Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
31 January 2018
My Top 10 Travel Experiences of the Past 5 Years
Later this year, I am travelling to Peru, where I hope to cross another item off my bucket list: hiking the Inca Trail and visiting Machu Picchu. I'm really excited about the trip, which will be my first time in South America, and I couldn't help but look back on some of the other amazing travel experiences I've been lucky enough to have over the past few years. I hope some of these will inspire you with your own holiday planning for 2018 and beyond.
03 March 2017
A Weekend in Padua
You wait a lifetime for an Italian wedding two crop up in the space of six months: my cousin’s wedding in Sorrento in August and last weekend, a good friend from university was married in the northern Italian city of Padua (AKA Padova). I’ve been to Venice, 25 miles to the east, a few times, but never to Padua and I was looking forward to visiting a new city as well as celebrating with my friend and his friends and family.
22 December 2016
A Year in Leaps: 2016
Each year, as part of my year-in-review top five lists, I like to look back on some of the most memorable places I travelled to this year and, because I enjoy taking silly leaping photos in new places, picking out my favourite five leaps of the year is a fun way to do this. Alas, there were a few particularly memorable trips this year during which, for various reasons, I didn't get the chance to take a leaping photo; most notably, my recent holiday in Reykjavik, where a photo with the Northern Lights in the background would have entailed a 12-second levitation. Even in a leap year, I wasn't quite up to the challenge.
26 August 2016
Sorrento: Sun, Sea and Sandals
Sorrento is a small but attractive resort town famous for its lemons. It lies about 30 miles south of Naples — not close enough to see its northern neighbour, although you can usually see Vesuvius looming across the Gulf of Naples.
24 August 2016
Grotto Hopping in Capri
The island of Capri lies just 3.5 miles from the southwestern tip of the Sorrento peninsula and about 10 miles from Sorrento town. It's a small island, about 3.5 by 1.5 miles, with about 12,000 residents. In the peak season, tourists outnumber residents by a ratio of about three to one, but the island hasn't shaken its glamorous past it remains one of the most popular Italian islands, as well as being the birthplace of the caprese salad and capri pants.
There are regular ferries from both Sorrento and Naples but we hired a small motorboat for the day and our charming skipper Teodoro steered us out to Capri, where we circumnavigated the small island in a clockwise direction from Marina Piccola on the south shore. It took us about 45 minutes to reach Capri, and we rode past some of the pretty perched villages and Roman remains on the mainland, including Villa di Pollio Felice (not Pollo Felice (‘happy chicken’) as I first thought Teodoro said!).
Capri's most famous attraction is the Grotta Azzurra (blue grotto) on the north shore, but there are dozens of other smaller and still very beautiful grottos and Teodoro took us into several of them, including the Grotta Verde (green grotto), Grotta Bianca (white grotto) and Grotta dei Santi (grotto of the saints). The water is so clear and appears in various vibrant shades of green, blue and turquoise; when the water catches the light, the effect is absolutely stunning.
We stopped off to swim and leap off the boat on numerous occasions. This was a good call given that the relatively small beaches of Capri were all incredibly crowded; laying down your towel requires exceptional Tetris skills.
We docked at Marina Piccola and caught a taxi up to the town of Anacapri, which is smaller and higher than the island’s main town, Capri. There isn’t a great deal to do in Anacapri and we didn't have time to take a ride on the chair lift up to the highest point on the island, Monte Solaro, but we wandered through the town’s main drag, Via Giuseppe Orlandi, and looked at the Casa Rossa (a Moorish style house in a vibrant red colour) and the church before stopping for lunch at Le Arcate, a large, rustic restaurant with friendly waiters and good value food. I had a pizza (shocker!), which was very good, although a little too crispy to be truly Neapolitan.
The taxi journey back down to Marina Piccola was just as exciting — the roads are very narrow and twisty and there are stunning views over the bay. After hopping back onto our boat, we carried on sailing around the island, passing various lighthouses, watchtowers, Roman ruins, grottos and the three faraglioni rock formations, one of which you can boat through.
Although we hoped to visit the Grotta Azzurra, we weren’t sure how long the queue was going to be. We had asked Teodoro whether we should head there first thing in the morning but he told us that the afternoon was less crowded. There were still quite a few tour boats waiting when we arrived, not to mention the long queue of people waiting on the mainland. Our skipper managed to arrange for us to jump the line, however, which must have been incredibly annoying for everyone else (sorry to anyone else who was in Capri on Saturday).
The five of us were crammed into one of the tiny row boats, which are the only boats allowed inside the grotto. After we had each paid our €13, our brusque but characterful rower sung O Sole Mio (this is not optional) and rowed us into the grotto. I was fully expecting it to be a) not much more impressive than the other grottos we had seen and b) a complete tourist trap. Happily, although it was not dissimilar to Disney’s 'Pirates of the Caribbean' ride, it really was an impressive sight and one that cameras can’t capture very well, especially not in the five minutes you get inside. The water really does glow an ethereal turquoise, like an incredibly beautiful swimming pool but without the lighting. If you stick your hand in the water, it glows too. We asked ourselves how much we would pay to have a private visit into the grotto for an hour at sunset (when the light strikes the cave mouth at the perfect angle) and the answer was quite a lot of money!
We had one last swim and then it was time to head back to Sorrento. But then disaster struck! Well, sort of. A rather large ferry-generated wave struck the boat and ruptured the belt that powers the water pump. Teodoro called for back up but started trying to fix it himself. As you can imagine, we were devastated to be lying in the sun on the front of a boat with views of Capri and the mainland for an hour! Just as the rescue boat arrived, Teodoro had got the motor started again and we were soon on our way home, just in time for a stunning sunset over Capri and Ischia. I don’t think I have ever been less bothered by a transportation breakdown!
Our day on the boat was one of the best of my holiday and I think it is one of the best ways to visit Capri, especially in August when the ferries, beaches and buses on the island are all extremely crowded. There are plenty of restaurants and some good shops on Capri, especially in Capri town, but it is expensive to stay on the island and if you are on a budget, a day trip might be a better option.
23 August 2016
Going Coastal: A Day on the Amalfi Coast
I'm a bit behind with my Italian travel blogs thanks to a packed schedule and bad wifi, and it was on Thursday morning that we took the ferry from Naples to Sorrento. Sorrento lies just across the Gulf of Naples from its more northerly neighbour and you can take a train or taxi (both of which take about 70 minutes), but we opted to go by boat, which is a little faster (45 minutes) and rather pleasant. There isn't a huge amount to do in Sorrento itself but it’s a good base for exploring the Amalfi Coast and the isles of Capri and Ischia.
19 August 2016
Naples II: Pompeii Excursion and Espresso Heaven
We woke up early on Wednesday morning — too early for breakfast in our hotel's famed baroque breakfast room, but the perfect time to take the Circumvesuviana train to the Pompeii ruins before the heat and the crowds. We also had time for a cornetto (Italy's answer to the croissant) and the first of many espressi at the pasticceria opposite Porta Nolana station. My research hadn't yielded much specialty coffee in Naples, but most of the espressi I drank during my short stay in the city were decent and some very good.
18 August 2016
Naples I: Napoli by Night
When researching this trip to Naples, I was surprised to see so much negativity for the southern Italian city. Requests for Neapolitan hotel recommendations on TripAdvisor are often met with suggestions to stay in Sorrento and make a day trip into Naples 'if necessary'. The city is often accused of being dirty, dangerous and just plain unlovely. I think most of these claims are unjustified. Sure, Naples is rough — and not just around the edges — but it is colourful, characterful and has some of the world's best pizza.
17 August 2016
What's in My Bag: An August Wedding on the Amalfi Coast
I rarely travel in August, preferring the cooler and somewhat quieter months for the destinations I tend to visit of May, June, September and October. However, I was very excited to receive an invitation to my cousin's wedding, which takes place in Sorrento this week. I've spent a lot of time in Italy, but mainly in Milan, Bologna, Rome and Sardinia, and, despite my love of Neapolitan pizza, I've never been to Naples.
We will spend a couple of days in Naples and then travel down to Sorrento, hopefully taking in Pompeii, Capri and the Amalfi Coast along the way. It's going to be hot and sunny all week, although I'm hoping we will get a bit of a sea breeze. And, of course, I needed to bring clothes for various occasions, from sight-seeing and island hopping to more formal wedding events. As usual, I brought my Rimowa Salsa Air cabin suitcase and the almost-matching small Longchamp Le Pliage tote.
Clothing-wise, I kept things simple: five colourful, casual dresses; two pairs of shorts, five tees and tanks, a light cardigan, two bikinis and my running kit. I also brought two more formal dresses, one for the wedding (the one I got tailored in Hoi An) and another for a drinks reception. I also brought my cobalt blue Mulberry Lily to use as an evening bag.
I usually stick to a limit of three pairs of shoes when I travel, which, for warm climates, means running shoes, ballet flats and flip flops. For this trip, I also packed a pair of blue leather sandals. I'm not quite sure they are quite suitable for the wedding but I didn't have anything else that worked with my dresses, and I'm also hoping that I might pick up a new pair in Sorrento, which is well known for its leather shoes. We will see!
I added in my usual toiletries, cameras and other electronics, but there is still room in both the suitcase (which I carried onto the plane to maximise pizza time) and tote for any souvenirs. Not pictured: the hat I almost forgot and my DSLR.
I'm not sure coffee's third wave has reached Campania, but I'm hoping to enjoy some good Neapolitan-style espresso; I would welcome any good coffee/cafe recommendations for Naples or Sorrento. I have an overfull list of restaurants and things-to-do but please let me know in the comments if there is anything you think I shouldn't miss. Grazie mille!
05 February 2010
Non C'è Due Senza Tre
Much as I enjoy visiting my parents' Cannes flat in summer, the charms of the town in winter are somewhat more limited. The cooler weather means no sunbathing, many of the bars close for the winter (meaning you can only have a cocktail if you are willing to pay 15 euros for it in a hotel) and a lot of the shops and restaurants do their refurbishments during the town's quietest time of year.