[2019]
[2019]
OUR FAMILY HOLIDAYS
9188 Sorrento - 1991
In 1991 we decided to take a cheaper holiday, and the one which best suited our budget was to Sorrento. Both of us had been there, separately many years before, but had only had one night there. This time we would have a week.
Sorrento itself is a lovely seaside town albeit the sea is something like 50 feet down a cliff, Accordingly it does not offer the normal seaside holiday. Essentially, for us, it was a centre for exploration. Thus, from there we went on a several arranged tours. One of these took us to Naples and in particular to the museum there. It also took us to the volcanic mud pools just outside Naples.
On another day, we actually went up Vesuvius. Since the cable car was destroyed by a previous eruption, the coach has to take you about halfway up. Then you are on your own! To our surprise, we managed to walk up a couple of thousand feet to where were able to look down into the volcano itself; not that there was any volcanic activity to see – in this respect the mud pools of the previous day had been more spectacular. The most spectacular thing, though, was the path of the flow from the 1940s. It reminded you what had happened at that time and could still happen these days -- as the mud pools showed. These days, though, several million people live around Vesuvius and the death toll when it happens will be horrendous.
Of course we also had to go to Pompei. It was much as I remembered it, but even so it was fascinating to wander along the streets in the grooves worn by the chariots two millennia ago and to look into the shops with their take away meals.
On the other hand I think the sister town of Herculaneum, which had been buried by mud rather than by ash, was more spectacular. It's much smaller in size, since most of the old town lies underneath the present-day town. But you get a much better feeling of what life was like. In particular the baths are impressive as are the seaside docks, where so many died as the boiling mud rushed in.
We also went south along the peninsula towards Salerno and thence on to the Greek temples at Paestum. These were as impressive as anything we had seen elsewhere; even in Greece.
We did a number of such trips along the coast, visiting the various towns, including the exclusive resort of Amalfi from which we came back by back – along the coast - by boat.
Of course we also had to go to Capri, which was most memorable for cloudburst which had water running for the down the street a foot deep and we were absolutely soaked.
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