Amalfi Coast

I'VE LEARNED THAT THERE ARE many benefits of vacationing through a travel company.

In fact, we learned it first hand when we went to Venice in February on our first trip.  The directions, simple.  Show up here, at this time, and we'll take care of the rest.  It saves a lot of stress figuring out logistics.

SO, this weekend, Scott and I decided to book our weekend trip to the Amalfi Coast through Bus2Alps, the same one we used when we went to Venice.

As expected, we showed up to the Roma Termini train station at around 7 p.m., and took our bus that got us to our hotel, Hotel Florida, at around midnight.  Straight to bed for a big day of travelling the next day.

We started off with a boat tour around the island of Capri (pronounced Kah-Pree, not Cuh-Pree).  We then got into smaller boats (more like canoes) so we could enter the Blue Grotto Caves.  The entrance to get in was very small (e.g. only five people in a boat) and we had to duck our head down to that we could fit.  The boat guides told us to get "down and in."

A little bit of an aside here.  When I was in middle school, my family and I took a week long river rafting trip in the Grand Canyon.  It was a very cool trip.  However, there were times when the Colorado River gave us a little turbulence in the boat (river rapids, for those unsure of what meant).  When the rapids would get too big, our boat crew would tell us to get "down and in," meaning get inside the boat so that you didn't fly into the Colorado.

Flashforward a decade later, and here I am again, with a boat guide, telling me to get "down and in." Well, it was for good reason, because I would've hit my head on the cave had I not ducked all the way inside the boat.  We spent a few minutes in there, and then got back to our bigger boat to continue our tour.

We were on the island for a little while, and they had a ski lift tour that would take you to the top.  I'm not the best when it comes to heights, but we went up anyway.  The views of the island were pretty spectacular, but it got pretty frigid as we ascended up the mountain.  When we got to the top, we were in the clouds, and couldn't see most of the island below.  "This must be what heaven is like," I remarked.

Back down the ski lift, back to the bus, and back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner, which for me that night was a margarita pizza and ravioli with red sauce.  Another early night, for another busy day.

The next day was our beach day on the Amalfi Coast.  We'd had good weather the day before, and Saturday was no different, about 75 and sunny.  We laid out for some of the day, and I even went in the water for a swim.  I did a little backstroke, and I had the Amalfi Coast as the backdrop.  The water was a little chilly, but the views, beautiful.

A bit of an aside here as well.  There were a lot of people on the beach that day.  I'd been on reading my book for most of the day (refresher, book on 1988 presidential election, which continues to impress) and there was a girl sitting not too far away from me who was also reading something.  We had a quick chat about our respective books.  I'd asked her about how she was liking Memoirs of a Geisha, and she said it was good.

Then she got around to asking me about mine, and I'd told her that it was a book on the 1988 presidential election.  She gave me a strange look and proceeded to say: "Oh, I'm not a history buff" (since when does reading a book about a presidential election that took place 3 years before I was born make me a history buff?!).  Nonetheless, I felt pretty old after that comment.

Continuing on, we went to the bus, back to the hotel, freshen up and out for dinner, where I had some amazing gnochhi with red sauce.

Sunday, we went to see the ruins of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius.  It was a large area but very cool to see.  The plaster casts were remarkable (when the ash covered the bodies from the volcanoe, they wound up being mostly preserved, so they used this archaeological technique to see the bodies).  We arrived in Rome around seven this evening.

I'm really happy that I travelled to see so much of Italy.  So far, I've been to Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Amalfi Coast, Orvieto, Umbria, and Sicily.  I think that will be all the travelling I do within the country, but it was great to see.

Not sure when the next post will be.  Check back for updates.

JC