Amalfi Coast
Trip Start
May 07, 2005
1
54
117
Trip End
Ongoing
Positano,
Italy
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Our Ferry arrived in Naples at 6:30AM. Sometime during the night daylight savings had caused us to gain an hour. I saw Jackie and Dennis in the main dining area puzzling over why all the clocks were saying 5:30 instead of 6:30. With much broken English and Italian we managed to figure out what had happened through the other passengers.
Our original plan upon arrival in Naples was to rent a car and drive ourselves to the Amalfi coast. At Giorgio's we met a Swiss guest who had experienced the Amalfi coast 5x. He strongly advised us to skip driving ourselves and use buses and trains to get there instead. We decided to follow his advice as no one was keen to drive winding mountain roads. Our first task was to get to the train station in Naples
Dave Loves Figs
. We opted for a cab and were treated to something better than coffee to wake you up in the morning - the infamous Italian style of driving! Our cab driver seemed to have a system all his own. The best thing we could do was just put our hands over our eyes and wait until we arrived. The time change messed up the train schedule slightly. We had a longer wait than usual. To get to the Amalfi coast you take the special train designated to traverse around Mount Vesuvius called Circumvesuvius. This train would not take us all the way to the town of Positano. We first had to go to Sorrento then catch a bus to Positano, then another bus up to the cliffs of nocelle where our hotel was located. The connections were killer and there were 30 minute or more waits between each train and bus. After all was said and done I was still very glad we had taken the Swiss guy's advice. The hairpin turns didn't look like they could accommodate a motorcycle let alone a car or a bus.
The bus between Sorrento and Positano was jam full of tourists and locals. It was standing room only for us. It was lots of fun chatting with all the excited travellers. Everyone seemed to know exactly what was waiting for us out the windows. People were jockeying to get the best view out the bus windows
Jackie on the Steps
. We got our first glimpse of the Amalfi coast on this ride. It was truly spectacular. Little towns snuggling into cliffs, sheer drops off of mountain cliffs into the sea, and a mists hiding some of the mountains higher up. After arriving in Positano a very friendly Italian took the time to help us make a few phone calls and figure out how to get to our hotel. It turned out we had one more bus ride straight up into the cliffs to an even smaller outlying area of Positano called nocelle. On the bus ride to Nocelle a couple who had rented a car told us they were told not to attempt to drive their car on this leg. This further reinforced our decision to forgo the car.Our villa apartment was called Degli Dei. It is always hit or miss when looking for a place to stay on the internet. This placed was a definite hit! It was gorgeous and had everything you imagine an Italian villa should have. It was like being on a nature preserve. There was no traffic at all. The town had one restaurant and a small grocery store. There was one main street which was little more than a cobblestone alley. It absolutely had no room for cars so there were none. We had a short hike on this road to our place. There was a little chapel carved into a rock outside the gate of the villa. The villa had fig streets on a terrace overlooking the sea. We had some nice amenities as well including satellite tv and a jacuzzi tub. It was like heaven.
We were only planning one night in Positano but the extraordinary nature of the journey to get to Nocelle coupled with the wonderful villa that turned out to be our accommodations made us change our minds. We asked the hotel if we could have the place for 3 days. We spent those 3 days exploring Positano, eating at the fabulous little Trattoria ,one day Dave and I went to Pompeii, and Jackie and Dennis went to Amalfi.
