#7 Wednesday, March 12 "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"

Well, the ole trusty alarm goes off to start another day. I talk myself into getting out of bed and hope to see the view I know is out our window. I open the shutters and the most beautiful day greets me. The view is spectacular!! The blue waters of the Bay of Naples stretche out before me, and I am immediately jealous of the people who live along the bay who get to wake to this view every morning. We have the same wonderful view as we eat breakfast, and this is truly the first beautiful day we have had on the trip.

View to the left out our balcony

View directly in front of our balcony

View to the right out our balcony

View below our balcony

We get aboard the bus and settled in for a wonderful ride along the Amalfi Coast, heading for our destination, the town of Amalfi with a stop at Positano. The stretch of road winds on the side of the mountains of the coastline. The twisting curves double back on themselves, and the bus driver blows the horn each time he prepares to enter a curve to warn approaching drivers. Many of the turns have large mirrors so the drivers on each side of the curve can see what is approaching. After the maneuvering of the first few curves, we settle in for one of the most scenic drives I have ever been on. MR has forgiven me for my being separated from the group in Pisa and allows me to sit in the front seat with her so I can take in even more of the view, making each turn even more dramatic. The Bay of Naples stretches out before us into a vastness of blue. Homes are perched on the the cliffs on both sides of the road and the continual sound of the bus' horn reminds us of the precarious nature of our drive. It is hard to find the words to describe the view so the pictures will have to do.

One of the many curves with a parking area for the owners of the homes built on the cliffs

View of the Bay of Naples from the front window of the bus. Notice the drop off to the right!


One of the beautiful towns we pass along the way is Positano, which covers a hillside that runs down to the coast line of the bay. An interesting building is a Byzantine styled church Santa Maria Assunta with a majolica tiled dome. The town, along with Amalfi, is the chosen vacation spot for celebrities, including Tom and Katie who have a villa somewhere tucked into a cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples. We stop outside Positano an at overlook point and souvenir place. We take pictures and leave more euros behind. One of the things we seen here is lemons the size of softballs. Lance needs to get some of the fertilizer the Italians use for his garden in Inverness. We load up again headed for Amalfi.

Our stop at the overlook. Cathy and I with Positano in the background

This picture really does not do justice to the size of the lemons, but they really are as large as softballs.

The town of Positano

The Dome of the Santa Maria Assunta Church with majolica tile roof

A look back at Positano as we leave

We arrive in Amalfi at 11:00 a.m. and make plans to be back at the bus at 1:00 p.m. My first response is that I don't think 2 will be enough time to cover the coastal town. It is the typical quaint Italian town that we have all seen in the movies, and Cathy, Shirley, Mary Kat and I strike out determined to do the most we can in 2 hours. Clothes hang from lines stung across the streets from window to window. There are fish markets, bakeries, pastry shops, small eating places, ristorantes, and quaint shops with every imaginable souvenir to take home. Amalfi is where I find my major purchase of the trip, a pasta bowl that is purchased with the money the Lalis gave me for my retirement. It is the most beautiful hand painted pasta bowl, and it takes me a while to pick out the perfect one to display on my kitchen counter along side Lance's mom's handwritten spaghetti recipe that I have framed. Her recipe is a genuine Italian recipe for what is known in Italian speak as tomato gravy. I mentioned fixing the sauce for our Lalis get together back in February. If you want to know more about the Lalis, go back to the post of February 5th, and you can find out about them. Anyway, I finally make a decision, and ask the store owner if he will ship it home. He says he will for 50 euros, which is right at $75 American dollars. Okay, the bowl is beautiful; it is one of a kind; it is expensive; but I can't see spending $75 to ship it home. I will sit with it in my lap on the plane if I have to. So, he wraps it up in layers and layers of bubble wrap, and I go on my way happy that I have made "the purchase" of the trip.

The narrow streets of Amalfi

Laundry hanging above a fish market

Cathy, Shirley, Mary Kat and I reconvene to find a small, quick place to have lunch, you know one of those 5 euro delights with prosciutto. We find one and then eat some gelato for dessert. Our entire group gathers at the old town wall at the appointed time and strolls down to the waterline to take some pictures before we head back to Sorrento.

View of Amalfi from the shoreline

The shoreline of Amalfi

We return by the same gorgeous route, and on the way the driver points out that a particular villa on a cliff is the home of Sophia Loren. All the adults say "Oooh" and "Ahhh," and the kids say, "Who?" Can you say generation gap?!

This is a rock formation called The Virgin. The tree makes her look as if she is holding a bouquet of flowers.

We arrive in Sorrento around 3:00 p.m. We take a while to rest up a bit, and I walk around our hotel to take a few pictures. Several of us gather again to take in Sorrento and to spend more euros. At one point Shirley figures we need more luggage to get our purchases back to the States, so she buys the cutest lime green suitcase. I vow not to spend anymore money. Yea, right! Our hotel perched on the waters' edge. The dining room is the level that is white just beneath the terra cotta color part of the building. Our room is on the second level of the terra cotta part of the building, first window on the far left.

Part of the grounds around the hotel

Some of the many orange trees around the hotel

We gather at 8:00 p.m. in the hotel dining room for our evening meal. Now, I know this sounds crazy, but for the life of me I can not remember what we had to eat that night. I didn't write it down so it must not have been that memorable. However, I just can't imagine that! I'll have to think about this some more. As always, the kids head out for the nightlife, and the adults head to their rooms to crash. However, before we get to go to sleep, we have to get our bags ready for the ride to Rome tomorrow, with a stop at Pompeii. We stuff the lime green suitcase with our purchases minus my pasta bowl and then get our own in order and fall into the bed, 3 tried little puppies. Oh, did I mention I set the cell phone?!