Sorento - A day of two halves

Sorento - a lovely village in what is possibly the most beautiful areas of Italy, if not the world....but I jump ahead.

Today saw us leave Naples (thankfully) and move on to our second destination of our trip Sorrento. However, the day was very much in two halves, with the first being a disaster, but MUCH improved by our arrival at the hotel.

=====and just to add to the disaster of this morning the damn internet failed halfway through my ranting write up of the atrocious morning loosing the entire entry!! ARRGGHHHH!! =======

Well, I'm not writing that lot again as I am glad to put that memory behind me, but for those interested, and for the sadistic amongst you it will amuse you no doubt, here is a bullet point summary of THAT morning:

• Got up early, had a VERY medioca breakfast (never eat in an Italian Hotel, they don't bother so why shoudl you), checked out, battelled our way through a packet market to catch the bus to the airport and there contained car hire centre.
• Waited outside Mc Donalds for the Alibus shuttle to the airport.......waited....and waited....and waited......and then found out there were two Mc Donalds on the central square
• Caught bus from the other Mc Donalds and arrived at the car hire place. Did all paperwork and when asked for driving licence and passport realised the hotel back in Naples still had our passports
• Hour wasted getting bus back to Naples to get passports and eventually arrived at our crappy little Ford Fusion. Not sure what a fusion of, a fiat panda and a lawn mower if looks and performance be the judge.
• Used GPS to get to Sorrento......gave up after it took us off the intersalia freeway thingie twice in favour of manor roads (costing us two lots of tolls we didn't need to spend). Followed signs there after.
• Got to Sorrento and decided to trust the GPS again to get to the hotel.......another MISTAKE. She took us on progressively steeper and narrower raods and lanes until we ended up in one so narrow the car litereally got wedged between two houses....pictures to follow when I have calmed down enough to be able to go back there and take one!!
• Took about ten minutes extracted car, much to the annoyance of the local scooter hooter brigade who were unmpressed we even got it stook there in the first place.
• Gave up ever fiding the hotel, slat the GPS and just found the nearest proper road with the intention of heading to the airport and flying home...hoping never to see Italy again.
  
• Rounded the next bend and there, in front of us, was the Hotel Prestige.....and destination for the night so we decided to give Sorrento one last chance and checked in.

And thank goodness we did check in because the honeymoon took a very different turn from that point on. We stumbleing in hot, annoyed and grumpy yet some how, before we had even gotten our key the lovely lady behind reception had calmed us down, cheered us up and set us on our way to our room.

And what a lovely room it is. I'm not hotel critic and won't even attempt to start writing a proper hotel review but this place has it all right in our book. Its small enough to be freindly and personal but large enough to have good facilities (sun deck, gardens, Sky TV etc). The decor is bright and fresh without being garish and cheap or overly artisan, the beds is VERY comforatable and the room is a good size. It's basically everything we would want.

And added to this it has the best bathroom I have been to in a long time, with a lovely shower that is like standing under a deluge in a tropical rain forest and tiling that if I tried to describe I couldn't do it justice, in fact a description would probably make in sound hideous, but it isn't by any means.

After a good long shower, a snooze and a couple of hours watching TV we were refreshed and recharged and woken from our brooding by a very pleasant suprise from the hotel management

and with our spirits restored we decided to put the morning behind us and head into town for a bite to eat. We headed for Trattoria Emilia Dal on the recomendation of the Husband of the couple who run the Hotel as being "Somewhere I would take my Mistress rather than my wife....ins romantic and sets to mood without being too expensive"

The resturant was located in a little fishing village to the left of the Sorrento main strip and was well worthy of the recommendation.

The food was great and plentiful, the salads tasty and the sea food so fresh the fisherman were still delivering it. It was also full and frequented by locals (always a good sign) some of whom may or may not have been with their mistresses......or maybe it was theor daughters. Who am I to judge.

The evening was then nicely rounded off by a small firework display at the end of the peir to celebrate St Annes Day (local patron Saint) but which we told ourselves was to celebrate our marriage. It was then a nice walk back up the hill to burn off the meal and off to bed for a well earned........rest.