And Positano, not poinsettia.

From Naples through mid-afternoon in Sorrento.

For those of you in the know, not including me, Mid-November is the beginning of the off season in Italy, especially southern Italy.

Today is our last day in Rome. Yesterday I found the lady who runs the cafe connected to our hotel will make coffee before hours if you just knock on the glass door. I can also smell the pastries, still hot from the bakery.

We took the taxi to the train station, arriving about 40 minutes before departure. There were many train delays today due to inclement weather and some infrastructure work on several lines. Luckily, our train was on time from Florence and left on time to Naples.

The trip from Roma to Napoli takes about 1h, 15m, but at 298 kpm its a fair distance. You travel through some beautiful countryside and luckily the cameras in our phones are astoundingly high quality.

The car service from the Naples train station to Surriento Suites Hotel in Sorrento was fast and excellent. (Surriento is Sorrento in the Neapolitan dialect.) It took about an hour to drive from the Naples train station to the “outskirts” of Sorrento. Driving through the “streets” of Sorrento, the last 2 miles, took another 30 minutes, and this is the off season! Our driver Fiore, told us the total trip during high season takes 2h to 2h 30m.

When we arrived at the port of Sorrento, an hour before our hotel check in, Pamela, the owner of the B&B hotel, texted us she would meet us and take our luggage to the room if we wanted to have a coffee at the cafe on the bay, which was exactly what we did

We thought everything was perfect, until Pamela texted us that our room was ready. There are three rooms in the Surriento Suites Hotel. They are all beautiful but one is amazing and somehow, that is where she lodged us!

A bit of an oddity for us Americans, but perhaps not Europeans, is the bathroom and toilet is down one level. This may seriously deter my wine consumption. Who knows? (After the trip “upside” I can say it did not.) It is large, luxurious and well appointed with every bath accessory you could possibly require.

From the Surriento Hotel website:
The bed and breakfast decorations, like the tea tables made of Sorrentinian inlaid wood, the hand-made majolica of Vietri sul mare, the kitchen countertops built of Vesuvius lava stone, will make you feel living in a authentic luxurious local flat.

Pamela is a baker. (I knew something drew me to this hotel.) She bakes a different treat for each guest room every day. Waiting at arrival was a caprese cake. You will definitely see this cake on my food blog when I get home! (She graciously sent me the recipe.)

We are heading up the lift in a while to sightsee and find a restaurant for dinner. There were a variety of shops open when we arrived “upside” Sorrento.

It turns out, to no one’s surprise, that Sorrento is also infatuated with alleys. Of course, 2000 years ago, no one had to worry about large, fast sedans, only slow, human powered ones (palanquins.)

Our host, Pamela, recommended two different restaurants to give us a choice, however, we ended up at a nice little, busy restaurant, Aurora, that was open when we were ready to eat. I had an delicious lasagna and QC had what she said may have been the best pizza (so far) ever.

Tomorrow is Positano for sightseeing and lunch!