Italy is one of, if not my very favourite country in Europe and earmarking her as our summer spot this year was an excitement like no other. We started out in the Naples region. The choice to stay at Vico Equense, a sweet clifftop town about 4 train stops away from Sorrento was based entirely on what came up as available beachfront hotels in Sorrento via booking.com. As we were making our bookings quite late in the day, the Sporting Hotel in Vico Equense was the few places that came up as a top choice, and we are so glad to have found ourselves there.

It’s a great place to base yourself for day trips to the Amalfi coast and Capri without the exploitative touristic chaos that comes with basing yourself in Positano or Capri or even Sorrento itself. Hotel Sporting is perched on a cliff overlooking the aqua Sorrento coastline, next to the Gothic influenced 14th century Santissima Annunziata church, and with almost every room facing the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. The hotel also has its own private beach, with an elevator that takes you right down to the pebbly beachfront. We had many mornings gazing down to the different shades of sea blue with white tipped foams and dotted with white sail boats and ferries, while listening to the rhythmic toll of church bells.

Next to the hotel is a small picturesque park where you can take stunning photos of the full panoramic vision of all that you imagine the Campania region to be with pastel coloured villas and hotels on the hill, deep green foliage throughout, overlooking the coast and set off with the silhouette of Naples and the mountains in the horizon.

Within a 10 minute walk we get to eat at the ever famous Gigino’s or University of Pizza restaurant – a somewhat regional institution known for its metres of pizza, a novel tradition first incepted in the 1930’s. As a couple, we were given the choice of taking half a metre of pizza with three choices. We chose the Margarita, Marinara and Four Cheese pizza and almost fell off our chair when it arrived – clearly we were both a little hazy with how large half a metre would look like. Despite protestations of how we would be totally unable to finish the pizza and would need to pack it for home, we polished all six slices quite swiftly. We could not get enough of the Four Cheese slices and left the restaurant in a stuffed but satisfied stupor.

The town is also famous for great deserts and gelato from Gelataria Gabriele. Judging by the queue every night, we were never in luck to taste their gelatos (some describe it as the best in the Amalfi coast) but on our last morning there we managed to get ourselves a brioche and a pack of almond cookies which was the perfect sweet snack to accompany our train journey of the day.

Even though we missed out on Gabriele’s gelato, there are many different gelatarias within a few hundred metres from Gabriele and almost on every street in this town. also In our five days here we sampled scrumptious flavours such as Nutella, Pistachio, Cheese and Fig and just Cheese all of which were perfectly rich, creamy and hit the right spot on a hot summer’s day after a day of exploring different coastal towns.

Although almost half of our stay here was disrupted with an unexpected spate of pouring rain, which threw plans of swimming, and a sailing trip to Capri out the window, we still left the place with fond memories. We had watched mesmerising sunsets, ate good food, lounged at the hotel cafe with a good book, strolled laps around the small town multiple times, took a day trip to Sorrento and Positano and ultimately relaxed in Vico Equense. It may not have the movie star glamour of its more celebrated neighbours but it gave us the right buzz of la dolce vita!