Yes, I imagined I was Sophia Loren for a fanciful moment, as I stood on my balcony in ill-fitting hotel slippers with a towel on my head, absorbing the strangely benign silhouette of Vesuvius with her devastated blunt summit. We’re in ‘the gateway to the AmalfiCoast’, lemony Sorrento, overlooking the twinkling Bay of Naples, on a whirlwind adventure in one of the world’s most stunning seaside resorts; where in the 1960s and beyond the glitterati frolicked in kaftans on sunny uneven streets heaving with fashionable shops. But daydreaming must wait… so we shunt to Pompeii on the Circumvesuviana train, where a little boy plays his creaking accordion badly for cents
Poignant Pompeii
MAIN PICTURE Breathtaking Positano’s cascading pastel villas RIGHT Mount Vesuvius looms behind the ruins of Pompeii; Vee enjoys a spot of antipasto in the sunshine