Did you know that it rains in Italy in the summertime? In my stereotyped world I didn’t expect it to rain here – not in the summer. That’s an Italian winter-time thing surely! My visions of an Italian summer are endless days of warm sunshine! It just goes to show how little I know how the world runs!

This morning was a bit cloudy, and after breakfast Philip and I took a Google maps “short-cut” to find where the nearest Post Office is. To post postcards to our grandchildren. Normally I like wandering around to find where I want to go, like a puzzle – it’s much more adventurous that way. But I was running out of time to get it done. Google maps said the Post Office was a couple of streets away. What I love about holidays, or being in a different country is that even everyday things like posting a letter becomes an exploration and adventure. But posting a letter is no longer an “everyday” thing anymore, is it?

I think Post Offices are more like banks here. At the front glass door where you stand, the front, small glass door opens so you step into a four-sided glass “cage” like a small elevator enclosure. I felt like I was going to be whisked up or down a floor or two, even though I could see three tellers straight in front of me inside the building. After a few seconds, the inner glass door now opens so that you can now walk forward into the building. I guess it’s a robbery preventative?? It was easy to mime to the teller serving me that I wanted five stamps for my postcards. The teller walked away back into an inner room behind secured doors to get my stamps and was gone for several minutes. When we left the post office we had to walk again through delayed cage-like glass doors.

We decided to do a bit of a wander around some streets to look at some local life. We found a little public garden with a few basic playground items for children to play in. Some patches of green grass and lots of pruned citrus and olive trees. Lovely to wander through – it wasn’t very big.

We sat under the pergola at the hotel, overlooking the Sea and Mt Vesuvius while I read my book and Philip did some computer things till the rain came. Which surprised me. In my binary brain, I had imagined rain in Italy was only for winter-times!

View from the hotel pergola, looking over to Mt Vesuvius

In the afternoon, there was an optional little expedition for those interested. To ride in a cable car. Philip was NOT interested! I was. By now it was starting to pour steadily with rain. I didn’t bring any wet weather gear, so I borrowed Philip’s, as he wasn’t going to be needing it. And set off with those from our group who were up for it too. There weren’t many of us!

The start of the cable car, with the train tunnel on the right.

A train ride – crowded – to a nearby train station, and the cable car was close by. The clouds were now low-lying, and I could see the cables stretching up to a nearby hill and thought it was a bit tame but didn’t mind. Now we saw the advantage of the rainy day. There were no other tourists interested in the cable car! The nine of us from our Oak Hall group were the only ones in the cable car.

Away we went and I was enjoying the view around me and below me under the cable car. And then we kept going up, up, up. Higher and higher. Much, much higher than I had ever imagined. My ears kept popping as we climbed higher and higher. Way higher!

Right to the top of Faito Mountain which is the highest point of the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento Peninsula – 1,400 metres high. It was fantastic – I loved it. It was an eight-minute ride. So much to look at – around and underneath. If there’s no rain or clouds, apparently the view from the top of the mountain is fantastic. You can see Mount Vesuvius and all round the Bay of Naples.

After the houses and apartment blocks fell away from us, the dark green oak and chestnut trees thickly covered the steep mountain sides beneath us all the way to the top. It is a very long way to the bottom! At the top of the mountain is a slightly faded and dilapidated cafe run by a happy, helpful young woman.

Some of us had a quick walk in the rain through the forest on top of the mountain, through the pine trees on a little track. But the rain started to seep through Philip’s rain jacket and I didn’t bring many changes of clothes, so I made mine a short walk and turned back to the warmth and dry of the cafe. We stayed in the cafe while some of the group drank hot tea or ate cold gelato, chatting together.

Lisa-Rose, our group leader is the lady in the denim jacket facing us.

The ride back down the mountain in the cable car was just as exhilarating. The rain stopped, and I finally managed a photo of Mt Vesuvius. Still only faintly seen in the distance, but more than a vague smudge on the horizon. There was a narrow switchback road we passed over and we saw the driver do a three-point turn to make it round the corner.

We passed over an old stone abandoned (I think) cottage high on the mountain. Very tough work to make a living on that precarious slope. Then we swung down over the apartment blocks and houses. Back to the bottom, and then a train ride back to the hotel. It was fantastic.

While I was away having adventures on the cable car, Philip worked out the practicalities of the next stage of our week in England. Hiring a car is prohibitively expensive, so we’re going to go with mainly buses and manage it that way. Philip worked out how we could do it. He does like finding practical solutions to problems. He also went for a walk around the streets, doing little explorations on his own. We’ve had such a lovely day and know how incredibly blessed we are. As I finish this, I can again hear the church bells pealing – such a comforting and ethereal sound.

Tomorrow is our Pompei day!