When it comes to the Italian coast, where exactly do you need to visit?
Portofino
Where do I begin? If you want to see where the rich and famous holiday, then this is the place. We spent a week at Portofino staying at Piccolo Hotel which had beautiful sea views and its own private beach. A ten minute walk down hill took us into the harbour where all the most stupendous yachts moored. The little harbour is surrounded by café/bars/restaurants. It’s pricey, but it’s Italian! Some nights, they pulled a grand piano onto a landing area and entertained the holiday makers. We took a ferry occasionally up the coast to Santa Margherita instead of going by taxi. It was cheaper and there were many more restaurants and shops to choose from.
Cinque Terre
Not far from La Spezia is the Cinque Terre (meaning Five lands). It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the people who live there have built terraces on the steep landscape to grow grapes and olives. One of the little villages that makes up this area is Vernazza. We spent a day there driving in our little Fiat Uno, which I have to say, struggled up and down those steep hills. We found out afterwards, that you can catch a train there which would have been much easier. You can’t drive into the village, so you have to park on the outskirts and walk in. The marina in Vernazza was surrounded by very pretty pastel painted houses and a Santa Margherita di Antiochia Church well worth a visit. There’s lots of café bars/ restaurants and little shops and the views are spectacular looking out onto the Mediterranean.
Ischia
Off the coast of Naples is a small volcanic island called Ischia. We flew to Naples then caught the ferry over to stay at the Hotel Terme Oriente. The hotel was a very old fashioned hotel full of Italians making good use of the hot thermal waters which were pumped up to the roof top and there you could sit in the round bathing tanks. There was an outdoor swimming pool and sunbathing on the roof top. A 5 minute walk took us to the beach where there were restaurants and bars situated and then very close by a long shopping avenue with beautiful designers clothes shops, restaurants, bars and pizzerias. We enjoyed a ferry trip to Positano (on the Amalfi coast) from there and a day trip to Naples were we jumped on and off a site seeing tour bus. Then another day, we got onto a bus and did a little sight seeing around the island. Everything was within 10 minutes walk of the hotel including the ferry terminal.
Massa Labrense
6km from Sorrento on the Amalfi coast is Massa Labrense. We stayed for a week in the Hotel Piccolo Paradiso with its beautiful balcony over looking the sea and where we ate breakfast in a morning and played cards late at night. The area is full of lemon groves and and shops locally sold lemoncello. A bus service runs straight by the front door of the hotel into Sorrento. We took advantage of that and spent a few days exploring Sorrento. Mosquito repellent is a must here. Boat trips carrying sightseers left Massa Labrense a couple of times a week to Capri and we took advantage of that fact, instead of having to go to Sorrento or Naples to take a ferry. It took about an hour to get there, but the scenery was stunning and points of interest shown to us on our way.
Sorrento
There’s an old Italian saying “il dolce far niente” (the sweetness of doing nothing) and Sorrento is the perfect place to do it. The sweetness of lemons that grow in abundance in the volcanic ash higher up fills the air with its pungent scent from lemoncello to lemon soaps sold in all the little souvenir shops. Many are found in the charming historic quarter within its little winding streets. On our exploration we came across Piazzo Tasso and a very interesting Museum Correale housing Neapolitan paintings. Thereafter ate a wondeful fresh seafood salad in the Ristorante Museo Caruso. As to beaches, we’ll there aren’t really any in the centre of Sorrento but there are floating pontoons outside some if the hotels. One of the best views of the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius can be seen from the Vesuvio Restaurant at the top of the Hotel Mediterraneano Sorrento.
Violet x
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