After our breakfast in the elegant dining room, we boarded our mini buses for the trip to the Coast of Amalfi. The Amalfi Coast is a beautiful and renowned stretch of mountainous coastline south of Naples. The peninsula is dotted with picturesque fishing villages and towns clinging giddily to cliffs. It also makes a good base for exploring other popular destinations, one of which is Positano, to which we were headed.
The views of Sorrento from the cliffs high above were breathtaking. The first several miles were an adventure as we watched Marco deal with the insane drivers in the area. The drive along the coast took us on hairpin turns and switchbacks and the width of the road was completely inadequate, especially in a motor coach of our type and especially around the sharp corners. Whenever we and another large vehicle met, it was nearly impossible to either pass or negotiate a hairpin turn. Compounding this was the fact that much of the road was on a cliff 200 or 300 feet over the ocean, and if you were sitting on the ride side of the bus against the window [as I was], it won’t be an exaggeration to look directly out the window straight down and see nothing but the ocean and cliff 300 feet below you.
Notwithstanding the hairy ride and a white-knuckle drive with a winding two-lane road and dramatic cliffs dropping away from the road, it didn’t matter because the views were to die for – almost literally! It was breathtaking, to say the least.
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We finally got to the beautiful town of Positano on the tip of the Amalfi Coast, a dramatically picture-perfect town clinging to the cliff face as if about to cascade into the turquoise waters below. The main part of the town sits in an enclave in the hills leading down to the coast. The vistas were everything I thought they would be – and more! As Shona aptly said, “Positano affects you when you’re there, but it affects you more after you’ve left”. How very true! It has invaded my soul after I have left. I still pine for it – until this day.
We went down to the beach, had some pictures taken and went back up to do some shopping. Positano is one of those famed hill-clinging towns which is literally dug into the side of a cliff and terraces itself from the beach to the top of a small mountain. There are some main streets, but most of the shopping is along pedestrian alleys and walkways. The lay of the land is vertical, not horizontal; therefore, for those people with limited mobility and those who are infirm, short of step or breath, they might want to reconsider traipsing around this picturesque town.
It might be apropos for me to say at this point that if you haven’t already learned the International Rule of Inaccessibility, this is a good time to learn it. What makes a city into the kind of haven that the rich and famous like to visit is its inaccessibility to the masses. All the great resort cities of the world, especially in the Mediterranean, are hard to get to. This being understood, Positano is the center for the rich and famous along the Amalfi Coast. It is an adorable city and the stores sell fun things. It’s like a movie set where stores display their wares to enchant….. and sell. Flowers pour out of flowerpots, dishes are piled up on stairwells, cottons fly in the slight breeze, and lemons are dancing everywhere. It’s like paradise on earth!
And for the sheer variety of pictures one could take along with their relative beauty, there wasn't a place I had been to that offered this kind of scenery. It was spine tingling. I didn't want to leave. As I told it to some of my friends -- “I left my heart in Positano…” The entire experience was exactly as I had pictured it before I had arrived in Italy -- perfect weather, perfect scenery, and the perfect time of day.
It was simply . . . perfect!!!
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We then boarded our bus back into Sorrento where we watched an inlaid wood demonstration. Seeing Sorrento on another day makes me see it from a different perspective. Sorrento is a picturesque village, part of which is located high above the cliffs overlooking the bay and the other part down on the water. It's a great place to shop as the village wends its way down narrow streets and side alleys with little shops and kiosks selling items of every stripe. The bustling center of town was quaint even in its heightened activity. Sorrento is the Italian village I had always pictured in my mind.
It was on from there to the harbor where we boarded a ferry to the sun-drenched island of dreams, the Isle of Capri, a rock rising from the Mediterranean. There's no question it's a very beautiful island. It is also a shopping port. Capri is a spree. There's a reason why Emperor Tiberias used up his MasterCard points at the resorts there. (haha)
When we arrived at the port, we received tickets to ride the funicular, a cog railway that runs from the piers, up to Capri Town. There are several "cars" in the train, each accommodating about 10 people comfortably.
At the top, we all emptied out onto a raised platform that offered fantastic views of the island. We then had a walking tour of Capri. Capri is much larger and much more commercially developed than I had imagined it to be. Many of the buildings were draped with a purple flowering vine that rendered much of the island a shade of fuschia from a distance. It was similar to being in any major city in the US with a shopping district, only higher end and much more scenic. This is a town that has streets that are more like alleys, where you stroll in total contentment, remembering Jackie Kennedy, and you happily get lost and found in this maze.
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The guide showed us through some of the streets, past an exclusive hotel that used to be the hospital and on up to a garden with spectacular views around the island and of the Faraglioni Rocks. Capri is amazing – flowers everywhere and wonderful alleys to explore. The views along the sidewalk occasionally opened up into panoramic vistas. It also is home to the rich and famous – with many, many designer shops. This clearly wasn't a place to come for bargains!
After half an hour of some free time, the group met up for a tour of Anacapri, the highest point on the island, to visit Villa San Michele. If the ride to Positano was not for the faint of heart, no one could have prepared me for the ride to Anacapri. The turns were even more twisted that I thought I would have a heart attack. Moreover, it was harrowing to see people in motor scooters passing us in no passing zones, on corners, on hills, on hairpin turns, and not at all fazed that they would barely make it past our bus before another vehicle would nearly hit them head on. This happened once every few minutes. The entire drive was like watching an Omni Theater production of some disaster movie showing a bus flirting with cliff disaster. It was that scary!
Anyhow, as a backgrounder, Villa San Michele is located on the north-eastern side of Anacapri, 327 metres above sea level. Here was an ancient Roman imperial villa, the ruins of which was preserved by Axel Munthe and is now to be found in the garden. San Michele was Munthe's residence between 1896 and 1910. The fanciful architecture was meant as a perfect environment for his collections, and at the same time, served to enhance the beauty of the landscape. The view from Anacapri was breathtaking!!!
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After another hairy ride down from Anacapri, we made it back to port, thankfully in one piece and sanity intact. We then took the ferry back to Sorrento and back to our hotel. After a quick rest and shower, we prepared for dinner. We had drinks at the bar paid for by Insight Vacations, and an included dinner at the hotel’s elegant dining room. We also took this opportunity to pose for a group photo.
Amalfi….. Positano..... Sorrento….. Isle of Capri – all beautiful cities. I'll return here someday. Of that I'm sure.
……to be continued
Positano can be expensive, but it surely is absolutely gorgeous.
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