Amalfi Coast, Italy

"Buon giorno!"
A long weekend on The Amalfi Coast,Italy ...

We arrived in Naples Italy, Friday, July 3rd, at around 12. Upon our arrival into Naples airport, we jumped on a 30 minute bus ride to take us to Port Beverello.

On this quick journey through Naples we managed to see quite a bit of activity. The street vendors filled the streets with colorful umbrellas and beautiful good's. Naples is Italy's third largest city, with more than 2 million people. These are some photo's taken from inside our bus, on our journey through the streets of Naples.

This is a city which is known for it's rich history, art, & culture. Unfortunately, it's also known for garbage, smog, and organized crime (as well as cows that make ice cream in 3 colors!!). The city can be traced back to the 8th century BC. Neapolis ("new city") was a thriving Greek commercial center. Back in the 13th century, the capital of Italy was moved into the city of Naples. In 1279, Charles I, ordered a new castle which was to be built along the sea. This is a photo of this castle, Castel Nuovo. Not so new any more!

We arrived into the port and jumped on our boat to Positano.

We enjoyed a nice relaxing boat ride, along the coast of Italy, to our destination.


Positano is located halfway between two volcanic areas ... the volcano Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields (which is south of Amalfi). The photo below is Mount Vesuvius. Sheila took this one from the boat as we were heading down the coast.

During an eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, the volcano covered the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 8 feet of ash (guess that could ruin your whole day!). We drove through the town of Pompeii (just so we could tell Jess how to pronounce it ... quite different from Pompey) but never made it to the sites. We really enjoyed learning a little about the history of the area.

We made several stops along our journey by boat. The captain pulled into each port very quickly and you better be ready to jump off FAST!!! I think this guy had the fastest stops on record ... Ha Ha.

There were 4 stops along the way. The first stop was a village called Ercolano "La Favorita". A small fishing village with virtually no activity.The next stop, was a village called Seiano-Vico Equense. Another quiet fishing village, which was nestled into some foothills.

The third stop was a village called Sorrento. It is said to be the "Gateway to the Amalfi Coast". This city appears to be like a carving along the coast looking over the Mediterranean, with beautiful olive and lemon groves.

This was quite a large city, around 200,000 people and quite a few people got on and off at this stop. The captain continued his fast, "On-Off" stops ... This was shot leaving the city of Sorrento. You can see the cliffs and the city located on the edge.
We will have to say our journey to Positano was ever so relaxing. The sun was shining and the boat ride was only, 1-1/2 hours from Naples.

This photo was taken coming into Positano ... another city nestled into the mountains.


This is a video of our arrival into Positano. What a beautiful place!

The houses seem to be artistically built into the crevices of very steep cliffs and painted in the typical Mediterranean pastels. It seems as though each area that we have visited in Italy, you can find these wonderful colors. So happy to have arrived. On to hiking many steps up into the cliffs and, of course, some fine cuisine and fun in the sun ...

These are photos on our way up to our little B&B located up on one of the cliffs. A bit of a hike from the village of Positano ... Positano is said to have 4,000 local residents and it seems as though this village is squished into a ravine, with narrow alleys that cascade down to the harbor. Loads of little shops along the way were located on the pedestrian streets. They say that Positano is famous for it's fashion and that 90% of it's shops are fashion boutiques. I think Rich could attest to this one (the fashionista that he is ... but he couldn't find overalls or straw hats anywhere)! Ha Ha! This photo below was one of the many little shops with clothes hanging in and outside to entice you in. It didn't effect Sheila at ALL ... :)We took this shot ourselves. Not too bad ... huh???

Check out the mountains beyond in this photo ...

More photos from our journey up into the hills ... This was a shot of one of the local churches ... the one we attended on Sunday.

A beautiful mass in Italian. The priest was from Boston and just visiting, so he spoke a little English at the end of the sermon. Always so nice to hear English spoken in Europe. We made it!! This was a shot from our balcony!! Absolutely gorgeous....
When we arrived at our destination we headed out to take-in the beauty of this place. The people are all so friendly and always seem so happy to try and speak English.
We had a wonderful meal and delightful wine (of course!) overlooking the harbor of Positano.
Looking forward to exploring on Saturday...

On Saturday we just relaxed and enjoyed the sun, local food, drink and wonderful people.
People just meandering along the small city streets ...

This was on our way down to the beach, which was nestled into one of the many coves along the coast. It took us around 15 minutes to climb down, but once we arrived it was well worth it. Loads of sunshine and hot sand ...
a quick stop to catch our breath. :)When we reached the beach area, we definitely needed a cool drink. Oh yeah ... of course we had to try the local brew!! Enjoyed the entire day just relaxing down by the sea. Dinner in the evening, another beautiful view of the Sea. What a great way to end our Saturday...
On Sunday we headed to mass and then made our way down to the harbor to head over to Amalfi, just a 20 minute boat ride away.

On our way, we came across these lemons. The locals rave about their beautiful lemon groves and the size of their produce ... so I couldn't resist a shot of this excellent display along one of the city streets.. I guess they do have reason the boast! Look at the size of these babies! Ha Ha

When we reached the harbor, this old man was bringing in his lobster traps, just wondering if his day started 5 hours earlier???

As we waited to board our boat, this packed boat arrived on the dock coming in from the Isle of Capri. It was so full, that it looked quite unsafe. One of the locals said that Sunday's are the worse day for travelling on the local boats due to the cruise ships and their vacationers. Thankfully, we were boarding another boat with only 10 people on board! PERFECT ... :)
Arrival into Amalfi. Another magnificant place!
A video of Amalfi's Sant'Andrea Cathedral (built in 1174, the bell tower built in 1180-1276), another enchanting place ... had a great lunch along one of the side streets and then off and up into the mountains for our 5 hour hike.....




The bells are spectacular! I had to give you a sample of the sites and sounds of daily life

Another view of the cathedral below. This next shot is the "Cloister of Paradise" (built 1266-1268), which is a resting place for a number of prominent Italians from the Campania region. This is located right next to the cathedral. A beautiful space with palm trees and gorgeous plantings inside this courtyard space.
Heading off on our hike we managed to visit 6 little villages, Torre Dello Ziro (this one had a neat tower which was built around1480), Pontone, Minuta, Scala, down to the coast at Atrani, and, of course, ending back in Amalfi . Each of these villages that we went through had unique remains of the past. There is so much history to see and experience.We took so many photos of the many little villages along the way...a view coming into the harbor...
We had an unbelievable work-out and the trip only took us 3-1/2 hours not 5 which the map had stated it would take. But then, we're both pretty finely tuned pent-nul-athletes. It probably would have taken our kids 6 or 7 hours ... since they wouldn't have used a map!

We enjoyed every minute of the sights and sounds of this unique place.This was quite a spectacular view of the olive and lemon groves along the sides of the rock.

It's amazing when you think about how these people actually survived over the centuries, with being in an area of volcanic rock.

We hate to end here, still have loads of photos ...

This was a fabulous trip, over all, and Italy has to be Sheila's favorite country so far.

The vegetation inland, the cool sea breezes, the fine cuisine and their sing-songy language (la-la-la-la-la), is the splendor of this beautiful country!

Video leaving Positano ... what a great time that we will remember always ...........



"Ciao!"

NEXT STOP, "RUSSIA"! :)