Sorrento

The best part about living in Italy is the opportunity to travel Europe, well we weren’t going to travel far today but John and I decided to go down to Sorrento for a little while today. It is a little over an hour drive or so from where we live so we were going to get up and leave fairly early so we could get there and look around and shop a little before time for lunch. The getting up and leaving fairly early happened believe it or not we were out of the house by 9:00 am which was our plan.

As we are driving through base I pull out good ‘ol Garmin and start programming. I type in Sorrento and there were too options, so I asked John which one it was. I clicked on the one he said and we were on our way. I now Sorrento is on the coast and south of where we live, so as we are driving and our compass says we are going east and north east I knew something wasn’t right. Then we make a turn as Garmin told us and he continues to say “continue on this road for 200 km.” John looks down as says how long is it supposed to take, and I remind him an hour and a half. He goes on to tell me that it is going to take a little over 3 hours, second red flag but we keep going because Garmin says this is right. We are now into lots of mountains and no coast around so I pull out my phone, which has internet, and google a map for driving directions but we weren’t sure where we were and I couldn’t pull the maps up big enough to read them. I finally found some coordinates for Sorrento and pull the Garmin down and punch them in and he goes on to say “in 100 m take the exit and make a U turn.” So we follow what he says and now we have to go back the other direction 75 km.

After all that fun of driving to nowhere we finally made it to Sorrento a little after 12 so our 1 ½ drive turned into a 3 hour drive. Thanks Garmin!! We now know however that anytime we need something we have to find coordinates and go by that.

Sorrento is on the coast so it is best to visit during warmer weather so you can go to some of the many beaches and enjoy lots walking around and looking at scenery, but there is some shopping to do to. So once we finally got there we walked around and shopped for a little while then found a nice little restaurant for lunch. By the time we got through eating it was 2:00pm and all the stores were closed until 3 or 3:30 for tea time so we decided to go ahead and head back home. We didn’t want to try and find our way back in the dark, part of the drive is down a road that is 2 way traffic but only about a lane and a half wide and right on the edge of the cliffs, and with Garmin we didn’t want to be lost somewhere at dark and try finding our way back.

Well the drive back was the first time Garmin has done something right. He got us home in a little over an hour so it was much better than the drive up there.

Mount Vesuvius with some some on the top

More mountains with a little bit of snow
Part of a Castle on the side of one of the many mountains we drove by
A bunch of houses on one of the mountains (where we finally made our U turn, to head in the right direction) I was bored on the part of the drive so I was taking pictures, one of the many tunnels we went through The mountain side, trees and farm land Finally on the coast headed to Sorrento Driving along the coast and looking back at VesuviusWalking around Sorrento

A little set up in front of one of the hotels

Bird of Paradise ~ reminded me of Hawaii

I am not real good when it comes to flowers so not sure what these are but there where everywhere in Sorrento in all different colors

I really like them I want to get some for our house