We arranged to meet them at the airport in Naples, Italy the following Friday evening for a fun filled weekend touring Sorrento, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast and Capri. I was so excited for this trip; it fulfilled two of my travel dreams and exceeded my expectations. Since I was a kid I have wanted to visit Pompeii as I find the volcano-preserved history fascinating, and for a about a year before we left Vancouver we kept a newspaper article and photo of the Amalfi Coast posted on our fridge as inspiration to get to Europe.
The challenge of the weekend was surviving and navigating traffic in Naples. L
ondon traffic and roads are nothing in comparison. We were petrified and in awe. Cars and scooters speed along, honking like they are in a wedding procession, and passing at any opportunity on single lane highways, taking chances that any Canadian driver would consider insane. We rented a car and John did an impressive job of driving all weekend. The frequency of honks at us reduced from two in the first two minutes, to almost nothing by the last day there.We managed to get out of Naples, past Mt. Vesuvius, and along the other side of the Bay of Naples to Sorrento. The chaos of Naples highways turned into chaos of skinny, windy roads on the edge of breathtaking cliffs as we went through Sorrento and area. Our hotel was high up on a cliff, overlooking Sorrento, the Bay of Naples, Mt. Vesuvius and our pool. It was called La Terrazze, named for its large terraces with amazing views.
We got there around 11:00pm and luckily a nearby restaurant, Don Pedro’s, was still open for dinner. Don Pedro, the owner, picked us up and then waited on us all night. Oh, the food! Don Pedro has a small farm in behind the restaurant where he grows the fruits and vegetables served. I had the best Caprese salad ever, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella like I’ve never tasted before. Of course, the rest of the courses, pasta, meat and wine were just as stellar. Ty became a fan of the Lemoncello (strong lemon alcohol) served after dinner. It was great to chat with Ty & Jane over a long meal.
We awoke Saturday to sun beaming onto our terrace. It was tough to leave that glorious spot but we had places to see. Our first stop was Pompeii, the Roman city buried and preserved by the ash of Mt. Vesuvius’ explosion in 79 AD. We were all surprised by the sheer size of the city. It was so well preserved that it was easy to imagine what it would have been like to live there, unlike the ruins in Rome. Eighty percent has been excavated and the remainder is still in progress; it is hard to fathom the amount of work that would have taken.
Jane received a tip from a colleague to get a guided tour of the city, so at the entrance we started to enquire. The guides prowl the entrance hunting for business. We were scooped up by an aggressive older guide, Giovanni, well dressed and well tanned from his many days under the Italian sun. He offered us EUR40 for the four of us; we said we would opt for the cheaper audio guides instead. In an amusing way, he said that would be the “biggest mistake of our lives!” and then offered EUR30, equivalent to the audio guides, so we accepted. Payment was not required until the end. He certainly provided some added entertainment to the tour.
Our tour group totaled 9 as we entered the gates. We passed some people with audio guides who chose not to go with Giovanni’s tour, and he loudly expressed to them that “that was the biggest mistake of their lives!” After about 15 minutes, Giovanni started to drone on a bit and when we next stopped, 3 members of our group had disappeared. He was livid, because he wouldn’t have started the tour with only 6 people. He went on a hunt for them but to no avail. We kept going but could tell that Giovanni was distracted, his eyes always peeled for the missing tourists. We bumped into them later in the day and he lectured them loudly about honour and integrity, and how the money didn’t matter to him, it was the principle. We got a kick out of that. Soon after that, he asked two good looking young ladies to join the tour for free. Then, at the end of the tour he said that we had to pay EUR40 because those three others left at the beginning and he wouldn’t make any money. Simple solution – get payment up front. What happened to “honouring your word” and “I’m not in it for the money”? We paid him EUR30 and he went off in a huff. We chuckled about it several times over the weekend.
As for giving us a tour of Pompeii, Giovanni did a pretty good job. Highlights included the Roman forum, the Roman Baths, one of over 50 bakeries, one of over 25 brothels, the amphitheater, the “flying penises” to ward off the “evil eye”, and the houses. Each home had a
winter and summer reception room and depending on how wealthy you were, you had different dining rooms for different seasons. Frescoes adorned the walls and tile mosaics the floors. The brothel had beds made of stone in the bedrooms and frescoes on the walls of different sexual positions for the patrons to choose from.While in the baths, Giovanni sat us all down and gave us a talk about seizing the day, carpe diem. Life is short, spend your money now, because who knows when it will end. I guess you would have to have that mentality living in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, with scientists predicting it is well overdue for an eruption…
After Pompeii we drove along the cliffs of the Amalfi Coast to the town of P
ositano. We’ve done a few edge of the ocean drives, Sea to Sky highway in BC and Chapman’s Peak Drive in South Africa, but this was the scariest; steeper cliffs, skinnier roads and crazier drivers. The views were worth it though. Positano is a colourful village built into the cliffs up from the water. It was a larger version of the quaint towns of the Cinque Terre which we visited on our honeymoon. We parked at a high part of Positano and walked down many stairs and steep roads to the town centre by the water. I was dreading the walk back up but it wasn’t so bad and it helped burn off all of the gelato we ate at the beach. There are several other villages along the coast, including Ravello, which got rave reviews from some of our friends. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it farther down the coast to see them, but that will be a good excuse to go back.After Positano, we were pooped and decided to head back to our terrace with the gorgeous view to enjoy some drinks before going to dinner. Our venue of choice for dinner was not a traditional restaurant. It was at a farm house, high up on the ridge over the Bay of Salerno, with a rustic dining area. The produce served came from the farm. Like the night before, the owner picked us up and waited on us all night. We had a huge course of sample dishes (lots of new things to try), then pasta, and then dessert (we didn’t have room for a meat course). All the food was so delicious; I can’t say enough good things about it.
We were hoping to enjoy breakfast on our sunny hotel terrace on Sunday morning but we didn’t get up early enough and we wanted to catch the 9:55 boat from Sorrento to the island of Capri (25 minute boat ride). The departure time was actually 9:45 and we just made it in time by sprinting down the docks. We had received recommendations to take a boat ride around the island. When we arrived in the Capri harbour it was swarming with people and we were trying to figure out the best way to circumnavigate the island. There were huge line ups for the larger commercial boats that sped around the island in an hour or ones that just took you to the Blue Grotto (cave with amazingly blue water). We were trying to figure out what to do and Ty started talking to a guy trying to sell us a boat ride. John, Jane and I thought “what is Ty getting conned into?” Turns out Ty made the move of the weekend talking to this guy; he arranged us a private, two hour boat ride around the island, stopping wherever we wanted. Taking the big public boats would have, in the words of our Pompeii tour guide, been the “biggest mistake of our lives!”
Our Italian driver picked us up at the docks. The boat had a big o
pen bow for us to lie out on and a few benches in the back. The trip was the highlight of the weekend. The cliffs rose above the water and seagulls soared gracefully beside them. The water was the most brilliant blue I have ever seen. It was tough to take it all in. My descriptions won’t do it justice so please check out the photos. Our driver took the boat very close to shore and took us into several grottos carved into the cliffs. Jane said her cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Ty was the brave one and dove into the cold water for a quick swim. The water was so inviting but not quite warm enough for me.After the boat ride, we hiked up to the town centre of Capri for lunch and then took a bus to Anacapri on the other side of the island for gelato. Part of the road to Anacapri had the scariest cliff to date; it could only fit one car at a time. Pooped from all the sunshine and good times, we caught the boat back to Sorrento and began the drive back to Naples airport.
It was a good thing we left ourselves extra time because traffic was thick and slow all the way into Naples. Once in Naples we were all stressed trying to find the signs to the airport and then we got stuck in a traffic jam. Two lines of cars were squeezed into a one lane of an elevated road not moving, scooters were honking and trying to get through and we didn’t even know if we were on the right road! Stressful! Luckily, we made it to the airport in time and John had a well deserved beer after his impressive driving. Jane and Ty took the bus from there to their hostel in downtown Naples and we got on the plane back to London.
What a weekend! I still can’t believe we were just there. April was a very good time to visit because the weather was comfortably warm and the area wasn’t overrun by tourists yet. It was busy enough for us; I can’t imagine what it would be like in July and August.
Thanks Jane and Ty! We had such a great time with the two of you.
1 comment:
beautiful! Definitely adding it to our "must-do" list. Looks like we need to do the WHOLE of Italy. Bellissimo!
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