Sorrento

Sorrento is on the peninsula that forms the bottom half of the bay of Naples.The peninsula is formed of high rocky mountains and steep cliffs that fall into the sea. The roads follow the cliff edges, which made for some exciting if not tiring cycling. Sorrento itself is found on a small Plataea of level ground into between two mountains, with the town going right up to the cliff edge. The harbour is at the bottom of the cliff ( obviously) and the road to and from the harbour is narrow and twisty. At one point i was walking down the road and two buses had blocked the passage of traffic due to the fact that they had met on one of the tight blind corners.I spent 5 nights here....the main reasons were to go to Pompeii, go diving and due to the fact that there were several "Irish" bars, drink ice cold cyder whilst watching the English football and rugby.

On the Saturday i got onto the train and headed to Pompeii. Even though i had read about and watched tv shows on Pompeii to actually go through the main gate into the town was a special moment. I had arrived quite early in the day and all the guided tours went left so i went right. For the 1st hour or so the parts of the town i was in were quiet and mostly empty. After that, well it just got busy. ( there are about 270 photos of the town...look at those!!). I spent about 4-5 hours just walking around, in and out of the houses and halls. Walking down the main roads, side roads and alley ways were just moments of wonder.

The following day i went for a dive. Sorrento is best seen from the sea and as we headed off to the dive site it was the perfect start for a Sunday morning. The local padi outfit seemed ok and after checking and changing my equipment i was happy with what i had. After about a 20 minute boat ride we arrived at the small pinnacle of rock sticking out of the sea. We all did our buddy checks ( this is a lie because it never happened) and rolled of the boat into the sea. Among the party were a few locals and an Aussie couple ( no watch, no depth gauge!!!) one of whom hadn't bothered to check his bcd....it leaked, badly. Anyway, because i hadn't dived for 10 months (far to long) i stayed above 20m. After a very enjoyable 40 minutes of solo diving (my buddy's diving skills needed alot of work) it seemed that everybody else had started to do a safety stop. This did piss me off a little as i still had 100 bar of air left which would give me at least another 20 minutes with plenty to spare.....(and as i was paying for this!!!!!!!!)

In the evening i went down the pub, watched Chelsea get a lucky draw with Liverpool ( i know, even i didn't think it was a penalty) and had at least one cyder too many.

Monday, well i had a hang over so i didn't really do much and on the Tuesday i got back onto the trike