Day 13 – Sorrento

As it was the same train as yesterday, we knew to go to the front of the train and to the furthest end of the platform to avoid the tourists. We were rewarded with seats in a half empty carriage of Italian locals. The train was longer to Sorrento and the first thing we did was head to the coast/beaches. Snaking through the small streets of markets and designer shops, we actually saw 3 ‘brides’ in wedding dresses; two getting pictures and one outside a church. We didn’t know if they were all getting married or if it was a photoshoot or something but we enjoyed spending time watching what they were getting up to.

Instead of getting the lift down, we walked down a zig-zag pathway hugging the vertical cliff to find the ‘beach’. The beach consisted of pebbles and many areas were blocked so that they could charge tourists for buying a sun lounger. We walked past this tourist trap and went straight to the marina in search for a boat to Capri. Apparently the only boat was €30 return and it was already late afternoon as my girlfriend decided to take a long lie in this morning. There might have been more boats but the girl at the ticket office was more interested in filing her nails than talking to us. The waiter from the nearby restaurant saw us wondering about and after failing to get us to come into his restaurant, had told us more information about boat times, suggested to come back early the next day and to search online, as the tour office preceded their reputation of being ignorant and useless. We agreed with the waiter and felt that we should repay him by having lunch in his restaurant.

It was a nice restaurant overlooking the water but it was very windy and on several occasions, the wind knocked over everything on the tables. In fact, my map blew across the table and literally took out my girlfriend’s Fanta Lemon. The waitress did come and clean up but didn’t refill the glass, much to my girlfriends disgust. For food, I ordered ravioli for a change and I actually received about 9 squares. Luckily, the good thing about travelling with your girlfriend is that she doesn’t eat as much as you so you get to finish her food when she is full. Afterwards, I asked for the dessert menu but instead I got the bill. I’m guessing dessert and bill sound the same in English because this has happened a couple of times. Instead of causing a fuss, we left to find cheap ice cream.

You would think that that would be easy in Sorrento, and you would be right, but my girlfriend needed to go to the toilet and of course waited until we had left the restaurant. Searching the streets for ice cream shops with toilets, we found one offering free samples (which we took) and had a toilet, so we kind of had to stay. Although not the cheapest place to go, we were able to get everything we needed and look forward to the rest of the day. We explored the shops and wanted to take home everything we saw. Every other shop we went to, we were saying things like “He would love this shop” or “She would get this”. Apparently all our friends and family shop in Sorrento it would seem. We didn’t buy much though, I got a limoncello souvenir for my mum and we got matching Italian bracelets. Cute.

After more walking and window shopping, and the journey on the train back, at the station in Naples, we had noticed a lot of people not paying for tickets and walking around trying to act normal before standing right behind someone at the barriers and following them through quickly before they close. Some got caught and some didn’t but they all laughed about it. When the officers said to go back, they would look at the exit barriers (where the motion sensor couldn’t reach) and proclaim that they couldn’t. It was hilarious to watch and we must have watched for several minutes. We also saw the stray dog in the train station that we saw this morning and yesterday. It was in the same place and broke our hearts but unfortunately there was nothing we could do.

In the hotel we had a cappuccino and planned hostels and buses before going to our bedroom and playing card games with our bottle of gin. When entering our room, we found that the air conditioning was blowing warm air instead of cold air. My girlfriend was not happy and her mood reiterated this. She finally won some card games and this changed. 312hrs into our trip, my girlfriend chose her favourite foot (her right because it had a freckle). How lucky am I? We then got some sleep, both content that my girlfriend had finally chosen her better foot.