Stormy Weather

Come to Italy they said. It’ll be warm, dry and sunny they said. And, admittedly, that’s just about how it was this morning. The threatened thunderstorm hadn’t materialised so, after our welcome meeting from the local rep (lots of useful info given,) we thought we’d take the shuttle bus down into Sorrento. As did everyone else at the hotel, judging by how crowded it was!
When we arrived, the sky was looking a bit threatening but we still managed to wander down to the old town. Then, without warning, the heavens opened, a cold wind sprang up and we were treated(?) to an hour and a half of thunder, lightning and torrential rain.
We took what shelter we could inside shops or under their awnings, but couldn’t escape getting soaked. It was so bad that the electricity went off twice, plunging everything into darkness for a few minutes each time. Didn’t seem to faze the locals though - they just waited for it come back on again. We were in the middle of buying some snacks and drinks from the supermarket the second time it went off and had to wait for the till to reboot as well once power was restored. Everyone in the queue behind us just stood there patiently whilst this was going on. Maybe these storms aren’t quite as uncommon as we’d been led to believe! By the time we made it back to the bus pick up point it was only drizzling, though we were so wet by then anyway, we were past caring.
I spent a quiet afternoon just sat around reading or half heartedly attempting to learn lines. There are still a lot of dark clouds about, but it’s not rained for a few hours and there is blue sky appearing over the bay. We can even see across to Naples and Vesuvius again!
We’ll probably head back down to Sorrento again tomorrow. Much more exploring to be done and we also saw some really nice things in the shops. Being a Sunday “normal” shops will be closed, but we have been told that those catering for tourists will be open, as will the cafes and restaurants. We might even find our way down to the port, which is where we were headed this morning until the storm broke.