited some nice little parks and had some great panoramic views.
Of course there were churches to pop into, not surprisingly, a goodly number of them.
Piazza Tasso, the main square of Sorrento, is very chaotic and we avoided some of it by walking down little streets lined with all kinds of souvenir shops. Everything here is about lemons and just about every souvenir has lemons on it. It is totally amazing to see so many lemon trees all over the place with huge lemons.
As we were walking past Piazza Tasso, we looked over a railing and saw the only road down to the main harbor that our taxi driver zoomed up.
We wanted to find a place where some of the hotels on the cliffs are, but most have guards that stop peepers like us from walking onto their porticoes. We did navigate to a panoramic spot overlooking the place where many of the hotels have private lidos for sunbathers and swimmers down below. And there was a cruise ship moored out in the bay and their tenders were bringing cruise passengers into town.
We then decided that we would go to the Herculaneum by train for the afternoon and went in search of the train station. After two assists from helpful people, we arrived at the train station. We went to the ticket office and a woman told us that the Herculaneum was closed on Wednesday. Thank goodness we found that out before taking a 50 minute train ride to get there. So we decided to just walk back to Marina Grande and have a relaxing afternoon.
Walking back we took in some more sights. It’s so much fun to just poke around, look through gates, peer into alleyways and discover something interesting.
We arrived back at our apartment and I went to the grocery to pick up some lunch things. After lunch, I did the mundane task of doing some laundry. One of the things I really love is seeing laundry hanging from drying racks and balconies. There’s just something about sheets hanging down and blowing in the wind or a line of shirts or pants drying. So I joined the action and pegged out our laundry.
Our laundry doesn’t seem so wonderful hanging out, but at least we have clean clothes. What’s funny is that in the apartment below our window lives an elderly woman and her daughter. The older woman spends half the day peering out between the slats in her door. The entrance to our apartment is around the back of the building and we go up the steps to the right of the building. Today I saw the woman looking out and when I came back from the shop with our lunch, I said buongiorno to her and I got a big smile back.
We’ve enjoyed having an evening light dinner just below our apartment on the waterfront. The restaurant Emilia’s has a bar with small tables set up. Christine has loved the parmigiana di melanzane (eggplant parmesan), along with an Aperol spritz. Very nearby, some older gents of the town, fishermen, get together and gossip and swap stories each evening. I love seeing that, like in Corniglia when the villagers came out in the evening to talk and hangout once the tourists were gone.
So another fantastic day. We are feeling very lucky and very blessed.
looks just like what someone would dream of. So HAPPY for you two.