Flip flops and stilettos-flip flops for during the day, stilettos for my more fancy attire at night.  I did not bring tennis shoes, hiking boots, or even outdoorsy sandals.  So when we asked the lady at the front desk how to get to the walking path down to town, she took one look at my shoes and said in her best English, “While I love your shoes, you need to be very careful.  Not good for cobblestone path”.  Who knew my black platform flip flops with the sequence straps wouldn’t be appropriate for a leisurely walk down European terrain?!  If she was worried about these shoes, what would she think come dinner time when I was rocking my black patten pleather stilettos?

The path down to the town of Sorrento was #1-downhill and #2-amazing!  While I was trying carefully not to tumble down to town (I have a history of falling down) and not get hit by a scooter careening down without the hum of an engine (they don’t turn them on to go downhill!), I noticed some majorly cool sites along the way.  Like for instance, lizards and lemon trees!  While the lizards slipped between cracks in the rocks at the sound of my flippety flop, the mega-sized lemons dangled from branches and left the sweetest scent in the air.  So this is what they call a honeymoon?  I’ll take it!

After stopping every few feet to snap a photo of the stunning coast, we safely arrived at our destination-the town of Sorrento.  Ladies-you can shop til you drop in Sorrento, or until your Euros run out.  The town is overflowing with retail.  I only enjoy shopping when I absolutely need something, like a new pair of shoes or a little black dress.  When I’m on vacation, all I really need is good, local food and a beverage (plus I got the new shoes and the dress before I left the US)

Immediately, I started scoping out a good place to mangia.  When Paul and I first traveled to Europe together, he taught me a very important thing about finding good, local food.  Steer clear of the pictures.  If a place has a picture of its food, its most likely a tourist trap.  If you have to know a little of  the local language to figure out the menu, the place is exactly where you want to be.  Good lesson, but sometimes hard to follow when most places in the world now cater to the all mighty tourist.

After strolling down one street after another and growing more hungry by the minute, we finally decided to eat at Pizzeria Aurroro located right in the town square of Sorrento.  No pictures and waiters who spoke Italian-perfetto!  We found a cozy table for two outside and ordered two Neopolitan pizzas and one insalate caprese.  Insalate caprese in Italy is like slices of heaven topped with olive oil, basil, and oregano.  The tender, sweet, succulent tomato slices put the Jersey tomato out of business.  And the mozzarella?  The tastiest salty companion to tomatoes that I’d ever tasted in my life!  After I ate every morsel of goodness on my plate, my personal Neopolitan pizza arrived.  Neopolitan pizza does not have cheese on it, but who needs cheese when you just had a whole plate of it as your salad?  They don’t believe in slicing their pizza in Italy-you must cut it yourself and sometimes with a very dull butter knife.  I like it.  I think it helps you relax, slow down, and basque in every juicy mouthful.

My husband is secretly European, though we’re not quite sure which part of Europe he’s from.  France or Italy, its always a toss up.  He loves the European lifestyle and, now that he’s introduced me to it, I love it too.  He does so well speaking the language of wherever we are (except for Spain, I did most of the speaking there!).  I was so proud of him at Pizzeria Aurroro when he asked the waiter in his most confident Italian, “Dov’è la toilette?” and was so crushed when the waiter replied, “Just inside to your left” in his most confident English.  It sounded like good Italian to me honey.

After lunch we decided to take the hotel’s advice and take the shuttle bus back up to the hotel.  “Its a lovely walk down, but not so lovely on the way up”.  We’ll take your word for it.  The bus ride up to the hotel was breathtaking and once there, we made our way to the pool for a little digestive relaxation before dinner.

Dinner.  My first dinner in Sorrento was at Vela Bianca…now my absolute favorite restaurant of all time.  As a result we ate there 5 times on our 7 day adventure!  It was quite a feat to get down to, about a thousand steps down to be exact, but worth every single one.

I loved this place so much that I am devoting an entire post to it and sending it to our friend Miguella back in Sorrento!  Stay tuned!