It’s late in the evening and we have an early start tomorrow morning, so this will be short and sweet tonight. The quickest way is put in lots of photos.

After a buffet breakfast in the hotel, it was a free day. Some of the group were tired after yesterday and elected to stay put and spend most of the day by the hotel pool. Incomprehensible to me, but we’re all different! Some of us went with Lisa-Rose (our group leaderby train to nearby Sorrento. A very dilapidated train crowded with people.

Through two long tunnels burrowing through the mountains and right alongside apartment buildings – three or four storeys high. If there’s any spare land round the buildings, they’re crowded with tall lemon and citrus trees, still clinging onto their yellow fruit, or high tall grape vines draped along huge bamboo poles. They’re so high up I don’t know how they harvest the grapes. When we arrived in Sorrento some of the street trees were orange trees, but too high to pick the fruit.

The photo above was coming into the piazza. There’s lots of tiny streets crammed full of little shops for tourists running off the piazza. Sorrento was heaving with tourists – heaving – both Italian and international tourists.

We walked down narrow streets, looking for a little Christian church that Lisa-Rose had heard about, and it is Sunday today, so thought it would be a great Italian experience for those who wanted it.

When we found it, it was a small church with about 40 welcoming people, the women mostly on one side, the men on the other and the women with lace scarf head coverings on their hair.

Great music with enthusiastic singing. Most of the tunes were recognisable, and as Italian is a mostly phonetic language I (sort-of) sang along. Some of the words I recognised from dim memories of learning Latin syntax in primary school. The pastor preached very loudly (that’s not him in the photo).

Lunch in a cafe in a quieter, smaller street. Philip says the pizzas are amazing, and I really enjoyed a plate of grilled vegetables.

We wandered down to the beach front. From the top of the street, it’s a long way down.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the beaches here! I walked down a steeply sloping, zig-zag path down to the beach (and puffed a lot in going back up!).

Sone of the “beaches” you can’t go to – only for Sorrento residents.

Other beaches you queue (and wait a long time for your turn) and then you pay for the privilege. The beaches are very small and narrow with black, coarse sand and pebbles. Most of the people sit on lounge chairs on piers, stone breakwaters and jettys.

Vesuvius overlooks us all when we’re at the beach!

We saw some beautiful old buildings as we wandered around. This says (I think) it was an old opera house. I took the photo with my hands through iron railings and it’s now an evening restaurant.

I heard church bells but didn’t see any Sunday congregations. This church looked like it was preparing for a wedding and there were still more flowers coming in! It was magnificently beautiful. Probably a “wedding church.”

I really enjoyed the day – a great Italian experience. Exuberant, loud, colourful. But I wouldn’t want to go back to Sorrento. The beautiful pushed down and crushed under the weight of the tacky, the dilapidated, the neglected and the tawdry. And now it’s way past bed-time, so Goodnight!