Sunday 29th – Saturday
4th June – In and around the Amalfi Coast
Positano – narrow alleyways, tourists, endless shops, ceramics,
clothing, food, boat trips, pebbly beach, 150 steps up from the beach to the
villa, lemons +++ (lemoncello, lemon tablecloths, lemon tables, lemons squeezed
on the seafood)….get the picture?
Monday 30th May - Pompeii.
Phew
- another day of ruins, another overwhelming walk through a Roman town that
once lived, once thrived, but was frozen in ash and pumice when Vesuvius
exploded in 79AD…tavernas, rich houses, poor houses, markets, brothels and
temples, the first arena in the Roman era…all frozen in time…we saw the bodies,
the frescoes, the table once owned by the first of five men to stab Caesar in
44AD (just before Brutus did)…head-spinning stuff…you think it’s so long ago,
but then it’s really nothing in terms of human history! But it’s where we come from…phew, what if
Hannibal had invaded Rome and won? No
pizza, no mozzarella, no parmigiana…what would the chefs of Footescray do???
Wednesday 1st June – WET day trip to the
Island of Capri.
Well
Gilligan and his mates had nothing on this boat trip! An hour after leaving Positano we were
surrounded by lightning, wind, swell, then fog, finally reaching Grande Marina
over on Capri. What a damp dull day to
be visiting this tourist mecca. The
funicular took us to the top…it was pouring still, visibility was worse than
ever, a cold wind and with the towels (borrowed from the boat) over our heads,
we decided to find somewhere to eat….so a taxi took us off to Anacapri for a
meal! Three hours later we took the trip
back by boat…nothing had changed, the seas were worse. It was a shame as the
island is steeped in history….remember that Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire
from here.
Thursday 2nd June – boat trip down the
Amalfi Coast.
A
much better day for a boating jaunt….Salvatore, our skipper took us and two
honeymoon couples on a gentle cruise around this wonderful coastline. We saw the famous villas and the 8 star
hotels on the cliffs with lifts drilled through the cliffs down to their private
swimming pools on the rocks. The best
part of the day was the seafood lunch with Salvatore and his mates in one of
the little harbours near Amalfi.
Friday 3rd June – drive down the Amalfi
Coast.
After
we said farewell to our Brissie friends and baby Emma, JnJ headed off in the
car for more of the famous Amalfi coastline – scary as hell with inches to
spare on every corner. After Amalfi it
was up the winding cliff road to Ravello, another beautiful cliff hugging
village but impossibly overrun with tourists, cars and buses and nowhere to
park! We had to escape and headed up
into the mountains across the spine of Amalfi for another glimpse of Vesuvius.
