Village on the Sea

My hotel balcony
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The first trial on this leg of the trip was getting the bus up the hill to our hotel. While the curvy road provided gorgeous scenic views for us, the driver had to honk at every curve because the road wasn’t really wide enough for two cars, let alone a tour bus. This curvy road was lined with fruit trees of every sort. I have never seen lemon or orange trees before but they were absolutely beautiful. The bright yellow and orange fruits glistened brightly against the green leaves of the tree. Grape arbors twisted along the white stone walls and plump purple grapes pulled against the vine. To my right was a stunning view of the coast. Boats dotted the aquamarine water and cliffs fell straight into the water. I could hardly take it all in.

Off to the right
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When we finally arrived at our hotel we were amazed to find that it was a four star place on one of the highest cliffs above Sorrento. My balcony looked out over all of Sorrento and Mt. Vesuvius was directly across the Bay of Naples. Talk about the perfect view. My roommate Sarah and I were shocked, we had no idea that this was to be our weekend retreat.

After dumping all of our stuff in the room and taking in the view a group of us took the bus down to Sorrento for the evening to wander around and do a little shopping. The town was so cute and had one major market street with Lemoncello vendors everywhere. Lemoncello is a liqueur made in and around Sorrento with the lemons from the cliffs. Each of these little shops makes everything from Lemoncello to baba, a lemon soaked pastry. (I don’t really recommend that one, the consistency is just too weird.) My friends and I sampled lots of different Lemoncello and candy as well as scoping out what we wanted to buy the next night. It was a perfect evening of strolling with new friends through the market. We headed back to the hotel around eight for dinner and then called it an early night. We needed to rest up for what was to be one my favorite days in Italy.