NAPLES AND SORRENTO, ITALY

 April 26, 2023


Sunny, High 68 deg F


After a short trip from Sicily we docked in Naples, Italy’s third largest city after Rome and Milan.   Like so much of what we have seen on this trip Naples’ history is measured in millennia.   Naples is home to 30 volcanoes.  Of these, 15 are monitored—including the infamous Mount Vesuvius which is still active.   Vesuvius erupted violently in 79 AD and buried Pompeii and several other smaller villages in the area.   It also erupted again in 1944 during WWII and was not as destructive, although an estimated 16,000 people still lost their lives.   Our guide said that about 600,000 people live in the area at risk.   Geologists expect the volcano to erupt again and are monitoring the pressure in the mountain to hopefully be able to give an alert before it blows its top again.   


Moving on to lighter and happier thoughts Naples is credited with inventing the Margarita Pizza, the colors of red (sauce), white (crust) and green (basil) are the colors of the Italian flag and Margarita was the name of the Queen at the time.   


We took a tour of Sorrento, a beautiful coastal town about 20 miles south of Naples through several tunnels (one was 3 miles long).   Sorrento rises from a coastal cliff up into the mountains.   The roads through the city were probably built centuries ago and were never intended for tour buses and heavy traffic.   We cringed and were amazed at how our driver could squeeze through the tiniest of openings.  


In addition to being a very popular resort destination on the coast and only a short ferry ride to the Isle of Capri, it is a major producer of lemons and olives.   Olive orchards are everywhere and it seemed very bit of free land in the city and up into the mountains had either a lemon or olive tree on it.  Sorrento is also known for its Limoncello.  Many shops in downtown Sorrento offered free tastings of Limoncello (40% alcohol). 


Our trip took us to a very old lemon and olive farm up on a mountain where we sampled their Limoncello, Olive oils and Mozzarella……all excellent.   Rich napped on the way back to the ship (smile).  We’re off to Rome….  


               Mount Vesuvius from our ship

                         Blue dot is where we're docked.   Sorrento is on peninsula lower right 


                     View of peninsula from road


                         Shopping alley in Sorrento - about 8 blocks long


                      Lemons on display everywhere in the shopping alley...and limoncello


             This is the appropriate size car to navigate the very narrow and winding streets


              Farm where we sampled mozzarella, wine, limoncello and olive oils

                 View from farm overlooking Sorrento.   Isle of Capris in the distance


                Blocking the view


                      Lemon trees in abundance


Olive trees in abundance.   Its hard to see, but the rolled up nets strung between the trees are unfolded at fall harvest time to collect the olives as they are shaken or cut from the trees.


                         Demonstration of how to make mozzarella and ricotta cheeses.   
                             Think we'll stick with Whole Foods. 

                      The press they used in the olden days to squeeze oil from the olives.   
                      Suitman in the background (a guest who always where's a suit).

                                  Lemons ready to pick


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