Last day in Sorrento

In my next life I want to live in Sorrento.

Corso D'Italia Sorrento

Today was our last day in Sorrento and she turned on a beautiful day to say farewell. We only had the morning before we had to board the coach the return to Rome (3 hours ) and board the train for Paris which will take 15 hours.

Our Hotel Girasole, just out of Sorrento is set in gardens with, of course, multiple citrus trees. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me but they actually have oranges and lemons trees and oranges and grapefruit trees. I knew it was possible to graft two together but I had never seen it before

Yes it's one tree

 

A small continental breakfast with fruit from their trees gave us the opportunity to head into town for a shopping expedition before heading off. We only had an hour and a half but I wish I had done more yesterday. They told me about the leather in Florence but on-one told me about the leather in Sorrento! Shops packed floor to ceiling with leather hand bags in beautiful designs and colours and quality almost impossible to afford in Sydney. 

We bought some beautiful hand bags but I'm not going to show you them because two beautiful young women might have their surprises ruined. I even managed to get myself a red back pack handbag. You can see that one here.

 

I brought Michael back to another store with Italian shoes and he quickly bought a pair of classic leather shoes for about $40 Euro. Bargain!

In amongst the crafts shops are green grocers with local produce spilling out over the pavement. 

Check out the local strawberries

And Raspberries

It was a nice place to stop for a beer. Then again it's always a nice place for a beer for Michael if it's a Guiness.

Better than the shopping though is that Sorrento seems to be a town of genuine artisans. There is even a community building and area for them and you can walk past the little workshops and see the inlaid wood boxes being made and talk to the manufacturers of Limoncello . Jewellers, porcelains and painters and lace and linen makers completed the picture with Murano glass available as well. There was a lot of coral and turquoise jewelery locally produced and all well priced. 

There were even hand smocked dresses in some of the windows.

  I would love to live here for a while. Better start brushing up on my Italian.

For lunch we met at a tiny Osteria close to the hotel. The owner was very proud of his food with good reason and we feasted on antipasti of asparagus, fennel, aubergine and magnificent buffalo mozzarella with scampi pasta, eggplant parmigiana and then large plates of various pastas and pizzas. the best pizza was Kathleens. The base was baked first and the layers of fresh tomato and buffalo mozzarella ( are you seeing a theme here? )were added. I think I need to learn to make this one at home.

 

This magnificent feast cost the grand total of $8 Euro each. I would highlyrecommend anyone to visit the Il Rotrovo osteria if you get the chance. It is tiny but well worth the effort.