Judith's blog

We had a 5.30am start and we didn’t sleep much; as you don’t when you’re worried about sleeping through the alarm. The holiday didn’t start very well – in our early morning stupor we went off the wrong turning and had to turn around to get to the airport. When we got there it transpired that I had printed off the tickets wrong, so we had to get them redone at the Ryanair check-in desk. She wanted to charge us, but we persuaded her not to. On the plane they made an announcement for passengers Mole and Minshull (cringe) as we had given them our return tickets, which were now torn in half. At this point we hadn’t even left Spain yet.

On arriving in Rome we got to Naples and then Sorrento without a hitch, with thunder and lightning entertaining us most of the journey on the train. Sorrento is lovely and our hotel was just off the main Piazza Tasso. We wandered around a little, but were keen to check in, being very tired from the early wake up and journey. We walked round the square three times but no Hotel Belvedere. We asked a selection of waiters who had never heard of it and then phoned the hotel but got no answer. Geoff blamed me for being scammed on the internet, booking a hotel which didn’t exist.

We decided to try the tourist information instead and see if they could help. We followed the signs and the tourist office was a big building off another square, but not open until 4pm, after the siesta period. We went for a sandwich and a coffee and returned to ask about the hotel. The lady there hadn’t heard of it either. Hmmmm…. We looked at each other, then at her, when she said “Better to ask at the tourist information, this is a travel agency.” Tourist office, tourist information – it was so obvious, how could we have been so stupid? We walked another 100m and there indeed was the tourist information, except it closed at 4pm.

At this point we were running out of ideas and getting a little worried, so we phoned the number on the reservation again. We got through and they assured us in half Italian, half English that the hotel was in the Piazza, near the bar Ercolano. We walked all the way round the square again, and all the way around the bar. No hotel!

In the end I asked in the bar and they said ‘Of course, ask in the tobacconist’. Doh!

The woman in the tobacconist’s closed the shop, then took us through a scruffy door, a few doors down, with no sign whatsoever, 86 steps up a dingy stairway, but a lovely room and a great roof terrace with views of old Sorrento and Vesuvius. We collapsed into bed, had a sleep and went out to explore later.

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