Day 2 : Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento

27th June 2006 (Tuesday)

We booked a tour with Carrani Viaggi via Odyssey Tours. The tour was a 2 days / 1 night trip to Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri - round trip from Rome, inclusive of meals, entrance tickets, accommodation. Cost us 257 euros each. When planning for this Italian trip, I was deliberating between taking this tour to Capri or taking a round tour of Italy. Didn't regret a single moment of this tour :)

We were picked up from our hotel at about 7.15am. The hotel had kindly arranged for breakfast to be served earlier to accommodate our early trip. Even better, the hotel allowed us to store our luggage in their baggage area, and therefore we did not have to pay for the hotel stay that night (since we were not staying anyway).

At Hotel Assisi : (clockwise from top left) At breakfast; dining area; bar counter; sitting area

Our tour guide was this cute little Italian lady called Alessandra (with a double or triple 's', she says). She speaks in this cute sing-song voice and she makes witty jokes at the same time. Her first phrase to us was : "The bus ride will last 3 hours to Naples. We will stop halfway for a break. But meanwhile, do go to the toilet first." She thoroughly entertained us with Roman and Naples history and culture on the bus ride to Napoli. Her favourite phrase was : "Barring all major catastrophes and traffic jams,..." Adorable, I tell you!

Sights enroute along the Sun Route from the Lazio region to Campania region :

Naples is a rather dirty and smelly city. We were let off the bus on a guided walking tour around the city (led by Alessandra with her really cute flower). The bayview was lovely, and the castle where Sancha de Aragon of the infamous Aragon family (who married into the scandalous Borgia family) used to live was shown to us, along with the Naples Opera House and some other monuments. But in the scorching sun, coupled with wee-wee smells lurking in most corners, it wasn't the most fascinating city I've ever visited. Nonetheless, I understand that it was once a very busy and important port town, being the nearest port to Rome.

Sights in the town of Napoli :

Next, on to the bus again (I really liked the bus, a real respite from the heat because of its air-conditioning), got stuck in a jam exiting Naples, and arrived in Pompeii for lunch. Lunch was a typical Italian lunch, served in this quaint little restaurant. We sat under some latticed vines and had a first pasta course, second meat course, some salad and a glass of limoncello. Limoncello is apparently THE drink of southern Italy. It's a thick alcoholic blend of lemon, tasted like sour Yomeishu :P

After lunch, we were brought into this shop selling some souvenirs, I forgot what. Then, we finally proceeded to enter the historic site of Pompeii.

Pompeii used to be a bustling port town. The town of Pompeii was preserved by ash and soot when the nearby Mt Vesuvius (still active) erupted in 79 A.D. We even saw whole bodies that were cowering, covering themselves from impending death. The roofs of most of the buildings were gone, due to the heavy weight of the volcanic ash. It felt surreal to be walking around bakeries, shops, vilas and gardens of rich folk, eateries, all of which were fully functional right until the eruption.

Sights of the Pompeii ruins :
Unfortunately, the weather was excruciatingly hot. Yes, I've been complaining about that alot. I got sunburnt in Pompeii (the marks of which I still bear, and no amount of whitening skincare seems to be able to take those strap-marks away, sigh). So that place doesn't give me good vibes. It would probably be a pretty place to roam during autumn or winter. Definitely not in midsummer. We could see archaeologists still excavating at parts of the site too.

The stoned walkways were also rather slippery and worn, so we had to tread rather carefully, particularly at slopes. But, no mishaps :)

Finished with Pompeii, we hopped back onto the bus for our ride to our hotel in Sorrento. The ride was magnificent! We drove along the Sorrentine Coast and the coastline was truly amazing. Our hotel was even better!

Wonderful Sorrento : The Sorrentine coastline; the pool view from our room; in front of the hotel gates; wonderful seaview from our room

We were put up in the best hotel I've ever stayed in. Truly. The Grand Hotel Royal, which is part of the Manniello Hotels chain. Our room faced the sea AND the pool. The room had 2 single beds and a HUGE luxurious bathroom. I couldn't get enough of the room and had a long leisurely bath, which made us late for dinner at 7pm.

The dinner! Haiyor! No one told us it'd be a Gala Dinner. We walked in late, and were made to walk around every single nicely-dressed American / French in the great big dining hall, to finally settle on one table at the corner. We were dressed for the beach, for goodness sake. I didn't have any proper clothes, so I had to wear Capri pants (no pun intended). Every single course was served with fanfare, lights off, song, applause and all. The waiters were all dressed like they were Navy personnel. It was a very grand dinner, with rather good food. Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy it, because I was developing a splitting headache. I rushed (or rather, dragged) myself back to the room immediately after dinner and plonked straight into bed. Couldn't even be bothered to pretend to watch the World Cup with KF that night in the common room.

The highlight of the day was the hotel room. Just too bad we didn't find the time to use the pool or find out the nooks and crannies of the hotel or take a walk down the coastline to Sorrento town. And I just found out the hotel had its own private beach! Ah well. It couldn't be helped, I wasn't prepared to face such hot Italian weather and then suffer such a debilitating headache :P