I had been looking forward to our day in Naples ever since we chose this cruise and started planning. I was very torn on what to do with our day — Jim hadn’t been to any of the places on the list of possibilities, so he was noncommittal. I really wanted to go to Pompeii but I also wanted to go to Sorrento (for purely nostalgic reasons) and so the Positano/Sorrento day trip won.

This would probably be a good time to mention that we had a great time, but the Sorrento we saw bore little resemblance to the Sorrento where I spent a week as a teenager. I’m not sure what I was thinking…I was there over half a century ago so I have fuzzy memories of a beautiful, idyllic town atop a cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. It’s still a beautiful location, but I had a hard time aligning my memories with what I saw. More about that later, back to our day!

We took a small group tour through ItalyTours.EU and were paired with two other couples from our ship. We had all met at 7 Bell’s House in Civitavecchia and made arrangements to disembark together for our tour. Our driver Enzo was waiting for us and we headed out to Positano.

Honestly, the drive was a little tedious. It was pretty overcast which limited the views, and the traffic was INSANE! It took two hours to drive 36 miles to Positano! We stopped once for pictures overlooking the Amalfi Coast, but we were pretty happy to get to Positano and get out of the van for a while.

The last couple miles of mountain road leading in to Positano were lined with cars parked bumper to bumper. Enzo explained there is so little parking in Positano that’s where residents have to park! I can’t imagine having to walk a couple miles up a steep road just to get to my car! Can you imagine if you got to your car and discovered you had forgotten your keys?😳

Positano was beautiful from land but I would have loved to see it from the water. We enjoyed walking around the narrow streets and exploring, but I don’t think I would want to stay in Positano. I thought it was congested considering when we were there it was still not “high” season. To me it would be a great place to visit by ferry for the day and stay in a town like Sorrento that’s more accessible.

We left Positano after about an hour and a half, and headed to Sorrento where we were going to spend most of our day.

The drive through town was beautiful, and Enzo did take us past the hotel where my family stayed in the 70s, but outside of the hotel itself nothing struck a chord in my memory. The quaint seaside town I remembered had, like so many other places worldwide, become a major tourist attraction.

We were treated to a wonderful Limoncello tasting! My favorite was the Limoncello Cream.

Remember I mentioned the view across the Bay of Naples? The view hasn’t changed, but the weather didn’t cooperate!

As in the 1970s, there are many paths and terraces along the sea to walk, relax, and take pictures. These days, that means large groups of tourists waving selfie sticks, but we were successful in having Enzo take a picture that only required a little cropping to get rid of the selfie-takers!😂

We had a great lunch at Donna Sofia. Unfortunately I didn’t make a good choice and I thought the ravioli was weird and way too heavy, but everybody else loved their food. The restaurant was beautiful and it was a very relaxing break in the middle of a busy day.

After lunch we had time to walk around and shop. Jim and I added to our growing travel magnet and ornament collection, and I found TWO backpack handbags I couldn’t live without. Not a bad haul for a short amount of shopping time!😂

We were supposed to see Naples on the way back to the ship, but Enzo offered a “drive by” of Pompeii instead and we all jumped at the chance. We didn’t go in, but we did have time to get out and look at what could be seen from the street.

Much like Sorrento, the Pompeii I saw didn’t look anything like my memories. It’s much bigger now due to continuing excavation, and much more touristy. It reminded my a lot of visiting Stonehenge in 2018 for the first time since the mid 70s. What was once a quiet site had become a major attraction complete with traffic, souvenir shops, and lines.

All in all this was a really nice port day. I would have liked clearer weather, but it didn’t rain and we were able to see everything we wanted to see and then some!