Amalfi Coast, Italy

Only 4 days after I got back from Paris, I flew down to Naples, Italy to spend some time on the Amalfi Coast with my best girlfriends from Boston, Heather, Sara and Michele! 

Oh.  Why hello there Vesuvius.  I didn't see you there, lurking over a population of over 3 million people.

Pretty roses in the Sorrento sunlight.  I'm not super artistic, but I really thought this picture was pretty!

Heather and Sara doing what they do best.  Lemon ceramic shopping.

We went down to Porta a Marina at the Marina Grande for dinner and the views were really pretty.  It's a much quieter Marina than Marina Piccola and little old men were sitting outside mending fishing nets as we ate.

Of course there was wine!  Duh!

Pasta and clams and basil and cheese.  Whoa.  I highly recommend Porta a Marina, and no, they aren't paying me to say that!

Michele ate some squid.  It had to be documented in this collage.

Afterward? A nap.  Everyone was really tired from traveling, so we went back to our apartment and napped for a bit.  I didn't even have to travel far, but I still napped!  After we woke up, we went back out for some yummy gelato.  Here I have some mango and lemon/vanilla.  Outstanding!

This is a thing they like to do to me.  For some reason, they think I'm small.  Or that they're strong.

The grocery store next to this closes somewhat early, but they have these little late night snack and drink machines that we spent a good 15 minutes trying to figure out.  Insert coin.  Hit number. Retrieve water.  Somehow Italy made it more complicated than that!

On Friday morning, we got up early and went down to the Marina Piccola to catch a boat to Capri.  The weather report said our only decent day was going to be Friday, and we knew we wanted to go to the Blue Grotto so we knew we had to take advantage of the good weather.  (Good?  Because despite a 100% chance of rain both Saturday and Sunday, we did have a good amount of sunshine both days!)  Above is the view looking south from the Marina Piccola before we caught our boat.

Coming into Capri.

We decided to immediately head out to the Blue Grotto.  You take a small power boat with about 15 other people to the location of the Grotto.  Then the chaos begins.  It's just so Italian to not have any kind of organization to something and then have everyone yell about it when things go awry!  It's super amusing.

The larger boats just kind of float around until one of the guys in the canoes comes over and starts emptying people off of your boat.  But it just turns into a shouting match over who got their first.   Meanwhile, the entrance to the grotto is SUPER small.  Everyone in the boat has to lay down while the driver (paddler?) has to pull the boat in on a chain and lay down himself to fit in the entrance.  Yikes!

Hey you up there!  Send down a bottle of wine and some glasses, will ya?  No really, this actually happened!

After you finally get a canoe man to come over and pick you up, you have to go over to another boat to pay for entrance to the grotto (separate from the payment you made to the boat driver to take you TO the grotto).

Michele and Heather in the boat.

But the grotto is SO blue!  (Yes Colleen.  That is why they call it the Blue Grotto!)

See that tiny entrance we came through?

I liked this picture for the splash my driver was making.

The incredibly blue water of the Blue Grotto.

It's hard to see me in the bottom right corner here, but this was our attempt at a laying down selfie in the canoe!

Ahhh. I get it now.  Capri's.

Coming back into Capri after our excursion to the Blue Grotto.

We rode the funicular up to Capri and were greeted with some beautiful views.  Sun would have been nice though!

 Couldn't resist taking this picture for my husband, the creepy baby doll head freak.

It was a bit chilly and we were hungry, so we stopped at this awesome restaurant called the Trattoria Verginiello. Naturally, there was more wine!  But we really liked this place for the view and for the comfy blankets they provided to keep us warm!

The calamari at this place was incredible.  In fact, everything we ate was amazing!

It's funny how all kinds of plant life grows right out of the walls!

Vitti being Vitti. (This is only a few days after she finished the Boston Marathon!)

Naturally, after hiking all over Capri and drinking wine, we were exhausted and these two slept on the boat ride home!  (I'm so mean to post this!)

Because this trip was all about seeing the beautiful Amalfi Coast, shopping, and eating and drinking... I present to you Vitti's first medium rare steak, which we split at a fantastic restaurant called La Fenice.  We all ordered so much food and kind of split everything.

Just in case you were concerned, I assure you... there was more wine.

Followed by cappuccino's the next morning, before we set sail to Positano in the rain.

Thanks, good people of Sorrento, for making sure that I don't accidentally drive my car off of the docks.

This was the view on the way to Positano. I was so disappointed!  It was raining hard and the boat was kind of rocking.  We were totally prepared for a wash out, and when we first arrived at Positano, it was absolutely pouring.  So we ducked into the Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta to try to get a little culture and wait for the rain to pass.

Pretty in white and gold.

But after we came out... it was a miracle!  The rain departed and blue skies returned!

Looking north into Positano.

The iconic view of Positano, Italy.

 Stairs and flowers in Positano.

More beautiful views of Positano.  It's unbelievable how it's just built right on the side of the mountain!

You guessed it.  More wine.

Classic.

The whole "lemon" theme of the Amalfi Coast is a real thing.  They grow everywhere!

Suuuuuure they do.



We found this little sunlit terrace and I requested (read: demanded) that we all stop and have a drink in the sun.

Perhaps it was the fact that they had bourbon.  Maybe.  Just maybe.

After our sunny cocktail pitstop, we decided to head down to the beach.  Now, the sun was nice but the air was just too chilly to be lounging around on the beach like some people were doing!  (As we could hear accents, it was mostly American college students!)

Me.  Fully clothed.

You people is craaaazy.

Toes in the "sand."  Some of those nice little pebbles were kind enough to stay in my shoe all the way home.

We knew we had to catch the boat back, so we went back down to the Marina.  He's a nice panorama of Positano (with Vitti in the middle!)  You know I always have to post at least one panorama!

Our sons.  Their moms.  Long story.

 Views of the Amalfi Coast from the boat.  Now THAT is what I was waiting for!

Back in Sorrento we had stopped at the grocery to buy pickies (as my in laws call them).  Meats, cheeses, strawberries, and of course... wine.  We ate them out on our balcony, with this nice view.

Do you think this cat is legally able to drive this moped?

Our last full day in Italy found us on an overcrowded bus to Amalfi.  We stood for the first half of the trip.  A trip that should have taken an hour and 45 minutes, but instead took us about 3 hours and 15 minutes.  No kidding.

Passing to the east of Positano, where we were yesterday.  (Pardon the glare, I was in a bus).

Things were looking desperate for a bit.  This woman (who we nicknamed Poopy Pants) asked the bus driver to stop so she could go to the bathroom.  Now... the roads here are very curvy, and approximately 1.5 car lengths wide.  But that bus driver just stopped at the next building and let her out.  She did her business, and hopped back on!  At this point though, the bus driver had to get out to direct traffic.  We have no driver.

But the views!  Oh the views!

Michele on the verge of tears, we had been on the bus THAT LONG.

 WTF is going on here?  One of those men is our driver.

The Duomo di Amalfi.  We were so, so, so happy to be off of that bus.

Food.  And wine.  And bourbon.  Immediately, but not necessarily in that order.  Sara and I both ordered the ravioli and it was amazing.  Probably the best ravioli I've ever eaten, and I can't really pinpoint anything super special about it.  Was it just the hangover of the bus ride?

Next I made the girls go into the Duomo for some culture.  They were all mad at me, but I paid for them to get in so they got over it.  This is a 9th century Roman Catholic church, which houses the occipital bone (no joke!) of the Apostle, St. Andrew. Sun shining through the bell tower above.

I couldn't get over how this little courtyard reminded me of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.  It definitely had a Moorish feel to it!

Another beautiful church.  Pretty on the inside but really more unique looking on the outside.  (However the facade is from the late 1800s!)

Our best selfie at the Amalfi Cathedral.  I couldn't love these girls more.

And of course, it started to rain again.  This is me and Sara's WTF face.

Ummmmm... is this one backed by science?

More gelato?  Yes please!  This one had blue curacao in it!

Waiting for the (dreaded) bus home, the sun was shining again.

I'm obsessed with dachshunds!

We're about to throw elbows with some Italians if they think they're gonna get on this bus first.

Oh hey look!  We're back on the bus!  But this time, we've come prepared!

This driver was terrifying and making Vitti car sick.  Ha!  Here he is, just chilling, driving the bus with one hand around the super tight twists and turns of the Amalfi Coast.  Sure.  That's safe.

 Batman's house!   (Or the Capo Conca Tower).

One final dinner, back in Sorrento at the Restaurante Zi'ntonio.  Mmmm.  Meat hanging from a ceiling.

I'll leave you with one last selfie of me drinking wine, because I'm CERTAIN that you wanted to see another!

I had a blast with my friends on this trip. I don't think I would go back to take the kids, because other than the beach and boat rides, there isn't a whole lot to do there.  The coast is stunningly beautiful though, and if you want a leisurely trip to Italy, with some excellent food and of course... wine (and don't forget those lemons!), then the Amalfi Coast is definitely the place for you!

Until next time, Amalfi Coast!