Day 34: Naples, Italy
Well, crossing fingers didn’t work. We had a cool, rainy day. We were told that rain is very unusual for this time of year, that normally spring has beautiful temperatures with clear blue skies. I’ve been to this area before, and my memories are of the sea reflecting the sky with a gorgeous deep blue. Today, the white sky just reflected onto a gray sea. Oh well, at some point in the trip bad weather was bound to happen.
So, like I said, I’ve been to this area before and I think it’s great. Lynda hadn’t and the Amalfi Coast was on her Bucket List, so that’s what we did today.
After a complete wardrobe change once we saw the weather we were going to be dealing with, we got started on our ship tour of Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast.
The 1 hour bus ride from Naples (Napoli to the Italians) to Sorrento afforded little in the way of site seeing. We were temporarily held retail hostage at a furniture wood inlay store, but were able to skip out on that pretty quickly to head into the cute town of Sorrento.
We only had about an hour to walk around. Normally, I would love to have more time, but we were looking forward to the Amalfi Coast, and with the rain, we were ok with the shorter stay. But somehow, it was already lunch time. So after meeting back at the furniture store, our guide lead us directly back to where we had just come from for an early lunch.
Lunch was upstairs in an Italian restaurant where we got a (very) small glass of prosecco, some white wine, and a bottle of water. We sat with Sandra and Tony from Australia. Lunch consisted of cannelloni, chicken, and a lemon cake desert. Everything in this area is made with lemons it seems. In fact, after tourism, their second main industry is limoncello. Limoncello is a liquor that is made in the area around Naples, with lemon (obviously), sugar, and alcohol. It’s actually quite tasty, if not just a little sour.
After Sorrento, we drove to Solerno to catch a boat to take us up the Amalfi Coast to the town of Amalfi. Along the coast we passed a number of small towns that were absolutely beautiful.
Amalfi has a beautiful cathedral, which if you get a chance to go inside, definitely check out the crypt underneath. You won’t regret it. I’d been in the cathedral before and Lynda isn’t really into churches the way I am, so we skipped going in today. We did get some photos out front though.
We were looking for a place to sit for a minute so we bought a couple of small cannoli at a pastry shop and ate them at a table out front under an awning. We also wanted to get a small bottle of limoncello to taste and take back to the boat with us. It won’t last long, but we got what we wanted.
On the boat ride back to Solerno, Lynda and I met an interesting couple from Australia. Wynn and Anita live on the ocean there and they showed us video of the kangaroos hopping around the beach in front of their home. Pretty damn cool.
We passed by Pompeii a couple of times today. I did my best to get a picture from a moving bus, but it’s so hard to get anything decent. I went to Pompeii last time I was in Naples, and it’s one of the most amazing ruins I’ve ever seen. So much larger and more complex than I expected.
My best picture of Mount Vesuvius (you know, the one that destroyed Pompeii) was from the ship's deck just before we shoved off. I also got a shot of the island of Capri in the distance.
My only complaint for the day was just not getting near enough time in Amalfi. We were only given one hour free time there, and by the time we took a couple of photos, ate our cannoli, and bought our limoncello, it was time to head back to the boat. We didn’t even really get to explore the town. Even still, the tour got back to the Vasco da Gama late enough that we barely made the all-aboard time.
We hadn’t seen Lauren and Bob all day and found out they’d disembarked from the boat. I knew Lauren was still feeling poorly this morning, complaining of a pain in her side, and was planning on skipping the tour. I hope she’s ok. We’re going to try and get in contact with them today.
Weather you just have to roll with. Rome tomorrow and it’s supposed to rain again all day.
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