Day 3 in Amalfi - Saturday 14 September

After breakfast today, I had to call Salvatore of Drive Amalfi about the error I'd noted with our transfer coming up on Wednesday. I also arranged a transfer from Amalfi to Sorrento on Monday, with brief photo stops along the way. It was good to actually speak with the person I've emailed and arranged trips with for this tour, as well as back in 2009.

At 9:30 am we caught the ferry to Positano. We had good seats in the fresh air on top of the boat for the scenic 25 minute trip along the coast. It was amazing watching the houses perched precariously on the steep, rocky cliffs and hill tops.

We could also see the three small islands situated a few hundred metres offshore, the legendary haunt of the Sirens who tempted Ulysses and his men.

It was incredibly busy in Positano, with 'tidal waves' of tourists sweeping down the maze of streets and alleyways towards us and into the town.

We had a look in the main church, Santa Maria Assunta with its characteristic cupola in colored majolica, and wandered gradually upwards along a main alleyway, sitting for a while to wait for Jan and Steve, and happening to be near a guide talking to a group of tourists. We listened to some of what she was telling them, but our ears pricked up when she mentioned an earthquake in the town around 30 years ago that had left cracks that you could still see in another church, and she assured the tourists that although the town was on a fault line, they only had small earthquakes... We soon walked past that church, and had a look inside. Sure enough...

David and I headed up and along the narrow one-way roads to get some lovely views down onto the town. By the time we got down again it seemed to have got much hotter and busier (seemed much hotter than the forecast 29C), and we were starting to wilt. We met up again with the Barrows, and Steve and I kept a shady seat while Jan and David headed off to find some paninis for lunch. I had a fruit smoothy, VERY refreshing!

Three hours was plenty of time in this town and we purchased tickets back to Amalfi on the 1:30 pm ferry sailing - we couldn't wait to escape the heat and crowds. We wandered around for another 30 minutes while we waited for the ferry to arrive, visited the Tourist Information centre and Steve bought his second new pair of shoes.

Back in Amalfi, we felt like we'd arrived 'home', and staggered into the cafe/bar that has become our haunt. After some refreshments we headed back to our rooms to blob out, and have an afternoon nap.

The temperature was a little cooler, with a slight sea breeze as we headed out for dinner at 6:30 pm, finding a nice little family taverna where we enjoyed a good meal.

Naples

Another fabulous day today, in the late 20s. A bit hazy today in Naples and the surrounding area, but clear blue sky beyond the haze.

Our group of Cruise Critic friends (Bob and Lorraine, Angelo and Junjun, Art and Marita) was picked up at 8.15 am by Roberto of DriveAmalfi, and he didn't seem to realise that I had organised to go up Mount Vesuvius some time during the day (preferably at the end, in case we ran out of time for the other activities), and said he didn't think we'd be able to fit everything in - hmmmm - it had been confirmed by his boss (Salvatore) that we could do it all.... Anyway, Roberto was accommodating, and off we went up Mt Vesuvius first (retrospectively a big mistake). A winding drive most of the way up, with lots of overflowing rubbish bins near the end of the road - a disgusting sight for a national park and Naples icon. Anyway, we arrived at 9.00 am and waited 5 minutes to get through the gate - time means little in Italy. We had a lovely walk up the path to the top of the volcano - it took me 25 minutes, going slowly, no worse than the steepest part at the bottom of Hackthorne Rd at home. We had an hour and a half to get up and back down to the car park. The experience was great, but the views weren't brilliant because of the haze. Nevertheless, we could see how high up we were and get an idea of things - it just won't show up well in the photos. I brought back a small piece of Vesuvius rock :-)

After this we headed through the hills, very high up, but very green and beautiful, and across to Ravello - this drive took a while but we made it for lunch at about 12 pm. The views from up on the hill, looking down towards the Amalfi coast were spectacular! The little square at Ravello was so quaint. Then we moved on to have a fabulous lunch in a little restaurant (make a note of this one, Mark) - Ristorante San Giovanni in Pontone. Our Tour Guide ordered food for all of us, gluten free for me, and the others had several courses including the fabulous pizza Marguerita. I have photos! We had water and table wine, then were brought out glasses of sparkling wine, and I asked for lemoncello - OMG - what lovely stuff. David tried to talk me out of buying a bottle (33% alcohol), but for only 9 Euros, I was having it! The others bought some too. We had refills of our glasses, then hit the road!

Down the hill we went, to the actual Amalfi Coast. During lunch, Roberto had offered me an impossible choice - either take a shortcut back over the hill and miss seeing both Positano AND Sorrento, but get 2 hours in Pompeii; or see Positano and Sorrento, but only get 1 hour in Pompeii (was meant to be a minimum of two hours!). I felt like bursting into tears, but decided that we couldn't go to the Amalfi Coast and NOT see Positano and Sorrento, and we'd take our chances with Pompeii. But, I was not happy...

We passed through lots of little townships, including Amalfi, and Positano, where we had very brief photographic stops, and on to Sorrento where we did not stop - we just drove straight through. All absolutely beautiful. We all thought we'd love to come back here for a longer stay.

We had taken longer over lunch because Roberto had said the road was periodically closed for 45 minutes, so this also took a bit of time off the other end of our day, unfortunately. The road was open when we passed through.

We made it to Pompeii just before 4 pm, and Roberto was absolutely insistent that we could only have an hour there, not the planned 2 hours, and we absolutely must be back at the car by 5 pm because of the traffic that would shortly be occurring in Naples. Well, what a terrible pity! David and I made a good start with my podcast from iJourney, but got lost within 20 minutes after taking a wrong turn out of the Forum's public baths.

From then on we simply couldn't figure out where we were or even what direction we were facing, so, sadly, David didn't get to see the infamous brothel - a bit of a let down (pardon the metaphor). I was annoyed with myself for getting lost, but Pompeii is renowned for this. I did get quite a few photos (with camera batteries rapidly running out), of exactly what I'm not sure, but will figure it out from the internet when I get home. We all made it back to the car in time (David pointing me in the right direction, thank goodness). But I felt like crying again. Then back to the ship we went. I have my thoughts now on how DriveAmalfi should have restructured the day. Definitely Vesuvius last, and Pompeii first, as originally arranged in emails with Salvatore!

David is struggling with the heat, so there's no way he'd be going to places like Phuket! I had to keep nudging him in the car around the Amalfi coast, because he kept nodding off every minute or two! It was the same yesterday. Never mind, we have a sea day tomorrow, and can have a lie in.

However, I'm told that the ship sails past Stromboli at 2 am in the morning, and that we'll be able to see the eruption and it's very exciting. I'll get up to see that, but David will sleep on.

We've had a lovely group of people with us on the trips, and it's been great getting to know them through Cruise Critic first - it's making for a very friendly voyage with a lot of people we know and say 'hi' to around the ship or at stops in port.