Sorrento, day 1 - going to Campania

Our flight to Naples was at 8.30 and we needed to be there three hours before, so we decided to stay overnight at the Sofitel hotel at the airport. We then discovered that we could check in, the night before, which meant that we didn’t have to be up quite so early… result all round.

The flight to Italy was good, and although it was cloudy we still managed to see the Alps.

The only thing was, we had to go via Hannover to pick up some stranded crew, so we arrived in Italy about an hour and a half late. (They couldn't refuel with us on board in Hannover, until the fire crew had arrived...)

We caught the bus from the airport at Naples to our hotel, and had our first view of Vesuvius - who followed us all the way to Sorrento.

The road was very winding (hairpin bends) with steep drops to the side – it meant we had beautiful views over the Bay of Naples, but it was a bit unnerving when we looked down! All the houses looked as if they'd been sprinkled on the cliffside.

The hotel was lovely and the staff were very friendly. Our room was very Mediterranean, with tiled floors and mainly white walls. We had a great view of the pool from our balcony.

We went for a small reccie of St Agnello (of course it involved a gelateria - true to form, cioccolata for Chris, fragola for Gerry, panna cotta for Chloe and nocciola for me). Then we went for a swim - the pool area was gorgeous, with orange, lemon and grapefruit trees as well as palm trees and banana trees surrounding it.

The kids were amazed by the size of the fruit on the trees (this hammy, over-dramatic pic was their idea - they may have second thoughts, once they see it...)

The freshly squeezed orange juice at the pool bar was pretty scrummy, too.

As well as seeing the pool from our balcony, we could also see the island of Ischia from our balcony, and later still discovered that we overlooked the sunset.

Dinner was a Neapolitan night - the kids chose spremata, Gerry chose noodles in vegetable stock, and I had arancini (rice calls stuffed with mozzarella). For mains, Chloe had grilled sea bass and the rest of us had a Caprese dish of pork stuffed with mozzarella; plus green beans and Neapolitan potatoes. Pudding was a lemon profiterole - and Salvatore, the head waiter, was lovely and brought fussy boy some chocolate gelati. Was very, very impressed by how much fuss the staff made of the children.

We were all tired from travelling so it was an early night.