Strange Sorrento

[CarlosTheDJ]

I'm off to Sorrento in a few weeks (for my 40th birthday!).

Obviously we'll be 'doing' Pompeii, does anybody know of anything else Fortean or even just plain interesting in the area?

 

[escargot]

Sorrento is great. It's one of the best places I've been to. The main street, where there are now souvenir shops, is actually an original Roman street. The shops at ground level were once stables and the pavement was the main town drain!

You can easily get to Herculaneum, and anywhere else, by train, on the Circumvesuviana railway. Don't book coach trips, take the train and enjoy the brilliant views. Cheap too.
Thank you, Benito!

You need to visit the Roman villa, Oplontis is it? It was excavated from under the rubble of the eruption, nearly undamaged. Really beautiful in a haunting way.

Also the funicular railway just along the coast, can't remember the town name, but again it's accessible by train.

You can see Roman bread ovens in Herculaneum and then have a pizza cooked in a modern, nearly identical one up the road. Fantastic.

Oooh, it's so wonderful!

Oh yeah, and citrus fruits grow on trees in the street. The air smells of them, and you can buy lemons as big as your head.

LOADS to see and do. Wish I was going again!

 

[Mythopoeika]

Ye gods, now I want to live there!

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

Sounds amazing! Looking forward to it even more now.

 

[escargot]

Sounds amazing! Looking forward to it even more now.

How did you like it?

 

[uair01]

Can you post one picture?

 

[escargot]

I looked at this thread because of the news about the terrible cable car crash in Italy -
(Guardian link)
Two Britons among four killed in cable car crash near Naples

Prosecutors in Torre Annunziata have opened an investigation into possible manslaughter charges after the crash on Thursday at Monte Faito, a peak about 28 miles (45km) south-east of Naples.

The British victims were identified as Margaret Elaine Winn, 58, and Graeme Derek Winn, 65, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.

The other victims were Janan Suliman, a 25-year-old Arab woman with Israeli citizenship. Her brother, Thaeb Suliman, 23, was hospitalised in Ponticelli with severe injuries.

Escette reckons it's the one she and I rode some years ago.
I briefly forgot it was a cable car and ran up and down excitedly to admire the view. It swayed and the other passengers screamed.
Wussies.

 

[catseye]

I looked at this thread because of the news about the terrible cable car crash in Italy -
(Guardian link)
Two Britons among four killed in cable car crash near Naples

Escette reckons it's the one she and I rode some years ago.
I briefly forgot it was a cable car and ran up and down excitedly to admire the view. It swayed and the other passengers screamed.
Wussies.

Every time I'm on a smallish plane (Ryanair sized, not like Sopwith Camel), when a lot of people get up and start moving around, I'm always slightly worried that the plane will start flying sideways...

 

[Floyd]

Oh yeah, and citrus fruits grow on trees in the street. The air smells of them, and you can buy lemons as big as your head.

I often wonder about this as I'd love to live somewhere that permanently smells good.

(I have noticed pleasant aromas in another country, but not citrus AFAIR).

 

[escargot]

Every time I'm on a smallish plane (Ryanair sized, not like Sopwith Camel), when a lot of people get up and start moving around, I'm always slightly worried that the plane will start flying sideways...

Yup, someone I knew slightly (university friend-of-a-friend) died in a small plane crash in September 2007.
So you're WELL under six degrees of separation from that poor girl and her husband.

The eventual verdict was 'unlawful killing' as the pilot was neglectful.

(The inquest took place after a change in the law, following the death of British nurse Helen Smith in May 1979 after a mysterious accident in Saudi Arabia.
Her father's campaign resulted in a new obligation for coroners to hold an inquest into a suspicious death abroad.)

Safe BBC page on the plane crash -
Plane crash woman Clare Dickson unlawfully killed

A woman from Truro and her husband were killed unlawfully in a plane crash in the Swiss Alps because of pilot negligence a coroner has ruled.

Clare Dickson, 26, and Greg Dickson, 37, from New Zealand, were living in Switzerland when the crash happened in fog in September 2007.

The inquest at Truro City Hall heard the pilot was not used to Alpine flying in bad weather.

Dr Emma Carlyon, coroner for Cornwall, recorded verdicts of unlawful killing.

 

[Tempest63]

Yup, someone I knew slightly (university friend-of-a-friend) died in a small plane crash in September 2007.
So you're WELL under six degrees of separation from that poor girl and her husband.

The eventual verdict was 'unlawful killing' as the pilot was neglectful.

(The inquest took place after a change in the law, following the death of British nurse Helen Smith in May 1979 after a mysterious accident in Saudi Arabia.
Her father's campaign resulted in a new obligation for coroners to hold an inquest into a suspicious death abroad.)

Safe BBC page on the plane crash -
Plane crash woman Clare Dickson unlawfully killed

“There’s no substitute for experience“ to quote a former employer.

 

[escargot]

“There’s no substitute for experience“ to quote a former employer.

Yup, and this joker certainly didn't have that for which shortcomings his passengers paid dearly.

The pilot later pleaded guilty to manslaughter through negligence and was fined.

Air accident investigators found he was not used to Alpine flying in bad weather, had not checked weather conditions properly, had not prepared a proper flight plan or taken enough fuel.