Our trip to Southern Italy
We travel to Italy somewhat frequently and have settled on Southern Italy as our stomping ground. I always find it funny to come to the forum and read about people going to Southern Italy, but it seems to always stop at Sorrento. Sorrento is our jumping off point. We primarily are on the front toe of the boot, Calabria, and also Sicily. This chronicles our journey this year.
Fly into Rome, rent a car (always emphatically request a smaller vehicle – for some reason, the car people seem to think Americans need big cars. This is VERY dangerous in most of the towns we visit as the roads are not built for them. And if you are getting a car, be prepared to use a stick shift!!). Drive to Sorrento.
Sorrento
This year, instead of a hotel, we stayed in an apartment with a balcony that looked out over the sea that we found on Booking.com. The view is across the gulf to Vesuvius. The lights across the bay are delightful to see at night and sunsets/sunrises are beautiful to watch.
Although Sorrento is touristy, everyone is quite kind and very proud of their culture, food, limoncello, etc. and made us feel welcome. At the recommendation of this forum, we ate dinner at O’Puledrone http://www.opuledrone.com/ . This restaurant is family owned and run. The grandsons of the namesake run the front of the house. They speak very good English but were willing to put up with our broken Italian. You can literally sit with the water lapping up to your table in the Marina Grande and have seafood caught that day. The table wine is just right for the meal, no need for lavish bottles unless you want it. We went back the next day and you would have thought we were long lost cousins of the owner!!
Our breakfast favorite is Pura Café Via Luigi de Maio, 19, 80067 Sorrento NA, Italy . We visited with them last time we were in Sorrento. It’s a lively café with excellent espresso and perfect cornetto or, in my husband’s case, girata d’uva – otherwise known as pain raisin – perfectly prepared. You can sit and watch people on their way to the Marina Piccolo to find their boat to the islands and other places and then follow them for a lovely walk to the water.
We tend to just wander in Sorrento. It is beautiful to behold and there is lots of lively activity to keep us entertained with Passagiata and lots of vendors – very walkable and friendly. Stair climbing and cobblestones take some work for my legs to get used to, so I test myself in this safe place. My only regret in Sorrento was that the museum about the inlaid wood indigenous to Sorrento was closed the days we were there. You can see the inlaid wood in many shops in town, but the museum shows its progress and the craft itself.
Posted by
near San Francisco
4601 posts
Your description of being in Sorrento caused me to reminisce today, and pull out my brightly colored candle-holders and touristy tea towel (with limoncello recipe!) souvenirs. Thanks for a little wander back in time to Sorrento!
Posted by
Sapulpa, OK, USA
6290 posts
We loved O'Puledrone. There's another restaurant down there that gets all the publicity, but we checked it out and headed back to O'P. The fish could not have been fresher, and our young servers were delightful.
Edit to add: I think it's owned by a fishing cooperative, as well. The members take turn serving at the restaurant.
Posted by
OP
76 posts
I thought that it was run by a cooperative too. It may be. But the family seemed to run it. Really cool to see grandad (the namesake), dad and the boys working together and so hard to make it such a great experience for their customers! Another thing we loved about it is that it is literally on the water. That would never be allowed in the US! There was a "show" every evening while fishermen worked on their nets or restocked the boat for the next trip. So fun!
Posted by
Phoenix🌵
2731 posts
Sorrento was one of my favorite towns on our RS South of Italy tour. Since it was rainy, we played tourist and shopped most of our free day. Wish we could have stayed longer...
Posted by
Vacaville, Ca
1369 posts
Enjoying the reports. I lived in Southern Italy for four years in the 90's. Stationed at San Vito Air Station between San Vito dei Normanni & Brindisi, which is no longer active. Lived in San Michele Salentino for 18 months then on base for the remainder of our time. Really enjoyed Southern Italy, my family and I traveled around the region every weekend that we could. One of these days I plan on returning to visit some familiar haunts.
Posted by
681 posts
Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip. I have not been to that section of Italy but am always dreaming of it.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
8942 posts
Please put all of your threads onto just this one. Having 6 threads about your Italy trip is tough to read and they will get lost from each other. Just copy and past them here and then delete the other thread.
Posted by
OP
76 posts
Thanks, Ms. Jo! I appreciate your sage advice! Unfortunately, when I wrote the original report with all the towns in the same thread, it was too long and not accepted by the forum. Thus, my choice was to go by length or go by town. I chose to go by town and, hopefully, connect the dots by the subject line. I am so sorry it is difficult to read. I would have preferred putting it all together as well!
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
15806 posts
Enjoyed your Sorrento report, pmalbritton! We had a lovely stay there as well, some years back, and it hasn't been every visitor's fave so it's nice to hear when some of the RS gang "take" to it. :O)
A 'lil trick to placing all of your reviews together? Finish one piece, such as you've done with your "Part 1", and then do an "Add reply" for "Part 2", and so on. Does this make sense? If it helps, here are examples from a couple reviewers who used that method:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/6-glorious-days-in-rome
It's OK if readers leave comments on one chapter before you can post the next. :O)
Posted by
OP
76 posts
Thanks, Kathy ! I will try that next time!