Sorrento17 by D. Wilmot

First stop on the Pizza Giro d'Italia

On Tuesday, 21 June around noon we took a taxi from our house to the local, Lafayette, CA metro (BART) which took us to SFO International Terminal where we boarded a Lufthansa A-380 for Frankfurt (often called Bankfurt). From Frankfurt we took a Lufthansa  A320 for Roma (Fiumicino) where we arrived about 2pm Wednesday. From there we took the Leonardo Express train to Stazione Termini, Rome. Not a fast train but the smoothest rails I've enjoyed. At Termini we boarded the fast train to Napoli, from the Napoli main station we boarded the rickety, slow Circumvesuviana train which goes clockwise around Golfo di Napoli to Sorrento to arrive in time for dinner.

But alas, Miccio's Pizzeria (best I've ever tasted and more later why Miccio is no longer in business) has been taken over by a new ristorante-Miseria e Nobilta. There we had average but filling marinara and margherita pizza and asked what happened to the previous owner. They new owners really didn't know but said Miccio was working at a family restaurant in Castellammare di Stabia. 

The very nice Hotel Mignon http://www.sorrentohotelmignon.com/
had been renovated so we have a room over the street which has very little auto traffic.

Sometimes considerable foot traffic but the glass doors to our patio are quite thick and block even loud music and fireworks. We slept well and enjoyed the very nice breakfast bar in a side garden snugged to the kitchen with citrus overhanging our table. Most available space in Sorrento has citrus intertwined with buildings

 

After breakfast we walked down to the ferry terminal for a ride to Napoli. We recently discovered that Napoli was having a pizza festival and we started hiking along the waterfront. The NPV https://www.pizzavillage.it/levento/  ran from 17-25 June (Giugno). Still hiking, hiking. We arrived a bit after 3PM only to find out that it would not start until 6PM. The pizza village along the Napoli shore looked very good. Each participant had an outdoor oven, a rick of wood (good pizza requires forno di legna - wood oven that burns at 800F or above) but no participants. Darn. So we started hiking back to where there was a hotel with a taxi parada and we taxied back to the ferry terminal. We had some below average pizza waiting for the ferry back to Sorrento and a hike back up the cliff. We never figured out a way to attend the NPV and get back to Sorrento before the train and ferry stop running. We have tentative plans for Iberia 2019 summer (out to Azores and Madeira) but when we return to Campania (region around Napoli) we plan to research (they move NPV round on the calendar every year) and might spend time in a Napoli hotel and not worry about getting back to Sorrento. We plan to lunch at Pizza Antica da Michele a Napoli which has been serving pizza since 1870. In 2014 we ate at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antica_Pizzeria_Port'Alba where they invented pizza cerca 1830. Good pizza.

Below Hotel Mignon (sort of snugged up against it) is a wonderful restaurant, (O'Parruchiano) http://www.parrucchiano.com/en/index.php

Next day we lunched there. Sharon had the fish grill: calamari (I can't have due to cholesterol), spada, tonno red tuna. I had the tonno, minestrone, cozze marinara e spinaci (spinach).

After lunch (pranzo) we walked around the restaurant and then along Corso Italia to Parco di Villa Fiorentino where I got to sit in some very old Fiats and we admired the citrus grove and garden outback.

Next day we walked the streets northward along the top of the cliffs and lunched at Ristorante Meating along Via Della Pieta which caters to carnivores but we split a very nice marinara pizza (€4) and a bowl of cozze (mussels or mejillones) with pepper in lemon water (€7).  Quite good. Lots of oregano on the pizza. Nice hot forno a legna (wood fire oven). These must be heated quite a while before baking. They run 800-1,000F. A Roma we can't get real pizza (not the square focaccia things) until evening as they don't like to run that hot oven until evening. No cheese, of course as it was a marinara.

Following day we walked over to a restaurant overlooking the Golfo with a beautiful interior with lovely marble columns but it was closed. Later research revealed that it was actually a wedding restaurant owned by a nearby hotel. Walking west the street descended to Marina Grande and walked to the end of the street against a cliff.

Walked back and perched at an outdoor bar where I had a cup of tea and Sharon had una birra (beer). The bar belonged to the Soul & Fish restaurant which was not yet open. Moving over to it when it opened, Sharon had the best seabass we've ever tasted (they called Il Branzino) and I had raw (I think) salmon which was way tender and tasted good €45. We will certainly return.

Then we got our good exercise hiking back up 160' to Corso Italia.

Next day we hiked up to the Circumvesuviano stazione di treni and boarded the train to Napoli. This line runs only from Napoli a Sorrento e torno (return). It was hot. It was full before we got there so it was SRO but standing in the hinge area between cars. We got off in Stazione Garibaldi a Napoli and hiked down the street to Pizza Antica da Michele. It was reputed to always have a line out the door but we walked in and had una tavola right away. My vote: new king di pizze, especially now that Miccio's a Sorrento closed. €9 for our marinara pizza e due birre. After lunch we hiked down about a mile, maybe more to the Porta di Traghetti (ferry port). Unfortunately our ferry back to Sorrento was a catamaran jet ferry. The a/c did not cool us much and the boat went much faster than the regular one with moderate swell, so nauseated Sharon. Up the cliff to Hotel Mignon. 

Back down to Marina Grande next day and back to Soul & Fish where I had the Branzino (wonderful again), then we hiked further along the southern edge of Marina Grande as far as we could go along the water and hiked back up to Hotel Mignon.


The following day we hiked up to the Tuesday open air market of fruit, vegetables and clothing. No purchases. Stopped by a cemetery nearby where I sat in the shade on some nice cool marble and watched small birds wandering amongst headstones and two cats chasing each other there while Sharon took a census of dead people without resurrecting any.

Meating was closed so we lunched at one of the pizza places nearby. Not as good.

Next day we hiked out along the cliffs east of Sorrento where we found an abandoned hotel along the cliff edge that still had some nice plantings and Sharon fantasized about restoring it.

Following day we returned to O'Parruchiano. I don't usually like spada much but they served me the best I've ever tasted and Sharon had tube pasta with monkfish sauce, that too was wonderful. We then went for a passeggiata down to a park above the cliff edge where we could sit and look out over Il Golfo. On the way back we stopped for a granita and got to know Giuseppe, the lively owner. We had granita corretta (with a shot of vodka or limoncello). Great cooler. We returned often for a granita or limoncello (made from the rinds of huge lemons that grow along the Amalfi coast over the hill behind or from large lemons grown locally in Sorrento) and enjoyable conversations with Giuseppe who had lots of patter for his customers. "A happy wife makes good life." Well he is usually right. gius.apreda@gmail.com

During one of our conversations with Giuseppe he asked which was our favorite place to eat in Sorrento. Dick lamented that Miccio's was no longer open and we had to find another pizza ristorante. Giuseppe then told us why Miccio was no longer open and it was for a bureaucratic reason, a very typical Italian situation. Per Giuseppe after Miccio had spend a lot of money buying a custom made cover for his outdoor patio he was told he could not have it so he closed his business and moved to a city closer to Napoli.

Many days we would walk down to Piazza della Vittoria where we could usually find a bench in the shade and a breeze and look out over Il Golfo watching the many ferries, superyachts, speedboats (cigar boats) and fishing boats heading for Napoli, Capri (KAHpree), Amalfi and Ischia.

Following day we walked down to the cliff edge. Hung out at back of one of the hotels that was having a wedding photographs taken. The wedding was held at Chiesa e Convento di San Francesco.

Then walked down the switchback stone path to the beach water: Spiaggia San Francesco. Not much beach but we rented two chaises e una ombrella to lay in the shade. Paulo at Hotel Mignon had recommended Bagni Salvatore.

Hundreds of ombrelle on decks sitting on boulder breakwaters. I waited until I felt overheated before descending a steel ladder to the water then swam out, under the floating rope and swam some way out into Il Golfo. Water was cool but not cold. After a 20 minute swim I was back under the ombrella next to Sharon. Reheated for ½ hour before going back in. Went a bit further out into Il Golfo giving the few boats nearby leeway.

There was another path down to the water and I wanted to try using it to ascend back up the cliff. but it was owned by a hotel up at clifftop and the path traversed several tunnels in and out of the cliff face and would end in the hotel's basement so we instead walked back up the switchback. A limoncello with Giuseppe. 
 

Next day we walked along Via Arancia that runs just outside the south side of the old city wall. The road ascended the cliff just west of the Sorrento plateau.

We had been researching The Garden Restaurant just off Corso Italia for a while so for our last pranzo we walked up the stairs to a very nice restaurant under the same kind of trellises as O'Parruchiano.

I had a sliced avocado with tasty large shrimp and delicious bacalau (salted cod) which I love and this was at least as good as we had in '11 a Porto. Sharon very much enjoyed salmon topped with toasted hazelnuts.

A few days back Sharon had discovered that there is a faster Circumvesuviana train called Campania Express and this morning we lugged our luggage up Via Arancia to the stazione di treni. We got a printout with a QKR on it. After we figured out how to get through the gate with that, we tried finding our coach #1 but didn't and a train person said we could sit anywhere. Had to stand until we got to Pompeii but the a/c was very good and the train wheels actually felt round.