Monday, November 15, 2004

Campania ( Sorrento )

SORRENTO

Sorrento, located between the Bay of Naples and the Amalfi coast is a favourite spot for the summer crowd. In autumn, Sorrento enters into a sleeping mode and the streets were filled with more locals than tourists. There are daily buses and trains arriving in Sorrento which makes it an ideal day trip from Napoli.

A visit to Sorrento is incomplete if one did not try their famous Limoncello which Sorrento produces the best in the whole of Italy. Along the way from Pompeii to Sorrento, we saw orchards with large citrus fruits ( lemons and oranges ) which are probably due for plucking in December. Owing to her excellent Mediterranean climate, the lemons are extremely big and perfumery.

There are many local producers of Limoncello but we were told to buy from reputable stalls. Walking along via Correale, we chanced upon this store called I Giardini di Cataldo ( The Gardens of Cataldo ). The store was already filled with lots of tourists waiting to be served by the friendly middle aged store assistant. She let us try the famous Limoncello and also other liqueurs made from liquorices and clementines. The store has Limoncello in various cute bottles and different volume. Besides limoncello, she let us sample Baba, a sponge cake soak in rum.

We were invited to visit their orchard tomorrow morning. However, we were disappointed as we had to leave Sorrento early morning the next day for Napoli. Suddenly I start to recall this melodious Neapolitan song Torna a Surriento and perhaps one day I saw return to Sorriento to visit the orchards of I Giardini di Cataldo.

Campania ( Pompeii )

Pompeii

From Perugia to Pompeii, the journey can take more than 5 hours as it passed by the Lazio region and entering Campania region. I joined the university excursion as the trip includes 2 interesting destinations ( Sorrento and Napoli ) in Campania.

Mount Vesuvius is located in southern Italy make it marked on history when it erupted and buried the town of Pompeii and Herculum in 79 C.E. Pompeii is now a significant archeological site that provides an amazing glimpse into the daily life of an average Roman town over two thousand years ago. A visit to Pompeii allows me to discover this buried city that used to one of the more prosperous city in ancient time.

We were given 3 hours to explore Ufficio Scavi di Pompeii and there was so much to explore even on a superficial level. We followed the free pocket guide and followed the suggested itinerary as recommended. There were numerous columns, arches and wall murals.

The Temple of Apollo (Tempio di Apollo ) and the brothel ( Lupanare) are top attractions.

The latter with some erotic paintings was under construction and we were devoid of the opportunity to view the paintings.


However, we do see some wall painting in some of the chambers and rooms during our exploration.

Nevertheless, we managed to see few statues/figures without loin cloth.