Favourite 2014 photos. Off the coast of Sorrento, Italy. October 2014.
Italian sunset
Travel
Touring Capri
After a spectacular cruise around the Isle of Capri, we had the rest of the day to explore the island on foot. We took a bus from Marina Grande up to the town of Anacapri, about a ten minute ride away along cliff-hugging winding roads. The bus let us off in a public square beside Mount Solaro where we made our way over to the chair lift station and headed up the mountain. The ride up the side of Mount Solaro was a peaceful fifteen minute trip. The air was perfectly still and quiet and there were numerous interesting gardens and houses beneath you…
… and the sweeping vista of where the western end of the Isle of Capri met the Tyrrhenian Sea off to your right:
Marina Grande
Favourite 2014 travel photos. Capri, Italy. October 2014.
A cruise around Capri
Of all of the places we were to visit on our fall trip to Italy, the Isle of Capri was the one I was most excited to see. We planned this as a day trip from our base in Sorrento and booked ferry tickets for an early morning trip over and the last boat back. We got our full day on the island started with a cruise around Capri, leaving from Marina Grande. This main arrival/departure point for the island was beautifully bathed in the muted light of an early morning just before the sun came up over the island’s rocky cliffs:
On top of Mount Vesuvius
Shortly after wrapping up our visit at the ruins of Pompeii, we hopped in a military-style vehicle for an incredibly bumpy ride up the side of Mount Vesuvius. Bumpy really doesn’t describe the trip… concussion-inducing might be a better descriptor. I’d complain a bit more, but sitting in front of us was a woman from the UK and her dog as well as a two year old. We expected the dog to get carsick, but he was a real trooper and the two year old slept through the entire ride, so no complaining from me. On the left below was our transportation. On the right, the incredible dog who beat everyone to the top of the mountain once we got out of the vehicle:
Once freed from our spartan chariot, we started our climb the rest of the way up Mount Vesuvius toward its peak. It is a fairly leisurely walk to the summit, throughout which you’re afforded million dollar views out over the Bay of Naples and the towns that line the water. As we neared the top we stopped for a few minutes to look out over the water toward Sorrento and Capri:
The ruins at Pompeii
Traveling in the fall has many perks, among which is the ability to see some incredible sights without the crowds. Fresh from a great first night’s sleep in Sorrento, we took an early thirty minute Circumvesuviana train ride to Pompeii arriving there just as the ruins opened for the day. With literally no one else around we stood looking out across the forum with Mount Vesuvius looming about 8km away in the background. Standing here, it was hard not to imagine the power of the eruption of the volcano that buried Pompeii.
24 hours in Naples: San Martino
There was one last “must do” on our Naples list – a perfect outing on our only morning in the city. A short walk from our B&B, we took a funicular up San Martino hill to explore a neighbourhood that feels a lot different than the historical centre. It’s a neighbourhood a lot less congested and much less hectic than down in the centre of Naples. This big draw for us to scale San Martino was its view over the city. How’s this for a way to start your morning?
Not only a spectacular view of the city, but that is Mount Vesuvius over on the right. Even the morning haze on another scorcher of a day couldn’t diminish the experience of standing here looking out over the city.
Overlooking Naples
Favourite 2014 travel photos. Naples, Italy. October 2014.
24 hours in Naples: Wandering the streets
Let me be perfectly honest. I had low expectations for Naples. Plenty of people I spoke to with extensive travel experience didn’t speak highly of the place, warned me about rampant pickpocketing and described the city as a congested and dirty place not worthy of more than a passing visit (if a stop at all). I should know better than to listen to others, but these were people who’ve seen a lot more of the world than I have. Because of the archaeological museum (and the pizza!), we were always going to stop here, but our time in the city was much more enjoyable than I expected. Truth be told, I really, really liked Naples.
With only twenty four hours, a good part of our visit was spent wandering the historic centre of the city. If we weren’t in the museum or I wasn’t eating pizza, we were doing some urban exploring. Here are some of the sights we took in on a long day in Naples.
Between our centrally located hotel (Monteoliveto B&B, can’t recommend it enough!) and the archaeological museum, we first walked past Piazza Dante and Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II. This public square usually had a group of kids playing soccer each time we walked past:
24 hours in Naples: The museum
The one night we scheduled in Naples was primarily so we could visit the National Archeological Museum. In and of itself, it wouldn’t be the type of museum that would bring me to the city, but I knew that visiting here would give much added context and background to a visit to the ruins at Pompeii that would be coming up a couple of days later.
The museum houses an interesting collection of artifacts from Pompeii – from large works of art taken from the site to every day tools and utensils. We spent a couple of hours browsing the collections and it was a great investment in time that I can’t recommend enough. When we visited Pompeii two days later, we could stand in the ruins and recall the mosaics, paintings and statues we had seen a few days earlier.
When we were at Pompeii we kept thinking back on the vividness of the colours in much of the art and how the pieces we had seen would have looked in context in the ancient city. A great example is this painting from the House of Pansa representing fish and game. At Pompeii, the House of Pansa is in a fairly poor state of repair – thinking back on this piece helped us visualize a bit better.
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