In July of 2017, my sister got married in Sorrento, Italy. It was a small wedding, with only 4 guests. And me. I'd be the photographer on the day.
The photos have since been displayed at the reception back home and delivered so this post won't cover them. These photos will concentrate on the rest of the trip.
I was there for a week. It would be the first time I'd travelled without Pamela since we'd met. This was both good and bad. Bad because she wasn't there to share this wonderful place with me. We wouldn't be able to appreciate the fantastic food together or sit and watch the sunset behind the mountains. On the other hand, any time that I wasn't preparing or participating in the wedding duties would be my own. As I touched on briefly in a previous blog entry, being on holiday limits how much time can be spent photographing. Certainly when you compare it to a dedicated photography trip. This would be a new experience for me. I have travelled by myself several years ago but that was before I had discovered photography so this would be the first time I could set my own time table for the week (with some exceptions).
I've always said that as a tourist, you will take tourist's photos. You get sucked in by the town square or local church/statue/water feature/whatever. To really get to know a place you have to spend some real time time there or return several times until you're completely familiar with how a place lives and breathes. It's only then that you start to scratch below the surface. Outwardly, Sorrento is smiling waiters and helpful hotel receptionists but having read about popular holiday destinations outside of holiday season, I'm willing to bet that there's a side to Sorrento that visitors to the area don't really get to see. Or likely care about in all honesty.
I was there for a week. To do something specific. So there will be a lack of probing social commentary in this blog entry. What there will be are photos of the lovely street and scenic views that you get from the Amalfi Coast. We also took a trip to Herculaneum on the day after the wedding but I'll do a separate blog entry for that as it's a fascinating place.
This would be my base of operations for the week. A single room in a hotel at the top end of the town in The Villagio Verdi.. Small but perfectly comfortable. I was one of the few people staying there that had wi-fi in my room as I was close enough to the bar/pool wi-fi to pick it up 24 hours a day. So that was quite handy. The air-con took a while to kick in but once it did, it cooled the place right down. And frankly, thank god it did. We arrived in Sorrento in the middle of a Mediterranean heatwave. We were mid to high 30s every day which for me is too hot. I'm not built for that kind of thing. I'm overweight and hairy (with the exception of the top of my head, which consequently needs to be covered) and much more at home in cooler climates.
Though I have to say that I was just glad to arrive in one piece. Sorrento isn't all that far from the UK but after your 3 hour flight, you have an hour in the airport and then another couple of hours or more on winding, bobbing roads in a minibus before you get to the hotel. All the time having to experience Italian driving. The Italians aren't the worst I've seen in my time but the standard of driving can still shock. For one, there's barely a car on the road that doesn't have huge scratches or bumps all over it. Quite genuinely, out of the thousands of cars we passed leaving the airport in Naples, there was probably only a few dozen that looked unscathed. And that was probably because I couldn't see the other side of the vehicle.
And once you are in to Sorrento the drivers blast round corners and slam the brakes on if it turns out someone is coming the other way, rather than slow down a bit in preparation. This led to a particularly uncomfortable journey on the bus and I was glad to get off alive. The bus arrived at the hotel just after midnight local time. We'd been picked up from my mum's house that morning at 10am.
Day One was getting to know the place and get my bearings. I actually don't feel particularly comfortable in a place while I'm completely unaware of the layout so I try to do this as early as possible. These photos were taken just after 8am. That wouldn't be something I'd be doing in Falkirk. Maybe in an emergency. But I had limited time here and really like to make as much use out of my time as possible when it comes to holidays. I might never set foot in Sorrento again, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't go home, feeling like I wasted time there.
It really was great to see the light play off these sun-baked buildings. I haven't been to Italy since I was child so it was great to be back seeing the rustic buildings, hearing the Italian voices and smelling the Mediterranean air sweeping through my nose after so long.
Tourist's photo!
Tourist Photo!
That gorge is home to an (obviously) abandoned mill. Out of the 7 of us that travelled, only my hotel was situated on the other side of the gorge to the main town. So no one else saw this until I took them to it. It's that kind of thing that I like to know is there when I'm new to a place. There's not much to it and I don't think you can get down to it anymore. I certainly didn't see anyone climbing around at any point. But it was a nice feature to have on my morning walk. It's a big drop though and I could feel a slight swell of vertigo whenever I looked down over the bridge.
Italy is full of churches. Sorrento is full of churches actually. Sitting right in the middle of the town is this one above. The Cattedrale di Sorrento. The town is built up around it so I actually didn't bother photographing it from the outside. It's pretty unremarkable and you can't really see the whole thing. But it was beautiful inside and more importantly, nice and cool!
I'm not religious in the slightest these days. My family were as I was growing up and often on our holidays, we would go to church if we could on the Sundays. It wasn't really my idea of a holiday activity to be honest. I remember that in Malta, mass was often given in Latin. So even if I had paid attention, I wouldn't have followed it. The only other mass I particularly remember was in Rome. We were visiting the Vatican and happened to arrive shortly before Pope John Paul II gave mass. We hadn't planned it and only worked it out when we saw the increased security (which seems to have become standard security these days). There are a few photos from what must have been the 126th row in the Vatican of this tiny white dot that we were reliably informed was the Pope.
Pope John Paul II had also visited Cattedrale di Sorrento. There were various photos of him dotted around the building and a few statues as well.
We were meeting up with my sister's friend who was also in holiday in Sorrento at the time at the Hilton. It was at the far end of the town up a hill. I just walked up. Taxis are ludicrously expensive in Sorrento. You either walk up hills in the heat or get a taxi so they can charge what they like. Often a 2-3 minute journey will cost over £20. I only ever used them once, on the last day when I had to be back in time for airport pickup and didn't fancy sitting in the bus soaked in sweat. The Hilton was very nice and we sat by the pool through the hot part of the day. In fact, we ended up sitting by the pool every day during the hottest part with the exception of the day we visited Herculaneum.
Once things started to cool down a bit (and I do mean 'a bit') I asked my sister and her now husband to show me their wedding venue. Turns out I'd been right there when I was looking out over the sea. It's funny that the venue is so beautiful and right at the busiest part of the town but because you need to go down a little corridor in a corner to get there, it was much quieter than its surroundings.
I got to work looking for shots and angles. We'd be downstairs. It really was a great space. Simple but with great areas of shadow and light. Her wedding would be the last of the day so we'd get a little more time to take photos as we wouldn't have to make way for anyone else. The light would be a little softer and more directional at that time of day. And most importantly, it's be cooler!
Day Two started off poorly and improved as the day went on. I woke up early in the morning, sick as a dog. We had been going on a boat trip to Capri but I would have to miss out on that as I could barely get out of bed. I slept most of the day, only getting up in the evening to go for dinner as I was feeling much better. We dined at the Hilton and then sat out on the balcony and watched the sun set and Mount Vesuvius.
When I went travelling after my dad had died, I really tried to appreciate the nice moments. There was a lot of sitting in planes, driving, booking things, waiting etc but there were also many, many magical moments. Once in a lifetime moments, really. I tried to do the same thing here. Watching the sky cycle through the evening colours in the evening Mediterranean heat was bliss.
By Day Three, I was clearly feeling relaxed and inspired as I was up at 4am to photograph the town in the morning. This had been the first holiday to Europe during the school summer holidays that I had had for a long time. I actively try to avoid it due to the crowds of people during those months. I do the same with weekends here in Scotland. Almost all my photos are taken on a nice, quiet Tuesday afternoon. Sorrento had been uncomfortably busy at times. At 4 in the morning, I had the streets to myself.
It was great and a much needed change of pace to my previous trips to the town. I wasn't even drenched in sweat, which was an even nicer change.
I made my way to the edge of town to get a look at Mount Vesuvius, across the water.
It was definitely worth the early start.
I stayed there for just under an hour, watching the volcano rise through the morning mist. I only saw one other person there in that whole time. Seems a shame that so many people were visiting the area yet so many of them missed this.
Before heading back to the hotel for breakfast, took a little detour to have a look at some shrines that I had clocked previously. I mentioned earlier that I'm not religious but I do fine this kind of thing quite fascinating. Not least because of the openness of it. If you were to build something like this in a popular tourist destination in Scotland, it would be vandalised before the paint dried.
After that, the camera went away and I relaxed by the pool in my own hotel for a change (the hotel has some very specific rules about pool etiquette), since our friends at the Hilton had headed off home and it felt a bit cheeky to continue using their pool.
Day Four would be the wedding. So I had to make sure I was all ready to go.
It was a good day. I did not manage to avoid being drenched in sweat, however. There was a lot of running about. I had decided against a suit jacket but was still wearing trousers, boots and a shirt in 30 degree+ temperatures. So I was quite glad when it was over. As well as taking a break from running about, it meant we were going for dinner at a pretty expensive restaurant at the water's edge. Our taxi picked us up from the town centre and took us down the winding roads to the beach.
The delicious food came with an even more welcomed breeze. It really was great. Everyone was in a great mood and the bride and groom received a round of applause as they came in. In fact, people would applaud everywhere they went. My sister is laughing in the photograph above because everyone in the cafe off camera is clapping and taking photos.
I don't for much in life but if I could spend my dinner time in that restaurant, I'd have little else to worry about.
We ended the night in a rooftop bar at the other side of the town before heading home. There was a bit of a communication issue with the group so the taxi driver who had driven us about all day was tipped twice. So he will have gone home happy!
What I haven't mentioned so far is that when we arrived at the venue to take photographs, we found that Mount Vesuvius was on fire. As you might imagine, this was quite concerning and indeed, many people closer to the volcano had been evacuated, fearing an eruption when they saw the smoke. I had no idea if we should be leaving as well. Would the authorities let us know? Would our holiday reps find out and contact us? No one else seemed to be too concerned with it but I wasn't particularly comfortable with the idea of letting the reactions of holiday makers decide what we were doing. I Googled it. Turns out it was bush fires.
What was even more weird was that after we got home, stories started appearing that the fires had been started by the Mafia.
Day Five was spent sleeping by the pool.
Day Six was spent at Herculaneum. You can read that blog entry here. It was the only time I spent doing anything in the midday sun and it was torture.
Day Seven and it was time to head home. The newly weds would be staying on another week and would would visit Pompeii, Napoli and a few other nearby towns.
We would have one last lunch together at L'Antica Trattoria. It was an expensive place but came highly recommended and I think we all just took the set lunch menu, which was quite reasonably priced. It's hard to describe how fantastic the food was, here. In all the time we were in Sorrento, all we had was one good meal after another. This place was a step up again. I still think about the desert every now and then. It was a cone with lemon filling surrounded by fruit. Not normally my choice of dessert (I'm very much a caramel ice cream kinda guy) but I was blown away. If you're ever there, do yourself a favour and eat here.
After lunch (or maybe before it), I went for one last walk about the town. I visited a couple of the churches I hadn't seen yet and had a look in the local art gallery at the work of a photographer who had photographed the area in the 60s. It was really nice stuff and you could see that he had spent time there, getting to know the place and the people.
That done, it was back to the hotel to prepare for the journey home. Having experienced it on the way out, I wasn't looking forward to it. I didn't even have a holiday in Italy to be the light at the end of the tunnel this time.
Still, at least the views were nice.
