Mt. Vesuvius/Sorrento

It’s 4200 feet to the summit and about 3800 feet to the rim. Our bus could only go so far, so we had about a 30 minute brisk hike to get to the rim.

Mt. Vesuvius’ last major eruption was in 1944, and another is much overdue. It’s most famous, of course, for its eruption of 79AD, when it spewed ash for 18 hours and completely covered Pompeii.

Maureen and Norman are lovin’ the view of the Bay of Naples from the rim of Mt. Vesuvius.

If you think a portion of the tour may be too strenuous for you, let your tour guide know. You're free to opt out of any activity if you wish.

You won’t be staying in fancy chain hotels on a Rick Steves’ tour. Many of your hotels will be family-owned; they will all be clean and located right where you want to be to take advantage of whatever city you happen to be in on your tour.

A typical Rick Steves’ hotel: Simple, but clean and comfortable with an attentive staff.

Did I mention you’d be climbing stairs on this tour? We could have taken transportation to reach the street from our hotel, but we chose to tough it out and walk up the stairs.

Shopping in Sorrento is definitely more affordable than Positano or Capri, so you might want to pick up some of your keepsakes here.

On our free night, some of us had dinner at Ristorante Delfino. The food was great, and what could be better than watching the sun set on Sorrento!

Seafood is king here. Mike’s fish came complete with head and tail as did Lev’s fried sardine appetizer.

Lev, Rainer, Lisa and Robin topped off the perfect evening with the traditional limoncello.

Inside Scoop:

The meals on tour will be leisurely, with several courses and a variety of wines and plenty of time
to enjoy the company of your traveling companions.

The next morning we took the hydrofoil from Sorrento to Capri. Capri is pronounced with an accent on the first syllable.

From the marina, we took a bus to Anacapri where we did some window shopping on the “Rodeo Drive” of Capri and marveled at the views!

We anchored the boat a few times to swim. Wow! What an experience! For Robin and me, being at that place at that moment was pure joy!

It’s hard to describe the feeling you get looking at those cliffs and hearing the gulls as they circle near the tops. It's absolutely surreal!

Sometimes the best adventures come upon you when you least expect them. With Rainer at the helm, Rita, Terry, Lev, David, Robin and I embarked on the most fun adventure of our trip. For two hours, we had the most amazing boat ride of our lives.

While we were seeing the Faraglioni rocks up close and personal from our boat, Mike was taking this awesome picture of them from from Anacapri. See that area of pretty green water in the center by the cliff? That’s one of the places where we anchored our boat to swim.

We rented the boat right at the Marina in Capri. We split the fee seven ways, so it was quite inexpensive. We went in the afternoon and were out about two hours. I had thought about seeing the Blue Grotto, which is best to do in the morning, but did not. Rita and Lev had gone in the morning, and they said it was not nearly as much fun as this boat trip.

And see that yacht on the left? We found out later that it’s the Octopus, owned by Paul Allen of Microsoft. It has not one, but two, helicopters as well as a submarine on board. Now that’s living!

Rainer did an excellent job of maneuvering our boat through the narrow opening in one of the rocks.

What a day this had been! I thought it would be impossible to top this. The next day we would be off again, ready for new adventures. Once again, this trip didn’t disappoint. I’m not sure if it topped our day at Capri, but I couldn’t believe how much I loved, loved, loved Pompeii!