DESTINATIONS ITALY | ESCORTED TOURS operator operator ASK THE


CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Capri, in the Bay of Naples; banner to Napoli football legend Diego Maradona; Pompeii PICTURES: Shutterstock/Darryl Brooks, Sergii Figurnyi


Joanne Lynn head of short-haul


product, Riviera Travel “The Bay of Naples trip is an Italian classic, a real taste of la dolce vita. Its blend of excellent food and wine,


dramatic landscape, enviable climate and phenomenal cultural legacy provide all the ingredients for a


memorable holiday, and the area has retained its roots and traditions in the modern era. This year, pent-up demand and a general desire to travel to Italy led to Atas (the Association of Touring & Adventure Suppliers)


confirming that it has been the most requested country for 2023. And this part of


Italy is an iconic destination, from its culture and nature to local food and historical attractions. I also think the


scenery is part of the reason people travel to this area, with the famous Amalfi coastline and the Bay of


Naples panorama overlooked by Mount Vesuvius. The volcanic soil and climate


create the perfect conditions for producing locally grown, simple but high-quality food and wines, and seeing some of these being produced, as well as sampling them, offers added appeal.”


travelweekly.co.uk


with halo. In Sorrento itself, visitors were quite literally getting in on the celebrations by inserting themselves into a life-sized cut-out of the squad with a speech bubble saying “C’ero anch’io!” (“I was there too!”). Set high on the cliffs, Sorrento is the archetypal Bay of Naples town, filled with orange and lemon trees and winsome cobbled streets leading down to the tiny beach and lidos of Marina Grande, where family-run fish restaurants serve up huge platters of seafood on a quay with eye-popping views across the bay to Mount Vesuvius. It’s a great entry point to this most beguiling region and an escorted tour which, this year, is shaping up to be Riviera’s third-bestselling European one.


ESCORTED INSIGHTS With daily excursions taking in iconic sites like Amalfi and Pompeii, a globally adored cuisine that includes plentiful pizza, pasta, fish and gelato, and historic discoveries to be made in the likes of Herculaneum, Ravello and the medieval heart of Naples, it’s an ideal starter pitch for clients new to escorted tours. After a gentle introductory walking tour of Sorrento, the daily excursions picked up the pace. Where better to begin than the stunningly preserved Unesco site of Pompeii, a once-thriving Roman city famously buried under metres of ash and pumice after the eruption


At Pompeii, I was thrilled to find the same marble column my dad had photographed me in front of some 50 years ago


of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD? I had last visited as an eight-year-old with my family during a summer stay with my grandmother, and its miles of ruined streets and buildings, many still bearing gorgeous mosaics and fascinating artefacts, had clearly left an impression – for among the hundreds of marble columns and colonnades, finding the same one my dad had photographed us in front of back then was just as easy as it was thrilling. Our early arrival had been timed so that we


entered before many others did; we later discovered that 29,000 other tourists came that day, a daily record for 2023. In fact, early arrivals are a feature of many escorted tours, I came to learn from members of my genial group on our next excursion – a drive alongside one of the world’s most beautiful coastlines to the hilltop town of Ravello. The switchback roads and hairpin bends, Norman and Saracen towers, coastal settlements such as Positano, Maiori and


16 NOVEMBER 2023


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