A hotel stay in Sorrento proves to be the right choice to experience Italy's picture-postcard Amalfi Coast.
By JERRY HAINES
Published April 6, 2003
Sometimes you just get it right. There are lots of towns on Italy's Amalfi Coast where you could stay - all of them charming, all of them accommodating.
We chose Sorrento, and we got it right.
That wasn't immediately apparent, though. It started to rain just as our train pulled into the Sorrento station. My wife, Janice, and I had no hotel reservations. Sensing that, a little guy attached himself to us, greeting us in English as we fumbled with our luggage and umbrellas. He urged us to stay at his hotel, only a block away.
No, we said, we wanted something with a view.
Ha, he said, look at this weather: You can't see anything in this rain.
It was the off-season, and the guidebooks had warned that the weather could turn nasty and that hotels and restaurants might be shuttered.
Pretending more confidence than we really had, we told him we wre going to the tourist information office, to book something with a view.
We located the tourist office and arranged for a hotel room, with a view, a short bus ride away from town.
But the local entrepreneur found us again at the bus stop. He shook his head sadly when we told him we now had a place to stay and were merely waiting for a bus to take us there.
"Who knows when the bus will come?" (It seems he also owned a taxi.) "That's the way with buses - always the waiting, the waiting."
Notwithstanding this little gloom bird, our misgivings soon dissipated. The bus arrived on time, and the hotel was less than two-thirds of a mile out of town (the route proved so scenic we walked it often, despite frequent bus service). And the view from our room was the kind you'd expect to see at the IMAX.
The rain and sun were disagreeing about whose turn it was, and, as a result, there were multiple rainbows over the water. We could see a brooding Vesuvius ("Hmmphh," it seemed to say. "I could still erupt if I wanted to."), hydrofoil ferries on their way to Positano, Ischia and Capri.
About 100 feet directly below us, a marina each morning was busy with little blue-and-white boats and guys in fluorescent orange slickers returning from a night of fishing.
And we could see Sorrento, built on a long, curving cliff.
The mornings were filled with sounds: The bells of the church down by the marina; roosters crowing; dogs barking; my wife smacking gnats against the window pane. (That's another advantage of knowing Italian: If you think of them as moscerini instead of gnats, they seem charming.)
And there was the squee-oo-oosh of the cappuccino maker at breakfast as we planned each day's adventure.
Sorrento was our "Adventure Central." That's why I say that we got it right. While it might have been the wrong choice had it been summer and had we wanted to lie all week on a beach (there isn't much of one in Sorrento), of all the towns on the Amalfi coast, Sorrento has the best mix of transportation options:
It is the only one with train service (the Circumvesuviana from Naples). It has ferry service that can get you to Capri in 20 minutes.
The other famous towns might be prettier, but on the Amalfi Coast prettier means "so beautiful it makes your teeth hurt" as opposed to merely gorgeous.
And you can visit those other towns by inexpensive public transit bus.
The big blue SITA inter-village buses are built like tour coaches, and we gazed at some of the world's most beautiful coastline slipping past.
There were times when I could not see land on either side of us. The narrow roadway is constantly curving, and our driver constantly was sounding his bee-doop, bee-doop horn to warn unseen motorists that might be around the next curve. I know that had I been driving Janice and myself, I would have seen little of the view; my hands would have fused permanently to the steering wheel, and I would have heard bee-doop, bee-doop in my sleep for months.
We spent only an afternoon in Positano, but I could see why some vacationers stay there for weeks. It is a vertical village, with little lanes barely of Fiat-width carved into the hillside amid houses and flowers and that Italian green foliage that always makes me think of tossed salad.
The bus stopped at the top of the hill. It's easy to find your way into the center of town: just keep going down. And down. We homed in on the church with the spectacular dome that resembles a giant Faberge egg.
We window-shopped along the way, admiring leather goods, colorful ceramics and intensely flavored candies that we could almost taste through the glass.
A sudden rain squall caught us, so we stepped into a little craft shop. Ten minutes later and several thousand lire lighter, we stepped back out, into the sunshine, carrying four whimsically painted appetizer plates shaped like fish.
The village is a living Italian tourism poster; all it lacks is an Alitalia logo in the right-hand corner. But my favorite image of Positano goes back to that rain squall: As the sun came out, a huge bear of a man came putt-putting by us, steering a motor scooter we could barely see under his bulk. Sitting safe and dry on the foot rest and peering out from behind the guy's hefty leg was a tiny Yorkshire terrier.
The big blue bus also took us on to the town of Amalfi after a long wait at the Positano bus stop. (Always read the footnotes on the bus schedule. Janice and I hadn't noticed that the bus we wanted didn't run on weekends. Thus we shook our heads sadly and sighed, "That's the way with buses - always the waiting, the waiting.)
The SITA route ends at Amalfi, and the drivers hang out between shifts in the little beachside depot/cafe there. It was raining again, and it was tempting to stay with them, but rain or no rain, we had come to see the village. We dashed from shop to shop, sampling candies, sipping spremuta (fresh orange soda), stepping over spoiled shop cats ("Chase mice? You can't be serious.").
Like the other coastal towns, Amalfi is full of craft shops. And not just places where they mass-market items that are produced elsewhere, either. Indeed, the paint on the six little limoncello glasses we bought was still sticky, and each lemon depicted on them had been painted by the woman who sold them to us.
Ah, limoncello. It is one of the principal charms of the Amalfi Coast, a high-test liqueur made in closet-sized factories from lemon zest, sugar, water and grain alcohol.
There's no mystery to it; the clerk where we bought a bottle gave us a recipe for making it at home. (Ideally, you keep the bottle and the glasses in the freezer, pulling them out from behind the rump roast and the frozen peas when special people come over.)
The ferry ride to Capri the next day allowed us to see the Amalfi Coast from a different, neck-craning angle. And then, there ahead, was Capri, looking like a section of coastline that had swum out to sea to live by itself.
Once there, we took the handy funicular from the harbor to the center of town, but after that we walked our legs off. We'd see something photogenic down below us along a little cliffside path. We'd make an easy walk down there and take a picture through the trees that seem specially cultivated so that their leaves and branches would form a natural frame for our shots of offshore boulders or film-star villas.
And then there would be something else farther down and we'd have to see and shoot that.
But you know what's coming: Eventually we would have to settle accounts with gravity. The climb back up was equivalent to half an hour on Level 12 of the Stairmaster.
Fortunately, we had not had lunch yet, so we urged ourselves forward and upward with thoughts of ravioli and insalata caprese and wine from Capri's own grapes. And, finally, there they were, at a sunny restaurant by the funicular station. Sometimes you get it right.
And sometimes you get it wrong. We could not see Capri's famous Blue Grotto that day because high waves made it unsafe to sail there.
Back in Sorrento, we got it right again when we found Da Franco, a combination pizza parlor and delicatessen. There's nothing in its appearance to tell you that it's anything special, just dozens of prosciutto hams hanging from the ceiling and a proud worker making paper-thin slices of salami with a huge machine that looks like it could have been made either by Caterpillar or Cuisinart.
The attraction is the pizza itself: thin crust, just the right combination of chewy and crispy, baked in a wood-burning oven, and dressed with fresh arugula, prosciutto crudo or other toppings just before it was set down at our table.
Notwithstanding its practical advantages, Sorrento can be romantic, too. You can walk hand-in-hand with your sweetie through orange and lemon groves or buy her some perfume from the small shop/factories that create their own scents.
But Sorrento's train station makes it so practical to go to other places, too. The famous ruins of Pompeii, for example, are just a half-hour's ride away.
What we didn't do right was to allow ourselves time to see more of the Naples/Amalfi area. (A lot of artifacts taken from Pompeii and Vesuvius are in a Naples museum.) Also, there are other pretty coastal towns with names that sound like they could be wines or tenors: Ravello, Praiano, Scala.
And we didn't go to the top of Vesuvius or to the beautiful island of Ischia. Those places will have to wait for our next trip there.
That's the way with vacations: always the waiting, the waiting.
- Jerry Haines is a freelance writer living in Arlington, Va.
If You Go:
GETTING THERE: Several airlines fly from U.S. gateway cities with connections to Rome and Milan. The closest airport to the Amalfi Coast is Naples, served principally by Alitalia.
Once at the Naples airport, catch a bus (for less than a dollar) outside the terminal for the 20-minute ride to Piazza Garibaldi and the central Naples train station. There, buy a ticket for the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento.
(You can board here, or at Circumvesuviana's own station a block away, which reportedly is less confusing.)
The train trip to Sorrento takes 65 minutes; the direttissimo trains skip some intermediate stations and save about 15 minutes. One-way fare is less than $3. The train serves commuters and can get crowded at rush hour. Sorrento is the end of the line.
GETTING AROUND: Bus service on SITA (blue buses) between the towns of the Amalfi Coast is frequent, although reduced on weekends. A round-trip ticket between Sorrento and Amalfi costs about $4. Buy the tickets at the Sorrento train station.
Within Sorrento and environs, use the orange Circumvesuviana buses. Tickets for a typical one-way ride cost one euro (about $1.06) and are available at tobacco shops and hotel concierge desks. Don't forget to punch your ticket in the little validator devices on the buses; spot checks are made.
Ferries to Capri depart from the marina below the town. Typical round-trip fares are about $17 for the 20-minute trip. Note that in the off-season, the ferry operators try to consolidate passengers onto fewer trips and also may cancel the last return sailing of the day, thereby shortening your time on the island.
The train ride to Pompeii takes 30 minutes and costs about $3. The site is easily accessible by car, via Autostrada A3.
STAYING THERE: We stayed at the two-star Minervetta, on the coast just beyond the Sorrento business district. It is not lavish, but it has the view for which you came to Sorrento. We paid about $60 per night for a double room (breakfast included). Contact the hotel at Via Capo 25; call 081-807-3069; fax 081-877-3033.
Across the street is the four-star Hotel Bristol, with the same view and more sumptuous accommodations. Doubles start at about $110. Via Capo 22; call 081-878-4522; fax 081-807-1910; the Web site is www.acampora.it/bristol In town, the five-star Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria is located in a quiet part of Sorrento, near the edge of the cliff. Doubles start at about $250. Piazza Tasso 34; call 081-807-1044; fax 081-877-1206; www.exvitt.it Use the helpful Sorrento Tourist Information Office (Azienda Soggiorno), Via L. de Maio 35; call 081-807-4033; fax 081-877-3397; e-mail aastsorrento @libero.it Progressively more hotels and restaurants close as the off-season continues.
