The next morning we awoke to our ship pulling into the port at Naples, our 2nd of 4 stops in Italy. After seeing the stunning views right along the coast, I was excited to see what this part of Italy had to offer. Some of the most popular sites at this stop include Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, Mt. Vesuvius, and Pompeii. Our tour for the day included a drive along the coast to Sorrento and a walking tour through Pompeii.
After eating breakfast, we met up with our tour group and hopped on board our bus for the day ahead. The first part of the excursion was an approximately 1.5 hour ride along the coast to Sorrento. Our bus stopped a few times along the way for some amazing photo ops. The mountainside cliffs just drop off right to the coast.
Our first stop in Sorrento was at a local farmhouse, La Sorgente, for a tour. The description of the tour wasn’t very specific for this part so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I was blown away. We had the chance to see one of the women who runs the farm make mozzarella cheese by hand. It was really neat to see the work that goes into making the food and drinks at the farm. We also had the opportunity to see some of the equipment that they use to help prepare the goods. After the tour of the farmhouse and the short demo, we had the chance to sample some of the meats, cheeses, bread, olive oil, and wine that are prepared there. This farm also makes the famous Italian liqueur, Limoncello, and we were able to sample some of that as well.
Throughout this trip I found myself always looking forward to the super popular typical tourist destinations that I have been hearing about since I was little, but I found that the little things like this were what really stuck out to me. I felt like I had the chance to experience something that most tourists do not have the opportunity to do, something very authentic not only to the city of Sorrento, but Italy itself.
After finishing that part of the tour, we were on our way to the main square in downtown Sorrento. We had a couple hours on our own to walk around and explore the city. To continue the food journey, here we had some true Italian gelato, and it was the best gelato I’ve ever had! After exploring a little bit more, we met back up with our group to continue our tour.
The next part of the tour took us to a cameo factory and then a 3 hour walking tour through Pompeii. The history of Pompeii is just incredible to me. Before seeing it, I had always envisioned it as a few buildings that had been discovered and preserved. I was very wrong, it is very much an entire city that was excavated. I wish we had had a little bit more time here, I could easily have spent a few days walking around to truly appreciate all it had to offer. Our tour guide did a fantastic job really explaining all the small little details of the buildings and landmarks throughout. They do a really good job preserving all of the ancient architecture here. It was also very cool to see Mt. Vesuvius, towering behind the town, knowing that this volcano is what led to this city being buried and later rediscovered. Our tour guide was good about letting us have some time to explore on our own a little bit and also giving us time at the end to visit the gift shop for refreshments and/or souvenirs.
Before we knew it, we were back on the bus and heading back to the ship. I would not hesitate to go back to walk through Pompeii a little more as there were several little nooks that we didn’t have the opportunity to get to. Sorrento was also a beautiful town that offered amazing views of the coast. All in all it was a wonderful day. We had our usual night back on the ship and then went to bed to get ready for our next day in The Eternal City, Rome.
It's a Magical Life 