Italy in July is too hot. The Italians all go to the coast laughing at the foreign tourists who think that is the best time of year to explore the country.
Pompeii is near the sea, but it is incredibly hot because of the wide-open space and the lack of shade. Our Tour Guide had taken us to a restaurant where the food was awful (but I assume that his kickback from the owners was good).
Pompeii appeared to be full of brothels – there were penis signs on buildings where they had worked and on the streets pointing the way to the brothels. Apparently, it was normal to have a business downstairs, say a bakery, and a slave prostitute upstairs.
Pompeii is not the place to go in the middle of the day – like the Valley of the Kings it is best done in the early morning.
We stayed right in the middle of the Sorrento, which was good in one way, being close to the shops. The flip side was the noise and bustle. On the first night our guide took us to the Foreigner’s Club with great views over the Gulf of Naples and we had prosecco and cocktails. Not a good idea after a boiling hot day.
The next day we took the jetfoil to Capri. There was fairly hair-raising trip to the top on minibuses to Anacapri; after a brief tour Dad and I took the chairlift to the top of the island which was spectacular.
Not to be caught out again by the guide’s poor restaurant choice we ate at a lovely little restaurant that he had not recommended (and it was a good decision from what the others said later). Afterwards we all went to see Augustus’s gardens, as this was where the Emperor spent the later years of his reign, indulging in a vast array of bizarre, debauched sexual practices.
Capri is really beautiful but there is not a great deal to do there. It is a playground of the rich with a lot of expensive hotels and designer shops, lovely for a relaxing few days but that is it.
Our final day in Sorrento was a tour of the Amalfi Coast. I was feeling unwell but hoped that I would improve – Dad suggested I did not go, but when you are on a trip you do not want to miss out. As we drove around the narrow roads to Amalfi that did not happen. I ended up slumped in a café as the rest of the party went on a boat trip up the coast.
(Amalfi)
When the party returned from the boat ride we explored the church where some of St Andrew’s bones are interred. The church is beautiful and definitely a standout, even in a country of spectacular churches. A rather nice pizza lunch in one of the many family restaurants in the town.
(St Andrews)
We went onto Ravello, home of a famous music festival. Like the rest of the Amalfi Coast it is pretty but not exciting
Eric Clapton is a legend. This is his most famous track, released as Derek and the Dominoes. The most well-known version cuts off without the piano section at the end to keep the length down to around 4 minutes and make it radio friendly. When Dave Carter taped it for me at university, he did not even recognise this as part of the song and cut the tape off. This is the full-length version. It is about Pattie Boyd, married to George Harrison when he met her, who Clapton was madly in love with. Eventually he married her (staying friends with Harrison). They separated 10 years after that due to his affairs and alcoholism.
Layla
Five Miles Out 