Recently, I was fortunate enough to take a 3-week-long trip to Italy and France and it was just so wonderful that I wanted to share with you all. As you know, last year, I went through some difficult health challenges, and so I decided to reward myself for making it through some tough times and celebrate LIFE!! This trip is not my first European trip, but my second; my first trip was about 20 years ago, and we went to London, Paris, Rome, and Montepulciano.
I’ve always wanted to go back, but I have always just been too busy working and visiting Korea to take care of my extended family matters all those years. My last trip outside of US and Korea was Peru in 2017. So to make up for all those years I didn’t get to travel, I decided to take a long, wonderful trip.
We started in the French Riviera (Nice, France) and went through the Italian Riviera (Cinque Terre), then went inland to Milan, Lake Como, Modena, Florence, Perugia and then the area of Sorrento and its vicinity. Because there’s way too much to write in one post, I’m going to start with the favorite part of my trip first and then write additional posts later.
First, a picture is worth a thousand words, so let me start with some beautiful coastal views of Campania—mostly around Sorrento and Capri.
Sorrento
I have to confess that I really didn’t know much about Sorrento before my visit. But if you want to visit the Amalfi Coast, Capri, or Pompeii, this is the perfect town to stay, relax (has great hotels), shop, and enjoy the views of the bay of Naples. The city is not very big but has so many cute shops that are well prepared for tourists but WITHOUT the high tourist prices. My driver, Guilliano, told me that if I want to buy anything in this region, I should buy it in Sorrento (and not in Amalfi Coast or Capri) because they have everything that you would buy elsewhere but have the most reasonable prices. And he was right!!! Thank you!!
Here’s the first picture of Sorrento as we approached it. Sadly, it was a cloudy day when we stopped at this scenic spot but you can still see and get a good feel for the beauty of this coast.
More photos of Sorrento!! Breathtaking ocean views from our hotel (Hotel Bellevue Syrene) and scenes from the very cute and cozy town that I simply fell in love with. I will talk more about food and restaurants later.
First, I want to say that this is NOT a sponsored post of any kind. I am writing to share a great resource I happened upon online. Mario and Pinar at Milo Tours helped me plan the vacation of my dreams, and then made it a reality—and oh so perfectly!! From planning the entire itinerary, reserving the best hotels in perfect locations (either with spectacular views, everything within walking distance, or both), hiring the best local guides, to reserving the most wonderful restaurants and providing door-to-door service with the best driver!!
Oh my.. Mario and Pinar, you guys are simply the BEST!!!
What to eat in Sorrento
The MUST-HAVE local dish of Sorrento is Gnocchi alla Sorrentina. It really is to die for. It’s all the things Italian food is about – tomatoey and cheesy all the way around!! I’m usually not a big gnocchi fan, but this was just heavenly. The soft pillowy potato gnocchi swimming in a sweet, thick tomato sauce, then baked with the local fresh fior di latte mozzarella cheese with some parmesan cheese grated on top…. need I say more??
I really must say this was probably one of my top favorite dish out of all the foods I had in Italy for 3 weeks. Every time you pick up some gnocchi, the stretchy cheese comes along, and your mouth starts to water just in anticipation…
We had this special gnocchi at Antico Francischiello (since 1909!!) which also offers spectacular views of the ocean.
AND…this restaurant is also the best place to have another local favorite – Lemon Delight (Delizia al Limone)!
The mini sponge cake filled and coated with lemon custard was created by a pastry chef from the Amalfi Coast, and the Lemon Delight is now one of Campania’s most popular desserts. So it was a happy challenge when Mario asked me to try the Lemon Delight at all the different restaurants in Sorrento and let him know which one I liked the best.
So I had it 3 times!! Each night.. lol. I have to say, the classic traditional style served at Francischiello (pic on the right) was indeed my favorite—and Mario’s, too 😍. Perfectly balanced in both texture and flavor—it was so light and airy, creamy, lemony, lightly sweet and not sour—it truly was a delight!
And yess… seafood is king in the Bay of Naples and of course in Sorrento. I had baked scallops, seafood salad, and grilled seafood. Each dish was absolutely delicious, with the seafood salad being my favorite – so light and refreshing. The seafood salad was so good that I told myself I needed to make it after we got back home.
More RESTAURANTS – we also enjoyed eating at Pizzeria Tasso located in center of town and Bagni Delfino which is right near the ocean. Try to time it for sunset and it should be absolutely magical (we went a little too late) in addition to very good food and service.
Amalfi Coast
The Amalfi Coast, known for its beautiful cliffside towns, breathtaking seaside views, and winding roads, is something I have been looking forward to throughout my trip. Positano (see video) and Ravello are two very popular towns along this coast.
Although I didn’t get to stay in the area, we did get to go on a day trip to visit the towns and take in the spectacular views. To me (as many would say), the drive to the coast was the most wonderful part. The views were absolutely stunning, and the towns were so pretty, with houses that looked like they were sitting on top of each other on these hills.
Be prepared for the crowd and High prices
But once we got out of the car and tried to walk around, the streets were so crowded with tourists that I couldn’t really fully enjoy the town.. However, we were able to try both the Amalfi Lemon Sorbet (Sorbetto al Limone) and the Limoncello spritz, SITTING on a table in one of the busy cafes!! Lemon Sorbet was beautiful and delicious but also expensive. I think we paid like 15 euro because the cafe kind of was at a premium spot in the town. So be sure to check and compare prices if you can.
Btw, some of these cafes required each person to order something in order to sit at the table? Hmm…I probably wouldn’t have sat down if I knew that.. but it worked out because we were each going to order anyway.
They say it’s much worse in the summer, and I couldn’t imagine the area being any busier. Anyway, we still enjoyed visiting Positano but for me, I most LOVED the views from the town of Ravello. A spectacular, all-around ocean view from the Villa Rufolo gardens(center below) is something you shouldn’t miss. The incredible view when you stand in the Piazza and see a whole village on the hillside beyond the tall tree is something I did not expect. I so wished I had my canon camera.. but hopefully you can get a feel by looking at the left and right pics below.
IMPORTANT TIP – I would advise against driving yourself to Amalfi coast because the roads are very narrow and winding, sometimes too narrow for buses and cars to pass each other. And parking is very tricky, can be very expensive if not impossible. Check the parking policies before you go. Best way is to take a tour bus or hire a local driver and car, or better yet, have one of Milo Tours’ excellent drivers drive you. Our driver Guilliano made the whole trip so enjoyable, safe and fun.
Pompeii
When I booked the trip with Milo Tours, I knew he was a guide for many years but had no idea that Mario was once a student of archeology and even took part in an excavation project of Pompeii!!!
BTW, if you ever plan to visit the area, DO NOT miss Pompeii!!! Embarrassingly, we almost did, because I somehow had it in my head that the Pompeii tour might be too tiring for me, as it was towards the end of the trip and I wasn’t sure in how my energy level was going to be.
Anyway, a few days into the trip, I felt pretty confident about my energy level and I also enjoyed visiting the historical places and the tours so much that I asked Mario if we could schedule a tour of Pompeii, and WOW… not only did he deliver with such a last minute change request, he told us that HE would be our guide!!! How cool is that?? 😍
It was such a perfect way to end our tour of Campania and basically our trip. Thank you, Mario, for taking the time out for us and making it happen!!! I have to say it really was one of the most memorable moments..
I simply cannot cover all the information that was poured on us by Mario but let me just say that listening to him — I was totally brought back in time and could almost see the bath houses, people and chariots bustling on the streets, bread being baked in the oven, wine and other foods being fermented in the clay jars called Dolias and being sold, foreign businessmen coming off the ships, bathing, dining and then being invited to stay with ladies of the night so men could really get into discussing businesses…lol… humans really haven’t changed much.
Capri
Capri is a 4-mile by 2-mile island about 30 minutes away by private boat from the port of Sorrento. This island became famous for being the vacation spot for Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius so you can imagine how beautiful it is.
It was a marvelous ride up the roads to the main square of Capri (Piazza Umberto) in the fun, colored convertible taxi while seeing the ever so scenic blue seas – so blue that it appears almost black in my picture (left top)!! And the highlight really was when we took a chairlift to Mount Solaro – the highest point of the island which is in Anacapri (town next to the town of Capri) where you have a breathtaking 360 degree view of the ocean!!
BTW, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED – as you see in the bottom left picture above, I did a selfie of myself while going down on the chairlift and do you see a guy on the other side?? He photobombed me!! See his HUGE GRIN?? HAHAHA… whoever you are.. Thank you for making me laugh 😂. I had no idea this happened until I was going over my photos..And now you are famous!!! LOL
The TOP CENTER picture is of the main square called Piazza Umberto of Capri, where most restaurants and shops are. There are many more shops but I didn’t take any pictures because I was too busy avoiding bumping into people!!
The TOP RIGHT picture is the storefront of the famous perfumery Carthusia that got started in 1948 by monks from the Carthusian monastery who grew herbs in the Gardens of Augustus and decided to make perfumes with them because they had nothing else to do (according to my guide.. haha). BTW monastery dates back to the 14th century and yes, I did buy a couple bottles of perfumes because they were really nice, light, herbaceous and fresh smelling.
Finally, here’s my youtube short of the breathtaking ocean views with now my favorite song of Sorrento – Caruso ❤️
Well.. I hope you enjoyed reading about my stay in the Campania region. I hope to share soon about my foodie trip to Bologna and Modena, where I got to taste Mortadella and learned how Balsamic Vinegar and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese were made!
Grazie mille for reading my post all the way through!
XOXO ❤️
JinJoo
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