Since it’s Sunday …

Today’s meanderings took on a decidedly ecclesiastical turn for a variety of reasons. We’d decided to explore more of Sorrento anyway, and a woman we met last night had told us about a warren of alleys filled with extraordinary shops, so when the arrival of the first drops of what turned out to be a couple of hours of rain coincided with our suddenly realising that we’d arrived at the entrance to one such alley, we turned into it.
We spent an hour pottering among various fascinating shops, bought a couple of items, realised it was (a)very wet indeed and (b)lunchtime and ducked into the only free, undercover table to be seen. There we ate a large and succulent pizza marinara apiece and I scored another minor linguistic triumph when I asked where the loo was. The waiter started in English, then said, in Italian, but you speak Italian - and told me in Italian .

Our post-lunch exploration took us to two churches, one with an adjoining cloister dedicated to St Francis, the other with an extraordinary undercroft given over to a chapel filled with the tokens of gratitude for prayers for healing answered.

We walked home via a clifftop road which led us back to the familiar path of yesterday. We’ve had a relatively early dinner filled with the sounds of church bells (still clanging away at half past ten) and fireworks, for which I’ve not really heard a sensible reason. I’d like it if the one that sounds like a gun firing would stay silent … and now that bell has begun to toll rather than clang.

Ah well …