The spice shop is Confezionato da Aromi di Sorrento, Via Fuoro, 62A

Via Fuoro is the continuation of via Cesareo which is street than runs parallel to Corso Italia, the main street.

I can't find the name of the ceramics shop but it's located just off Piazza Sant Antonio on Via Luigi de Maio, before it starts going down hill. There is a larger ceramics shop right across the street from it (on the corner) which is not bad, but has the kinds of things you see in most touristy ceramics shops in Italy. The one I'm talking about is much smaller and not open all the time. The woman who owns it is very nice and her brother runs a restaurant (really good) just outside the town walls. If you ask her she'll direct you there.

isabel - did they sell herbs as well? if so, I'm pretty certain it's the one we visited, which was somewhere down there. The scarf shop is somewhere along there on the left, closer to the Piazza Tasso.

annhig - yes they did. The place smelled amazing, and the few things we bought the first time were really good, kept their scent and flavor for a long time (till they were used up) so the next trip we bought a lot more. Fortunately they don't weigh much so make a good thing to bring home.

I am a 'she' folks. I'm not trying to be a right-fighter. Just saying that Sorento (which is mostly post WW2 built by the way) has no character or appeal for me. However - disclaimer - I do love Delfinos.

There are parts of Positano that are not mowed down with tourists and at least it has two beaches and views that don't require standing at the edge of a cliff or paying for an expensive hotel to see.

If you want a scarf shop - this is the place. World leaders and royalty shop here at their little store in Chiaia in Naples.

http://www.marinellanapoli.it/en/scarves-man-woman.php

If you want a scarf shop - this is the place. World leaders and royalty shop here at their little store in Chiaia in Naples. >>

at world leader/royalty prices no doubt, 'cod.

it's obvious to anyone with eyes that lots of Sorrento was rebuilt post WW2 but that is not the point of it, nor is the lack of views; there are plenty of places nearby with views as you rightly say. It's not as if people are going to be surprised when they get there that they can't see the sea, is it?

The point is that as a base for touring it has a lot of advantages, and enough to keep those of us with less refined tastes than some others here interested in the evenings.

Sheesh! I was just adding the link to Marinella to add that Naples is a city full of artisans who don't import from China and people still hand stitch ties and scarves. Price was not my point. Quality and local craftsmanship is.

Naples also fulfills your convenience criteria as a 'base for touring' and has tons more things to do without the eyeball to eyeball English speaking tourists - but that is falling on deaf ears, clearly.

Naples also fulfills your convenience criteria as a 'base for touring' and has tons more things to do without the eyeball to eyeball English speaking tourists - but that is falling on deaf ears, clearly.>>

how does a link to a high end shop amount to recommending Naples as a place full of artisans or a touring base, 'cod? We aren't ming-readers. I would agree that it has a huge amount to see and may well suit a lot of people as a base, but its reputation might well deter the very people you seem to despise.

I actually found quite a lot of people in Sorrento who spoke little or no english - perhaps you are looking in the wrong places.

Debate is good. So lets consider this as debate and not argument.

I found Naples an exciting city with a lot of personality and several beautiful sites (churches, the tiled cloister - don't off hand remember it's name but it's in all the guidebooks), the castle, a couple of beautiful gallerias. I definitely recommend people visit it, and not just to go to the Archaeology Museum. But it's a large city and has a totally different feel to it than Sorrento so I don't really think it's a good alternative. Especially for people who are not city people - for those it would really take some getting used to before you feel comfortable, which is not the case for Sorrento.

Also from Sorrento you have the option of the bus - which while it can be crowded mid day in season - has views that are magnificent and different from those you get from the boat.

I also found there to be more English speaking tourists in Positano than Sorrento. Since it's a smaller village to start with the percentage of tourist to local is higher than Sorrento.

Good points, isabel. Naples to me is the sort of place to which one graduates after a number of years of visiting Italy and feeling comfortable in big Italian cities - friends of ours to whom that does not apply booked a hotel in the wrong end of town and never went out in the evening at all, so scared were they of the neighbourhood, and even I felt spooked by some of the tiny ill-lit [or rather non-lit] streets off the Spaccanapoli one dark February night. They would most certainly have had a better holiday had they stayed in Sorrento and I would think twice about staying there in winter.

Foreigners aren't the only people who are afraid of Naples' reputation, BTW - my first italian teacher, a young Milanese man of about 30, told the story of he and his friend being at traffic lights in Naples, struggling with a map and totally lost. The passenger in the car next to them wound down his window and gestured to them to do the same - they were sure that they were going to be kidnapped or worse. However all they wanted was to help and in fact they lead him and his friend to where they wanted to be.

Well we liked Sorrento both times we stayed there. No- it's not a tourist attraction in itself but is a very convenient place to stay that avoids much of the worst traffic in the area.

Our hotel had great views over the Bay of Naples and a private elevator from the terrace down to the ferry/hydrofoil docks directly underneath. It also had private parking so we could drive to Pompeii (go first thing it's hellishly hot later in the day) and up and down the coast to the various towns - but it was May so the traffic was not at it;s worst. But it also has ferries to Naples, Capri and even down the coast to several towns.

Yes, there are a large number of tourists in the town - there are anyplace on the AC in season. But we had no trouble finding restaurants filled with locals and Italian menus and foods - not those places with menus in 8 languages and with pix of the foods.

<that avoids much of the worst traffic in the area.> - yep - because it's on the pointy end of a peninsula and the road has nowhere else to go.

<Yes, there are a large number of tourists in the town - there are anyplace on the AC in season.> - nope. The Amalfi Coast has three popular towns and about 10 others that no one has heard of but are just as beautiful.


Those places with 8 languages and photos are actually to help the restaurant staff. It doesn't mean the food is rubbish - it just means they don't have to stand there and translate everything on the menu for the masses of English/Japanese/Chinese and Indian tourists and everyone else who doesn't speak Italian or English.

Anyone from Milan is afraid of Naples. It's in their DNA. When I'm in Rome, heading south for Naples the taxi drivers actually try and talk me out of going there because they have a friend of a friend of a friend's neighbour who was pickpocketed in a church.

>>>To use the Circumvesuviana, where do purchase tickets? And do you have to get them validated before boarding<<<<

Yes, buy tickets at any of the stations and most validation occurs as you stick your ticket into the gate to access the train area. The fast train annhig mentioned is quite a bit more expensive than the regular runs.

If you are visiting certain things (Pompeii, archaeology museum in Naples, etc.) three days straight, it might make sense for you to get the Campania Artecard 3 day tutta la regione (32€) which gives you two site entrances free and transport for 3 days (in Naples and down the coast, but not ferries). There is a 7 day card also, but it doesn't include transport.

http://www.campaniartecard.it/artecard_Regione.cfm

Amalfi & Ravello : last week we caught the 08.30 (there is also one at 09.00) Sita bus from Sorrento Station to Amalfi, via Positano, using our Campania Artecards . The bus pulled up at about 08.00 and there was a rush for the seats on the right hand side of the bus for the best views, by the time we left there was barely even standing room left. It emptied out quite a bit at Positano. We arrived in Amalfi at about 10.10 just as a Sita bus for Ravello pulled in which we squeezed onto (using our Artecards) arriving in Ravello shortly before 11.00. As we had Artecards we didn't have to pay for tickets but you can get them from the booth by the bus stop and I seem to think that they may have been 8 euros, can't be certain though.

Getting back down to Amalfi a couple of hours later was a bit of a joke, we waited 45+minutes in the full sun, for a Sita bus, of which 2 were timetabled (brand new summer timetable) but didn't arrive, gave up and went for lunch, went back, waited again with the crowd for the 14.45 which was late according to a driver of a different bus. The Coast-to-Coast open top coach back to Amalfi turned up, scheduled half hourly .15 and .45, so we caught that at a cost of 5 euros each, which was a very enjoyable little trip.

Finally, at a cost of 17 euros each, we caught the Alicost ferry Amalfi to Sorrento, via Positano at 16.35, arriving 17.25. Again, you need to be there early if you want a seat on the right hand side of the ferry to enjoy the view. There was no passenger access at all at the front of the boat and only a very small amount at the back.