Amalfi Coast

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Naples

 

And so we begin. Our journey starts in the idyllic town of Naples. Naples is a little like Italy's Detroit, or maybe the bad part of Durham. OK it wasn't the highlight of our trip. But we did go to a museum with lots of creepy and interesting stuff from the Pompei ruins (including one room we can't show you here because, well, this isn't that kind of web site). 

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Wicked cool art from Pomei

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Sorento

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From Naples, we hit the train down the coast and around the bay to lovely* Sorento. Sorento sits on high cliffs on one end of the beautiful Amalfi coast. Across the bay you can see Naples and Mt. Vesuvius and toward the sea is Capri just off the coast.

* (from this point forward when we say something was lovely/idyllic/beautiful, we're not being sarcastic)

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_SAR2912.jpg (199583 bytes) _SAR2911.jpg (250963 bytes) We nestled in for the night in our cutesy wootsy little bungalow above town (which was beside that funky little building on the left).

The square in Sorento and the view from our bungalow at night.

(If you look closely, you can see Mt. Vesuvius looming in the distance).

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The next morning, after the first of many many many really good coffees, we were Vesuvius bound...

On the right is us waiting for a looonnnngggg time for a bus which we weren't sure was really going to show up (but those are some of the details we're not going to tell you about).

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The feet to the train to the bus to the... tourist trap stop half way up the mountain, where this cute li'l ole man told us stories about his life running tours up the mountain.

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Finally, we scale the peak and look down into the pit of the volcano.

(And, yes, parts of it are still  very hot).

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Just down the hill from Vesuvius (unlucky for them as it turned out), are the ruins of the ancient city of Herculaneum, buried in lava and ash along with Pompei in 79 A.D. While smaller and less well known than Pompei, the ruins are actually better preserved because of the way in which they were covered by volcanic material. The whole excavation sits 40 feet below the level of the current town. _SAR2784-Edit-3.jpg (203476 bytes)

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Amid the streets of Herculaneum are many houses, temples, a hospital and the ancient Roman equivalent of a restaurant. Those urns held food that guests would gather around and share.

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This house, amazingly, was still almost completely intact after almost 2000 years.

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Capri

 

The next morning we embarked for Capri and the villages of the Amalfi Coast. This is the day we learned about the, um, what's the word?... not efficiency,  not organization, um... oh, yes, the complete anarchy of the Italian transportation system. More on that in a bit.

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After a coffee at "Cafeteria Ruccio" (what can we say, it's a great name), we hopped on the 8:30 boat to Capri (which left prompty at 9:45). 

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After a short boat ride, we arrived on Capri, built into the cliffs and wrapped around the water's edge.

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From the town of Capri we took a very scary bus ride up to the top of that mountain to the tiny village of Anacapri (left).

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And let me tell you about the buses. These are more like a ride at a theme park than a city bus. You're flying along these steep mountain roads with barely one lane and 180° hairpin turns. On one side is a rock face and on the other is a 1000 foot drop. Then you meet another bus. Another bus. And you pass. With about an inch clearance. I'm pretty sure I left my fingernail prints permanent pressed into the seat in front of me.

Here's the view from the bus window è

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From Anacapri we bussed down the other side of the island to the Blue Grotto (ooohhh). This was bizarre. You get in a row boat, which takes you over to a motor boat to buy a ticket, then you have to lay flat on your back and the rowboat goes into this miniscule hole in the side of the cliff face. 

Inside the blue grotto, the light from the hole creates this vivid iridescent blue glow from the bottom of the pool. 

 

 

 

Positano

We had a really solid plan. It was, it was a good plan. We read all about our transportation options and we mapped it all out. We were going to take the 8:30 boat to Capri, then spend some time on the island, then take another boat along the Amalfi coast to the far end of the coastal road. From there we were going to take the bus and village hop our way back to Sorento. Or so we thought. 

We went to buy the boat ticket and there was no one at the ticket booth. So we asked and we waited and we looked around and we asked some more... for about 45 minutes. We got lots of good answers from lots of helpful people, none of which were accurate. Then, finally, we find someone who knows what's going on and that person informs us that the boats to the Amalfi coast weren't running for the season yet. 

So then we came up with another good plan. We were starting to get the hang of transportation in Italy.

So, back on the boat to Sorento and back on another death bus to Positano on the Amalfi coast. These busses also drove quickly along narrow cliff roads, but by this point we had built up a tolerance to the fear of our imminent demise. And the drive was quite beautiful.

 

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The road to Positano

Positano, like Capri, is built into the cliffside at water's edge. The streets and sidewalks snake around the buildings as endless steps lead up and down the cliff. The perfect place for a sunny retreat.

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The cathedral in the town center.

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Pompei

Pompei, though not quite as well preserved as Herculaneum, is much larger. It was a full blown Roman city, and you really get a sense for what Roman life must have been like. Popei has temples, public baths, a court, a central market, a colloseum, amphitheatres. It's a lot like a modern city.

 

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Homes

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The city

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Athletic field

Public bath

Amphitheater 

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By far one of he most chilling things we saw on our entire trip were the sort of fossilized remains of some of the poor souls trapped in Pompei. Very creepy.

Temple

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And always, looming on the horizon, is Vesuvius.

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Finally, we loaded up all our stuff (Scott brought a lot of camera gear) and headed for Rome.

(We weren't sure which road led to Rome, so we took the train)

Next stop Rome...

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