Sorrento and the Last Days of Summer.

Okay so it does feel a little odd, waxing lyrical about Summer when we are half way through October, although with the temperature hitting 24 degrees in the UK only four days ago, I can’t be blamed too much for not fully immersing into Autumn. So with that, I bring you to the last few wonderful days of my Summer, before back to school, before the leaves fell and before we all sweltered in thick jumpers, motivated by fashion season rather than what the weather was actually doing.

So back to Sorrento and Sorrento you have my heart. We had just over twenty-four hours here, staying at the incredibly designed but so welcoming Maison La Minervetta. I was a little worried as I had read that Sorrento had become a little too commercial and ‘packagey’ and yes the main town was definitely a little of that vibe, with bigger cruise ships in the port and an Irish bar, but we stayed in the Fisherman’s Marina, and were worlds away from that, only a little hamlet of authentic Amalfi Coast living and probably my most favourite part of the trip.

We spent our last days of Summer, eating cake for breakfast, bathing on the platforms, swimming off into the sea from the deck. Boat rides out along the Sorrento peninsula, with views of Capri in sight, jumping off the boat, rather ungainly but into the warm, clean, sparkling water. Finishing off the last of the Summer reads. Drinking prosecco on the veranda of our hotel and watching the Sorrento and the Bay of Naples light up after the sun disappeared. Feasting on fresh lobster, pasta and roaming the little Marina Grande, watching the fisherman’s boats bob in the water and counted as many fiats and mopeds we saw buzz around the old winding streets. Shopped for Italian ceramics and took as many last dips in the sea before we had to tear ourselves away to catch our flight home.

After, what I can only describe as one of the most glorious Summers of my life, I cannot think of a better place to have spent our last days of the Summer. The Italians can do nothing wrong when it comes to holiday living or generally living, they just seem to get everything so wonderfully right and it comes in a way that feels so hassle free and guilt free. I am not sure I have ever had five such beautiful, indulgent, romantic, relaxed and blissful days, the sweet life indeed and one that I hope to return to again and again…

Now, I know at the moment and quite rightly so, on the social media waves, the rhetoric is ‘Should we be making life look too perfect, too easy, to wonderful?’ I for one can be the first to feel a bit down about myself if someone is looking incredible in a new dress and I am sitting there in my holey ‘old’ jeans, or I’m stuffing myself in my body weight with chocolate and someone has written ‘spin class amazing tonight’ and I know it goes a lot deeper than this. But there are some places and some times that are just perfect, not because everything is perfect, not because there are not career hangups, body hangups, worries of sorts, oh yes they are there, but because sometimes a place and a time can allow you to disappear and ignore all of these things with such ease. So I hope you can enjoy these photos as an escape, or maybe some inspiration for next year’s trip, or just like me live vicariously through them back to that time, when actually yes, it was bloody perfect and that is okay too. The Last Days of Summer.