Rain, rain go away!
Undeterred, we donned rain jackets and strolled down into Sorrento to explore the shops and churches of the old town. 
15th Century Cathedral
I was caught out in an awkward moment in the cathedral. B had already wandered outside, but I'd sat down on one of the pews to admire the frescos on the ceiling. Suddenly I noticed a funeral procession making their way up the aisle. With the back door of the cathedral closed, I could not make a discrete exit without disturbing the mourners who were settling into their pews. I was contemplating having to sit through the (possibly very long requiem) service....but thankfully managed to sneak out the side door behind the pallbearers.
By mid morning, the skies seemed to be clearing, and we (foolishly) decided we'd take a bus trip along the Amalfi Coast, to Positano. Originally built by the Romans, the Amalfi Drive (from Sorrento to Amalfi) is rated as one of the most beautiful drives in Europe. The road is carved out of the side of the coastal cliffs, affording superb views down to the Tyrrhenian Sea and on the other side up to the towering cliffs above. Not that we saw much that day....the bus was no sooner out of Sorrento than the clouds descended and we were almost completely enveloped in mist. We hopped off at Positano, which appears to cling to the side of a hill. As we started winding our way down the only road that runs through this vertical town, it started to rain again...hard! We dashed into the first restaurant we saw...luckily it was a good choice and we enjoyed a lovely fresh lasagna, watching the rain bucket down.
Positano
With no respite in sight, we agreed to call it a day and climb (or rather swim) back up the road and take the first bus back to Sorrento. By this stage the water was flowing like a river down the streets...we were ankle deep and absolutely soaked through. Finally, we made it back to the bus stop, where we struck up a conversation with an elderly American gent that helped pass the time waiting in the torrential rain until the bus arrived...full of drenched tourists from Amalfi and smelling strongly of wet dog (I suppose that explains the old saying "Only mad dogs and Englishmen..."). Very glad to be back in the hotel, I took a long, hot bath....
The next day, the rain was still with us...so rather than spend another day looking like drowned rats, we mooched around the hotel, relaxing with a good book. That evening, we sat on our balcony watching an amazing sunset, hoping that it boded well for the morrow....
Red sky at night....tourist's delight?
And it did....well, at least it did stopped raining. However, our penultimate day started on a rather bad note. We'd decided to give the Amalfi Drive another go...and take the bus all the way to Amalfi. But, it was not to be! All that rain of the previous two days had shifted the rocks and mud on the cliff faces and the road was closed due to rockfalls. So, onto Plan B....take the once-daily ferry to the island of Ischia. We dashed across town and down those 155 steps to Marina Grande, arriving with just 5 minutes to spare before the scheduled departure....only to discover the Ischia-bound ferries had stopped running and the only way to get to the island was to take a ferry to Naples then connect to Ischia. This all sounded like way too much effort and there was the chance the ferries to Ischia from Naples weren't running. Deciding to cut our losses, we instead took the train to Ercolano, to visit the other town destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius. As a residential town, much smaller and less grand than Pompeii, Herculaneum is in some ways much better preserved and easier to navigate.
Vesuvius, Ercolano and Herculaneum
We inadvertently picked up a personal tour guide at the start of the site...but he proved to be worth the tip as he pointed out many features we probably would have missed by ourselves, most notably the ancient plumbing, complete with outlets "for the piss and the shit, see?". Si! Pee was in fact a valuable comodity for the Romans, collected in large vats and used for laundry purposes.
'Taking the piss' pot
Just as we were leaving the site, the rain started falling softly, thereby putting paid to any notions we'd entertained of taking a hike to the crater of Vesuvius, now shrouded in cloud. We instead had a mini adventure getting back to Sorrento...in our ignorance, we assumed we were on the correct train, but were actually heading for a who-knows-where as the train line branches shortly after Ercolano. Luckily, an Italian gent sitting opposite us must have overheard us saying something about Sorrento as, with a mixture of Italian and English and much wild gesturing, he managed to convince us to get off the train at the next stop and change platforms. Grazie!
Back in Sorrento, it was time for gelato and cappuccino...
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