I’ve now been in Sorrento for almost two months now and despite a lot of students here going on big weekend trips to other places in Italy or Europe, so far I’ve stayed in Sorrento and just went on day trips to places I can reach by train.
Recently I visited Pompeii and Naples, each their own unique and vastly different experiences.
Using the train is fairly easy, convenient, and inexpensive and there’s so many places right around Sorrento worth a visit!
Pompeii
A few weekends ago, I went with a couple of friends to Pompeii.
Taking the Circumvesuviana train from the Sorrento train station to Pompeii was very simple and pretty fast.
One of the entrances to Pompeii Archeological Park is just a few minutes’ walk away from the train stop and we were able to purchase an English-speaking tour right at the train station.
If visiting without having done prior research to the places in Pompeii, I’d definitely recommend joining a tour as it was very helpful in understanding the history behind what we were looking at as we walked around.
Some of the places we visited within Pompeii were the forum, the basilica, various villas, and the large theater.
In the two hour tour, we saw so much but there is so much more of Pompeii left that I have yet to see!
I remember learning about Pompeii as a child in school and had seen a few pictures, but actually seeing it in person was an entirely different experience.
I hadn’t realized just how much of Pompeii is still standing or how much artwork, architecture, and frescos remained preserved.
It was fascinating to be able to see the stories depicted in the frescos and bits of daily life like in menus painted on the walls of where stores used to be.
Walking through Pompeii was an experience that I think everyone who is in the area should have!
History really springs to life when you can step foot in many of the places where Ancient Romans did, seeing the places they frequented and lived.
Naples
The next weekend, my roommate and I went to Naples for the day!
Getting to Naples from Sorrento was a straightforward process, simply getting on the train and riding it to the second-to-last stop at Napoli Garibaldi.
While on the train, a couple of violinists got on the train and started playing along to music playing through a speaker then got off at the next stop, which was a fun unexpected occurrence.
We mainly visited Naples to go shopping, but when we arrived we were hungry.
Naples has a wide variety of food options and we missed having Chinese food, so we got lunch at a Chinese restaurant.
As much as I enjoy Italian food, it was a nice change from all of the Italian food I had been eating since arriving in Sorrento.
After eating, we were fueled up to explore the many thrift and vintage clothing stores on Via Mezzocannone.
Some were small, others were larger and I learned that most of these stores had a downstairs with much more than what at first seemed all the store had on the main floor.
It was nice that they were all on the same street so we could wander in and out of each store fairly easily.
One of my favorite stores we went into was pretty big and was Western themed, with lots of leather jackets, cowboy boots, and Western-themed decorations.
I just really liked the atmosphere of the store and it made it more fun to walk around, even if I didn’t buy anything.
This was the store where I actually tried something on: a jacket, and if it had been a different color I would have bought it!
Despite neither of us finding any clothes we wanted to buy, it was an adventure in itself, getting to see what each store had to offer!
These fun mini-trips were a great way to add an adventure to my otherwise pretty chill weekend of sleeping in and catching up on homework!
I’d definitely recommend exploring these places easily reached by train, and in future weekends I plan on visiting more places around Sorrento!
Ciao!
Justine