From Rome to Sorrento: Rain, Roots and the Best Tiramisu Yet!

On the road to Sorrento

After a much-needed sleep, we started the day with a rather glamorous breakfast of leftover pizza! Not quite the Italian breakfast experience you might imagine, but it did the job.

We booked an Uber to Roma Termini, Rome’s main railway station, ready to catch our 11 am train to Naples. The journey took just over an hour, making it a relatively easy way to leave the capital behind and head south towards the Bay of Naples.

Once we arrived in Naples, we decided to take a taxi for the remainder of the journey to Sorrento. Unfortunately, landslides had caused disruption to the route, so our journey was diverted. Still, we eventually arrived at around 2 pm, ready to settle into our hotel for the next stage of our Italian adventure.

We were able to check in straight away and were given a tour of the hotel before being shown to our room. It was lovely to get our bearings and feel that we had finally arrived in Sorrento, with Josh and Angel’s wedding on Monday now getting ever closer.

Exploring Sorrento in the pouring rain

Naturally, we decided to head out for a walk. The weather, however, had other ideas. Torrential rain soon made an appearance, so we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel and carried on regardless. After all, a bit of rain wasn’t going to stop us exploring!

John spotted a barber’s shop and decided it was the perfect opportunity to get his hair sorted before the wedding. For €35, he received an excellent haircut, so money well spent as far as he was concerned.

We then made our way to the Vallone dei Mulini, one of Sorrento’s most unusual sights.

This deep, overgrown ravine sits right in the heart of the town, yet it feels like a hidden world. Its name translates as the Valley of the Mills, a reference to the old milling buildings that once operated here. The mills were eventually abandoned, and nature has gradually reclaimed the site, with lush vegetation spreading across the ruins.

It is fascinating to think that this little pocket of wilderness lies so close to Sorrento’s busy streets. From the surrounding viewpoints, you can look down into the ravine and see how the buildings have become enveloped by greenery.

Our next stop was Via San Cesareo, one of Sorrento’s liveliest shopping streets. It was bustling with people wandering between the shops, browsing souvenirs and enjoying the atmosphere. Despite the rain, the streets were full of life.

A little refreshment along the way

While exploring the back streets, we stumbled across a small eatery called Blu Water Restaurant. It looked just the ticket for a quick pit stop, so we settled down for some bruschetta and a drink.

Happy hour was an added bonus, with Prosecco costing just €5 a glass. It would have been rude not to!

Sometimes the best discoveries on holiday are the unplanned ones. We hadn’t set out to find this particular restaurant, but it gave us the chance to sit down, enjoy a drink and watch a little of the world go by before heading back to the hotel.

Once we returned, we enjoyed another drink in the hotel bar. But our preparations for the wedding weren’t quite finished.

Champagne, hair dye and a family get-together

I had arranged for my sister to visit our hotel room to colour my hair. After our big expedition through Iceland, Greenland and Canada, I knew my grey roots would be making an appearance, and I wanted to get everything sorted before the wedding.

Thankfully, my regular hairdresser, Christy, had come to the rescue before we left home. Knowing what was ahead, she had pulled out all the stops to make sure I had enough hair dye and all the correct tools to carry out the job while we were in Italy. It was a proper little travelling hair salon in the making!

My sister arrived at the hotel with her husband, my niece and her partner. The ladies got to work on my hair while enjoying some British Airways champagne. It felt rather decadent, sitting in our hotel room in Sorrento, drinking champagne and getting ready for a family wedding.

The men, meanwhile, sensibly opted to stay in the bar!

The hair colouring was a great success, and it was lovely to have everyone together before the big day. Once they had left, I waited for the dye to do its job before finally jumping into the shower and getting ready for our evening meal, which we had booked at the hotel.

An excellent dinner and a long-awaited Italian triumph

After a busy day, we were ready for a good meal, and the hotel certainly delivered.

I chose the beef fillet, cooked flambé style and served with green peppercorn sauce. It was absolutely delicious, making a wonderful start to the evening.

But the real highlight was still to come.

Ever since John and I first travelled around Italy in 2015, we have had an unofficial mission: to find the best tiramisu in Italy.

Our quest began in Tivoli, where we sampled what was, at the time, the most incredible tiramisu we had ever tasted. Since then, we have tried numerous versions in the hope of discovering something even better. It had become a little holiday tradition, although the original had remained firmly at the top of our personal rankings.

Until tonight.

Our waitress actually prepared the tiramisu in front of us, which made the experience even more special. Watching it being made added a lovely personal touch, but the proof, as always, was in the tasting.

And what can I say? It was incredible!

After eleven years of searching, we may finally have found a worthy successor to that memorable dessert in Tivoli. Whether it will hold on to the top spot for long remains to be seen, of course. We still have plenty of opportunities to sample more Italian tiramisu in the future!

A perfect end to the day

We rounded off the evening with a final drink in the hotel bar, feeling rather pleased with ourselves.

We had made the journey from Rome to Sorrento, explored some of the town despite the torrential rain, found John an excellent barber, enjoyed a family get-together complete with champagne and, most importantly, possibly discovered the best tiramisu we had ever tasted.

With the hair sorted and the wedding just around the corner, we could finally relax and look forward to the main event.

Tomorrow would bring more of Sorrento, but tonight, the tiramisu had stolen the show!