ITALY: Sorrento & Positano

Our second day in Italy began bright and early before sunrise.  We made our way over to Roma Termini as we had an early train to catch to Sorrento.  The train system in Italy is awesome.  That was our major form of transportation during our trip.  It’s inexpensive, efficient and a great way to see the country!

How to get to Sorrento from Rome:
Take the train from Roma Termini to Napoli Centrali (Naples).  We purchased all of our tickets either through the ItaliaRail website or directly at the train station.  We noticed that the best deals were through ItaliaRail.  Print out your tickets or have them available on your phone.  You will get off at Napoli Centrali.  There, purchase tickets for the Circumvesuviana Train.  This is a much smaller, commuter train which takes you to Sorrento.  Keep your items close by as this train is known for pickpockets.

Sorrento is a small coastal town in Southern Italy.  The minute we arrived, I knew we were in for a treat.  The town is quaint and the streets are lined with lemon and orange trees.

We stayed at a lovely hotel in the marina called Marina Piccola 73.  It was a little hike to the hotel but nothing we couldn’t handle.

Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived which was fine because we were going to spend the day in Positano.  We checked our bags and made our way into town.

We stopped in a little cafe and enjoyed a lovely cappuccino.  The gentleman working in the cafe asked if I was Italian (in Italian).  My dad used to always tell me I looked Italian so right then and there it made my day. 🙂  I practiced my Italian and spoke with him for a few minutes.  It was fun practicing the language but I realized how much I had forgotten! 😛 

Ever since I saw pictures of Positano on Instagram I knew that I wanted to go there.  It’s a beautiful coastal town on the Amalfi Coast.  We stayed in Sorrento for the night because we had an early train to catch in the AM and wanted easy access to the station.  Next time we will stay in Positano for a few nights for sure. 🙂

How to get to Positano from Sorrento:
There are a few options when deciding how to get to Positano from Sorrento.  You can take the bus, ferry, scooter or taxi.  By process of elimination, we ended up taking the bus.

If you get extreme carsickness, like me, I do not recommend taking this form of transportation.  I even took Dramamine before the trip because I knew it was going to be a winding road.  It did not help at all! 😦  Needless to say it was not the best trip…I was just trying to focus on not vomiting while my husband got to enjoy the amazing views. #notfair  I did vomit once I got off the bus (about 1 hour) to a lovely audience of a family seated in their car.  I’m sure they enjoyed that.  Ha!

The minute I saw the view I completely forgot about my motion sickness.  Wowza!

The view of Positano is AMAZING!!  As you walk down the road, you are hit with this incredible view of the sea and sun and colorful hilltop homes.  Is this real life?!

We wandered the streets as we made our way to the sea.

We immediately took off our shoes and put our feet in the refreshing water.  

For lunch we grabbed a simple, but super delicious, panini at this little grocery store along with some other snacks and Prosecco (that became my drink of choice while in Italy!).  We highly recommend this place – The Wine Shop Vini & Panini Positano.

After lunch, we wandered around a bit.  My husband noticed a pro South African surfer that we are both huge fans of – Jordy Smith!  We met him and his wife and they were both very sweet.  Needless to say we were star struck.

We decided to ferry back to Sorrento and not deal with the bus, however, due to weather (it was extremely windy and had stormed the day before) the ferry wasn’t running.  No!!!  I had to get back on that dreadful thing…We were packed again into the bus like sardines.  This time I stood hoping that would help.  Negative.  We ended up getting off the bus a few stops early but it was nice because we walked through a different part of Sorrento.

Back at Marina Piccola 73, we checked in to our room.  They gave us an adorable room overlooking the water.

Our evening in Sorrento was pretty relaxed.  We wandered the streets (you tend to do this a lot while in Italy), ate some pizza and had our first taste of gelato.

Sorrento is known for limoncello.  It’s a liquor made out of lemons that you sip at the end of a big meal; it’s good for the digestivo.  We decided to try some out.

My husband enjoyed it right away.  It was a little too strong for my taste, but as the trip went on I acquired a taste and we ended up bringing back a bottle! 🙂

Our stay in Sorrento & Positano was short but sweet.  While we had a little hiccup getting to and from Positano (ahem motion sickness overload!), our stay was amazing.  We definitely could have stayed longer (and next time we will) but we had a long list of places we wanted to visit and Venice was our next stop.

Also, next time we’re there, we DEFINITELY will scooter through the coast.  We had contemplated this idea originally but a lot of reviews said how dangerous it was.  My husband has plenty of scooter riding under his belt (we used to have one when we lived in Hawaii) and the idea of having to get back on one of those buses makes me sick just thinking about it. 😉

I hope this post inspires you a little more to plan that trip to Italy!

xo, Jenneke Rose