Thursday, Oct 6
Friday, Oct 7
Saturday, Oct 8
Sunday, Oct 9
Monday, Oct 10
Tuesday, Oct 11
Wednesday, Oct 12
Thursday, Oct 13
Friday, Oct 14
Saturday, Oct 15
Sunday, Oct 16
Monday, Oct 17
Tuesday, Oct 18
Wednesday, Oct 19
Thursday, Oct. 20
Monday, Oct 10 - Positano and the Amalfi Coast
Today the weather was much better. We strolled around looking for a laundromat, but couldn’t find one, so we headed for the bus station. We wanted to catch a bus for Positano on the Amalfi Coast, which was on the opposite side of the Sorrentine peninsula. We asked which bus to take, and the guy said “the blue one,” and we went down to see a line-up of seven blue buses! Gee, thanks!
When we finally found the right one, we got on for a harrowing ride up over the mountains and along the cliffs. What a ride! A crazy Italian bus driver squeezing through spaces intended for small VWs in town, then hurtling around sharp hairpin turns and over granite cliffs on the way across the peninsula. Yeesh!
The road wound around the top of 500-1000-foot shear drops into the Mediterranean. The scenery was breath-taking.
We were dropped off alive and unharmed at the top of the town and had to walk down endless stairs, which had street signs, lots of narrow little steps leading off here and there, in apparently random directions. Tiny alleys and side streets. Restaurants and villas perched on the cliff sides, built into them, actually. We made it to the bottom and ate lunch sitting on the dock (cheese, salami, bread, fruit). Some folks were swimming, the children naked. Saw many yachts and sailboats.
Took the ferry back around the peninsula, which took us past the island of Capri. The island looks mostly like rocks poking up out of the water – not very big, but a favorite vacation spot for the Caesars.
Bananas taste different here, they kind of have a pear flavor. I wonder if they come from north Africa. Saw some German men wearing capri pants! Looked very weird. Lots of German and British tourists in Sorrento. The British we ran into were a bit rude. At first they wouldn’t move their bags and junk off the seats so that others could sit on the crowded ferry. When they finally moved their stuff, they did so grudgingly. Three separate groups of British tourists behaved this way! The first day we were in Sorrento, at the Foreigner’s Club, we were looking at a map of the town. Suddenly a British woman came over, said, “Can I borrow your map?” and then whisked it out of Pat’s hands before he could answer. We had been actively looking at the map. I was speechless. Fortunately she didn’t keep it long, because I felt provoked enough to make a scene – and then there would go our diplomatic relationship with Great Britain!
Ate dinner at La Basilica again, because the food and service were so terrific. I had beef filet – wonderful! And ravioli for course No. 1. Real Italian ravioli. Southern Italian cooking is ravishing.
Bon pomoraggio = good afternoon. Bella jorna = wonderful day. Molto gracie = many thanks.
