On Friday, I skipped class so that Matt and I could catch an earlier train to the Amalfi Coast. We were taking the train to Napoli and then a little local train along the coast to a little town and then a bus and THEN we had to walk to the hotel. So I wanted to get an early start. I had written Matt this whole email about being patient in Italy and all my "rules" about being a good traveler (the basic rule is don't be a complainer) BEFORE he came to Italy and he promised me that he would behave. So then what happens when our train to Napoli is delayed 50 minutes and we have to sit there for an extra hour? Matt deals with it and I become the big complainer! Well, I had never had a train be so late! And sometimes ignorance (Matt) is really bliss because only I knew what we were in for with all the transportation we had to do to make it to our hotel in Positano (a small city near Amalfi). Here is Matt, calm, at the train station:
One great thing did happen because we were delayed. I had completely forgotten that it was my friend Johan's last day. He called asking where I was while we were sitting there waiting for our delayed train. So I told him to come by the train station and find me on track 16. He did and I got to say goodbye to him in person. It was sad to see him go because I have been in class with him the longest. He went to school for 13 weeks and started 2 weeks ahead of me. I went to school for 12 weeks so 11 of those weeks we were together in class. Maybe someday I will go visit him in Sweden. Here is Matt reading the guide book on the way to Napoli:
Or maybe he was reading his zombie book. I tried to get him to read the guidebook--it does get a bit overwhelming when you are reading about some place you have never seen and can't imagine it. Matt was pretty content relying on me to figure out where we were going and how. It was his idea to go to Pompeii and that is what led us to the Amalfi Coast in the first place. Amalfi was on my list of places to go during this trip but got crossed off once I became tired of the super long (4 hour) train rides. But I was willing to do it with someone else. We arrived in Napoli and then took the little "Circumvesuviana" train that "circumvents" Mt. Vesuvius and hits every little street (or so it seemed) along the way. It was kind of a sketchy little train--lots of graffiti everywhere which normally doesn't bother me but I don't like the vicinity of Napoli all that much. Finally we arrived at the third to last stop, a little town called Meta:
And here we got off the train and then walked across the street to catch the bus. The ominous clouds were moving fast:
And they were moving in our direction. The timing of the bus worked out perfectly because one arrived in about 15 minutes. And the next one wouldn't have come for another hour or so. (See, this is why I flipped out about our train being late leaving Firenze--you don't want to be stranded near Napoli.) So we rode this bus around super tight corners with just sheer cliff leading down to the water 300 feet below. We arrived at our stop just as the rain clouds opened up and threw sheets of water to the earth. And we really had no idea where we were going. There was a local guy there who saw us looking like idiots and was trying to tell me (in Italian) to wait for the other bus that would take me closer to my hotel. There was no way I was going to wait for another bus! And Matt was stupid enough to stick with me. So the man led us to a flight of really steep stairs (this whole town is made up of various sets of really steep stairs) and told us that would be a short cut. Well, it didn't feel like a shortcut when we were slipping and sliding on the soaked steps and trying not to lose our luggage. Finally we arrived at a road but then had no idea where to go. We found a couple guys sheltered in their restaurant and asked them. But they seemed unsure so we found another hotel and asked the very kind woman. She assured us we were close and gave us perfect directions. Five minutes later, just as we arrived at our hotel, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Perfect. It took us a few minutes to find our hotel proprietor--an elderly man who spoke in a strange Italian/English mix. I know he was trying to help but usually it is easier to just figure out their Italian because it takes to long to interpret what they are trying to say with their English pronunciation. He showed us to our room and opened the large shuttered door for this fantastic view:
Yeah, really. That was our view. From our room. Spectacular. These are our "Yay We Made It and The View Is Wonderful" smiles:
Matt and the view:
It was so amazingly gorgeous and we arrived in time to enjoy the late afternoon. This is the view southeast along the coast toward Amalfi:
This is the view of the other side of Positano:
Positano was built on two sides of a ravine. Both sides have a view of the water and the other side of town. By the way, if you go to the Amalfi Coast, stay in Positano. It is the most picturesque of the little towns on the coast and unlike Amalfi, almost every hotel has an amazing view of the water. In Amalfi (as you will see later) there is less oceanfront property. It is more built into a ravine so you don't necessarily have much of a view. Here I am enjoying my view:
Look at those curly q's in my hair. That is proof that it rained really hard! Look, a magnificent view!:
The hotels on the other side of town:
So cute and colorful--almost everyone of them has balconies for view-enjoyment. Here is a wider shot of the town--you can see how it is built right into the cliff:
And the really blue water below, having been churned up by a boat:
Matt and I headed out to explore our little town. Here is Matt (blending in with the locals by wearing orange--I think it the European males favorite color, especially for pants...) as we walk through town:
And me with the pretty flowers:
The church was open so we stopped in for a peek:
It was very tiny and very ornate. Their color scheme was white and gold. Can you tell I have seen too many churches in these past few month? Here is a picture taken from the "beach" looking back up through town:
We ended up eating dinner at the restaurant with the orange awning on the far left. The church in the middle of town:
Our side of town, wrapped around the cliff:
In a larger version of this picture I can actually pick out our hotel balcony. Here is a restaurant built into the side of the cliff, right on the beach:
We tried to eat there the second night (the first night we were a little too scruffy and didn't have the energy to walk up to the hotel and get cleaned up) but they were having a private party. Matt was really bummed because he really wanted to eat there. But this means he has to go back and visit Positano again. Well, first he has to learn how to pronounce it...Postano, Potsitano and his personal favorite Postiano were all I heard all weekend. I gave up trying to teach him! I think he finally got it while we were on the ferry heading back to Napoli...at the end of the weekend. Some locals with their boats:
Positano huddled up to the beach:
The gorgeous coast with the sun setting over our shoulder:
This was our view as we sat and had a yummy dinner:
Weary travelers at dinner:
Here is Matt enjoying his first ever Italian-made bruschetta (pronounced bru-sketta):
It was super delicious and he really enjoyed it! We also shared the fried zucchini appetizer:
These were really good too! Matt had some sort of fresh fish and I had some green ravioli. This was the view up to our hotel room after dinner:
And the church lit up at night:
They were having some kind of summer concert series in a square just up from the beach. We could hear the music all the way up to our hotel room. Matt took these pictures of the water and the lights:
He has an "artsy" streak. What can I say... :)
We asked someone about the schedule for the buses to the local train in the morning because we wanted to get to Pompeii early. Turns out that the bus doesn't pick up where they dropped us off so at my suggestion we walked to the other bus stop so we could see how far away it really was. Then we timed ourselves walking back to the hotel. We had to have it all planned out because we didn't want to miss our bus! Here is the view of the city at night as we walked back from the bus stop:
Positano was gorgeous and it was nice to be able to settle into our hotel room for two nights. We had a huge room with three beds, a crib (!), a shower room off the bathroom AND a bathtub. Crazy Italian hotels...
One great thing did happen because we were delayed. I had completely forgotten that it was my friend Johan's last day. He called asking where I was while we were sitting there waiting for our delayed train. So I told him to come by the train station and find me on track 16. He did and I got to say goodbye to him in person. It was sad to see him go because I have been in class with him the longest. He went to school for 13 weeks and started 2 weeks ahead of me. I went to school for 12 weeks so 11 of those weeks we were together in class. Maybe someday I will go visit him in Sweden. Here is Matt reading the guide book on the way to Napoli:
Or maybe he was reading his zombie book. I tried to get him to read the guidebook--it does get a bit overwhelming when you are reading about some place you have never seen and can't imagine it. Matt was pretty content relying on me to figure out where we were going and how. It was his idea to go to Pompeii and that is what led us to the Amalfi Coast in the first place. Amalfi was on my list of places to go during this trip but got crossed off once I became tired of the super long (4 hour) train rides. But I was willing to do it with someone else. We arrived in Napoli and then took the little "Circumvesuviana" train that "circumvents" Mt. Vesuvius and hits every little street (or so it seemed) along the way. It was kind of a sketchy little train--lots of graffiti everywhere which normally doesn't bother me but I don't like the vicinity of Napoli all that much. Finally we arrived at the third to last stop, a little town called Meta:
And here we got off the train and then walked across the street to catch the bus. The ominous clouds were moving fast:
And they were moving in our direction. The timing of the bus worked out perfectly because one arrived in about 15 minutes. And the next one wouldn't have come for another hour or so. (See, this is why I flipped out about our train being late leaving Firenze--you don't want to be stranded near Napoli.) So we rode this bus around super tight corners with just sheer cliff leading down to the water 300 feet below. We arrived at our stop just as the rain clouds opened up and threw sheets of water to the earth. And we really had no idea where we were going. There was a local guy there who saw us looking like idiots and was trying to tell me (in Italian) to wait for the other bus that would take me closer to my hotel. There was no way I was going to wait for another bus! And Matt was stupid enough to stick with me. So the man led us to a flight of really steep stairs (this whole town is made up of various sets of really steep stairs) and told us that would be a short cut. Well, it didn't feel like a shortcut when we were slipping and sliding on the soaked steps and trying not to lose our luggage. Finally we arrived at a road but then had no idea where to go. We found a couple guys sheltered in their restaurant and asked them. But they seemed unsure so we found another hotel and asked the very kind woman. She assured us we were close and gave us perfect directions. Five minutes later, just as we arrived at our hotel, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Perfect. It took us a few minutes to find our hotel proprietor--an elderly man who spoke in a strange Italian/English mix. I know he was trying to help but usually it is easier to just figure out their Italian because it takes to long to interpret what they are trying to say with their English pronunciation. He showed us to our room and opened the large shuttered door for this fantastic view:
Yeah, really. That was our view. From our room. Spectacular. These are our "Yay We Made It and The View Is Wonderful" smiles:
Matt and the view:
It was so amazingly gorgeous and we arrived in time to enjoy the late afternoon. This is the view southeast along the coast toward Amalfi:
This is the view of the other side of Positano:
Positano was built on two sides of a ravine. Both sides have a view of the water and the other side of town. By the way, if you go to the Amalfi Coast, stay in Positano. It is the most picturesque of the little towns on the coast and unlike Amalfi, almost every hotel has an amazing view of the water. In Amalfi (as you will see later) there is less oceanfront property. It is more built into a ravine so you don't necessarily have much of a view. Here I am enjoying my view:
Look at those curly q's in my hair. That is proof that it rained really hard! Look, a magnificent view!:
The hotels on the other side of town:
So cute and colorful--almost everyone of them has balconies for view-enjoyment. Here is a wider shot of the town--you can see how it is built right into the cliff:
And the really blue water below, having been churned up by a boat:
Matt and I headed out to explore our little town. Here is Matt (blending in with the locals by wearing orange--I think it the European males favorite color, especially for pants...) as we walk through town:
And me with the pretty flowers:
The church was open so we stopped in for a peek:
It was very tiny and very ornate. Their color scheme was white and gold. Can you tell I have seen too many churches in these past few month? Here is a picture taken from the "beach" looking back up through town:
We ended up eating dinner at the restaurant with the orange awning on the far left. The church in the middle of town:
Our side of town, wrapped around the cliff:
In a larger version of this picture I can actually pick out our hotel balcony. Here is a restaurant built into the side of the cliff, right on the beach:
We tried to eat there the second night (the first night we were a little too scruffy and didn't have the energy to walk up to the hotel and get cleaned up) but they were having a private party. Matt was really bummed because he really wanted to eat there. But this means he has to go back and visit Positano again. Well, first he has to learn how to pronounce it...Postano, Potsitano and his personal favorite Postiano were all I heard all weekend. I gave up trying to teach him! I think he finally got it while we were on the ferry heading back to Napoli...at the end of the weekend. Some locals with their boats:
Positano huddled up to the beach:
The gorgeous coast with the sun setting over our shoulder:
This was our view as we sat and had a yummy dinner:
Weary travelers at dinner:
Here is Matt enjoying his first ever Italian-made bruschetta (pronounced bru-sketta):
It was super delicious and he really enjoyed it! We also shared the fried zucchini appetizer:
These were really good too! Matt had some sort of fresh fish and I had some green ravioli. This was the view up to our hotel room after dinner:
And the church lit up at night:
They were having some kind of summer concert series in a square just up from the beach. We could hear the music all the way up to our hotel room. Matt took these pictures of the water and the lights:
He has an "artsy" streak. What can I say... :)
We asked someone about the schedule for the buses to the local train in the morning because we wanted to get to Pompeii early. Turns out that the bus doesn't pick up where they dropped us off so at my suggestion we walked to the other bus stop so we could see how far away it really was. Then we timed ourselves walking back to the hotel. We had to have it all planned out because we didn't want to miss our bus! Here is the view of the city at night as we walked back from the bus stop:
Positano was gorgeous and it was nice to be able to settle into our hotel room for two nights. We had a huge room with three beds, a crib (!), a shower room off the bathroom AND a bathtub. Crazy Italian hotels...
1 comment:
summer concert series.... aka: pops in the park!!! it's a global phenomenon. who knew?! ha ha ha... postsiatioano is soo beautiful!
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