Day 24, 23 November. Sunday. Sorrento

We left Napoli at 0610 in the dark. About 0730 we anchored off Sorrento. Legend says this is where Ulysses heard the call of the Sirens. Today we will be herded onto boats and then deposited ashore. 0840 that process began.

our landing

Because of the tight streets we were first guided to mini-buses, then driven up the hill to transfer to large buses. The plan of the day would take us North on the highway, but not quite back to Napoli. This 1 hour trip showed us apartment buildings, commercial warehouses, construction company lots, greenhouses and more apartment buildings jammed together.

We arrived in the community Ercolano where in the middle of apartment buildings and auto repair shops was the area of excavated ruins of the ancient seaside town of Herculaneum, once the Rivera of the rich and famous of ancient Rome. In 79 AD Mt Vesuvius erupted and covered this town and Pompeii. It had remained forgotten until 1738 when it was discovered and excavation began. It is still under excavation with fitful starts and stops. The sea level dropped and now the site is high and a good distance from the water. Look more into this at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum

At 1430 the bus began the trek back along the same route to Sorrento and deposited us a few blocks from the busy main square. Walking to the square we passed the Tasso Restaurante where we had enjoyed a great meal back in '11 and we mentioned that to several of our group. Released from the tour and with free time we returned to Tasso, followed by several of our group. Being Sunday there were several families having lunch there and it was a lively time. We enjoyed seeing kids again. Great pizzas and wine again.

view back toward Vesuvius and Napoli

We looked into a couple of shops then proceeded to wind our way down the streets sharing the way with cars and scooters, hugging walls as the motor traffic squeezed by. We worked down hill and found stairs to avoid the cars until we reached the bottom and the pier. A short full tender ride back and we were back in our cabin at 1515. At 1700 the hook was recovered and we sailed.

view of Sorrento from our cabin