Day 31 Gaeta

We said goodbye to Sorrento and set off for Gaeta, a seaside town within striking distance from Rome. Tomorrow we will drive the last 150 km and drop our little Yaris at Rome airport before our flight to Dubai and then an hour later, to Melbourne.

The drive to Gaeta was smooth enough. We passed some very low-lying agricultural areas that seem prone to flooding as all the roads we travelled on were raised. The towns before Gaeta were just dusty, servicable places, but Gaeta was a holiday destination, with lots of hotels, restaurants and things to see and do. Our hotel was opposite the bay and a naval shipyard and in dock was the Carson City, a US navy vessel, built in  Hobart AUSTRALIA. it was a very fast multi task vessel with a helipad. The other US vessel, the Mount Whitney was a blue ridge class command ship, and the flagship of the US sixth fleet.

We dropped off our luggage and took in the view from a private terrace. the strong sun and light drzzle gave us a beautiful rainbow to look out on. The rain soon passed and we took a walk out along the curve of the bay, past the naval dockyard, the pleasure boat marina and across to the working port and shipbuilding facility. We stopped at a seafront cafe to get sandwiches for lunch and got talking to the guy serving us. Though he spoke with an excellent Italian accent, he was in fact a Scotsman. He had arrived in Gaeta 29 years ago to visit his sister who had married a local, and just stayed on.

Gaeta is known for its Christmas illuminations and we saw ample evidence of the preparations, though god knows what an enormous gorilla, a train, fish and other similar motifs have to do with Christmas. still, the place will be ablaze with lights, and there is also a huge Santa village, a mobile ice sculpture display and an ice skating rink. We had a short rest in the hotel then went for a drive at sunset.  Everything fire up! A three masted schooner, the Signora Del Venta  came into port and suddenly the dock was full of people. It was a luxury sailing ship and some lucky people had been travelling around the Italian coast from Monte Carlo and down to Sicily on her.

The much anticipated light shows up and down the streets of Gaeta also fired up and things that looked a bit odd in daylight suddenly sparked with gaiety. NOW the streets of Gaeta became a traffic jam as people cruised up and down the promenade, taking in the sights. The empty market stalls of the afternoon, were now thronging with people. The fishing boats had unloaded their catches and were selling them straight off the street.

Day 30 Sorrento

The day began with a long, lovely sleep in. Even after breakfast we went back to our room for a rest and a snooze. Mid morning we walked down to the town for a coffee and a spot of people watching.

Our initial plan was to take the coast road beyond Sorrento to a couple of fishing villages, but then changed our ideas and drove over the mountains back to Positano. At the crest of the mountain we could see both coasts at once.

Positano was positively lovely. Even with some businesses closed for the winter, there was enough there to remind us of Noosa with ts flowering of galleries, restaurants, boutiques and views to the surrounding nature.

We parked at the top of the hill and took a 20 minute walk down a crazy zig-zag of steps that dropped us into the town with its tangle of streets leading down to the beach. we bought filled panninis and carried them down to the waterfront to the Bay of the Saracens where a few friendly cats prowled hungrily around us as we had our picnic. The water was calm enough but a blow-hole just under the cliffs sent a white spout of water soaring upwards whenever a wave arrived at shore. Though at times the sky swept grey across the horizon, it was warm and we had to shed our jackets.



We finished off the day with another terrific meal at Zi Ntonio in Sorrento. I had a grilled sea bass with vegetables, that was de-boned with great flourish at the table by the waiter and Johnny had cod (baccala). served with a little savoury ice cream come of tapenade and sorrento tomatoes. We also shared a small plate of roast potatoes.  We skipped dessert as we had Siena cake back at the hotel, but the Americano coffee was perfect. A wonderful guitarist provided music tonight and to our utter delight, we knew most of the tunes and table danced along to them. There were even a couple of Italian tunes from The Incredible Mister Ripley, an all time favourite movie.

Our Italian holiday is all but over. After breakfast we leave by car for Geata on the Lazio coast. This will place us within striking distance of Rome airport on Saturday for our flight home. We have had SUCH a good time. I'm so grateful to my beautiful Johnny for organising everything.