Hi Again From The Amalfi Coast -
When we last met it was last Wednesday and we had just passed Sophia Loren’s vacation home and about to enter the city of Amalfi, the largest city on the Amalfi Coast.
It’s now late Friday evening and we’re partially packed for our checkout tomorrow morning and ready for our car trip from Positano-to-Sorrento, our train trip from Sorrento-to-Naples, and our high-speed train trip from Naples-to-Rome. Tomorrow night is in a hotel near the Rome train station, ready to catch a Sunday morning train out to the Rome Airport and our flight to Nice and drive back to Aix-en Provence.
Again, our journey with our guide Rafael on Wednesday was exceptional. Looking at the photos, there’s a photo looking down on Amalfi as we approach the city. We had an hour to look around Amalfi, which is not as quaint and nice as Positano. You see a photo of Sophia next to the fountain in the town piazza (plaza or square). The main thing to see in Amalfi is the cathedral, which you see a photo of. The cathedral architecture is a mix of Moorish and Byzantine flavors and was build sometime between 1000 and 1300. The Moorish had an influence along the Amalfi Coast. The story goes that most residents had a home along the coast (turned to the sea for food) and another home up the hill. It seems that when the Moorish came the residents fled up the hill, knowing the Moorish were too lazy to go up the hills. Anyway, we did the cathedral tour and you see a couple of photos of the interior. We took a stroll up the main drag and the group was nice enough to pose for a quick photo. There’s another photo of main street in Amalfi showing the building “bridges” over the street. After our hour in Amalfi we drove up to the 1,000 foot above shore level and the town of Ravello. There are a couple of photos from just outside the restaurant we ate it, which featured a great view. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and we did get the picture perfect views we would have gotten on Thursday.
When time permits we’ll show you around Ravello, which has some character. Meanwhile,Thursday (yesterday) was the most beautiful day of the week and we had nothing scheduled. Today was mostly cloudy and right now it is pouring rain. Today was our boat trip to the Isle of Capri (CAP’-pree), which at least escaped rain.
Little did we know when we scheduled Rome, Naples and the Amalfi Coast for this school break that we’d be running into holidays. Of course, it started with Good Friday and Easter Weekend in Rome. Late last week we ran into another Italy holiday in Naples. And, yesterday (May 1) was Labor Day here in Italy, so it turned into a four-day vacation weekend, which brought lots of people to this area. They have an interesting approach to holidays here, at least when it comes to cabs. First, in Naples on the holiday we were charged 16 euros for a cab trip that the day prior was only 8 euros. Last night on the holiday here in Positano, we took about a three minute cab trip and the charge was 16 euros (about $23). They explained to us it was because it was a holiday. Oh well!
The Wilsons
