Day 6 – Fri, April 12, 2019 – Sorrento, Italy – Crystal Serenity – Monte Carlo to Venice

Our next day was yet another port (our 4th port in a row since Monte Carlo). Remember Monte Carlo, cars, beautiful people, and dripping in money. It seems so very long ago. Anyway, we sailed a little bit further south along the Italy coast to hit Sorrento. A beautiful city perched on the side of the hill by the ocean. We had visited this city once before when we were in Naples (across the bay from Sorrento), took a train to Pompeii and ended up in Sorrento for lunch and jet foil ride back to Naples (we think that was 2002). It was incredibly beautiful.

Fortunately, today was a bit more relaxed. We were doing a ship's tour, the Sorrento Coast and Wine Tasting, leaving at 8:30am. Wow, we could actually get up and have breakfast before disembarking!! We went up to the Marketplace and had buffet breakfast (fast and a ton of choices) and made our way to the Galaxy Theater to wait for our group to leave.

It was a very rainy day. Each previous day threatened rain, but fortunately we were able to dodge around it. Not today. It was rainy off and on.

When we got off the ship, we boarded a very small, very cramped bus and headed up to the main Sorrento town square. The way is curvy and very tight. When we got to the top, we switched buses to a normal bus with adequate room. We headed up the Amalfi coast (world famous for its beauty) to a Michelin starred restaurant. The scenery was breathtaking.

Serenity Anchored  in the Harbor

Sorrento

The area is incredibly fertile and we saw lemon, orange, olive, and other trees. There were lots of nets to both cover the trees to keep their temperatures right, and also they use nets underneath to collect the olives when they fall off the trees.

Lemon trees

Olives (taken from Bus, so a bit blurry)

After about an hour and a half, we arrived at Quattro Passi Restaurant. Before going into the wine tasting, we went through their wine cellar with 1000 varieties and 10,000 bottles (the most valuable one was worth over $25,000). All of the bottles were wrapped in plastic. We learned later that was to protect the labels from deteriorating.

Tunnel to wine cellar

Next up we assembled in a large patio area where they had set up a bunch of tables for 6 people. On the tables were two plates, one with traditional bruschetta and an olive spread on bread; and the other plate was a charcuterie assortment of cheeses and meats. They served us two wine tastings we believe were from the area.

Area near patio.

Front of restaurant - Eggs are from a local artist.

We looked the wines up in Vivino and they were rated 3.7 (so not as good as the wines we get on the ship) and the food was about the same as what we get in the Bistro on the ship. So, we weren't all that impressed for a Michelin starred restaurant. They didn't even spend time talking about the wines.

The trek back to Sorrento was on the same road.

We ended up in the Sorrento town square.

We went to a small restaurant called Da Gigino for lunch (the four of us had variations on pasta and gnocchi). The food was excellent, the tables were slammed together and very tight, and we just loved it.

Julie's Mushroom Ravioli

We then stopped at a limoncello store where they made their own limoncello, got some samples and bought some to bring home. We wandered a bit and then took the shuttle back down the hill to the dock and on the ship.

We went to the Avenue Saloon again for pre-dinner drinks. Our waiter Nico was incredible as always. The staff on Serenity are just amazing. We told Nico our names the second night and since then he always refers to us by name. So cool...

Dinner was in Waterside. Julie had:

Caesar Salad

Appetizer portion of Fusilli "Con Prosciutto E Asparagi"

From the Modern Menu: Pan-seared U-10 Scallops

Summer Berry Cheesecake Trifle

While Bob had the same salad and pasta appetizer, but had the Grilled Black Angus Rib Eye Steak with Ratatouille and the Vanilla Creme Brûlée for desert.

BTW - Alex had the Poppy Seed-Pepper Crusted Venison and said it was terrific (we all agreed when given our taste).

Today we walked:

Steps: 9,144 and 4.01 miles (we definitely slacked off today with the weather and a long bus ride to and back).