Naples and Amalfi Coast

November 19, 2009

We arrived at the port in Naples and met up with our private van tour at 9:15 AM. Rosario was our driver and our van had plenty of room for the 8 of us. As we drove along the freeway we saw Mount Vesuvius. The air quality was pretty bad all day since there was no wind at all. They have lots of valleys that trap the smog and there was also fog and burning wood. I can see where it would be drop-dead gorgeous on a breezy day.

Our tour was mostly a drive along the roads that hang and the edges of the mountains with views of the water everywhere we turned. We put Jo in the front seat and Nancy behind the driver since we have the most tendencies toward motion sickness. First stop was a photo op along the coast where we could see Sorrento and some islands off the coast. He said those island used to belong to Rudolph Nuriev and since he left no heirs they were now a preserve. Next we went to a factory where they make inlaid wood items including furniture and music boxes and even kitchen cabinetry. We saw one of the old-timers cut flowers into numerous layers of veneers (free-hand) to make the positives and negatives that the piece together. Really cool. I loved the music boxes but the prices were a bit steep.

Onward to Sorrento which as adorable. We did some shopping and found a small shop that sold the music boxes from the same factory only they were having a sale and I found a box I liked for half price. We got to taste lemoncello (lemon liqueur) that is made along the Amalfi Coast and there are lemon trees and olive trees everywhere. Jo bought a hand-painted spoon rest with a lemon design and a bottle of wine (Princess doesn't seem to have a problem bringing it on board) and I bought some lemoncello liqueur candy to bring home.

Next we went to Postitano where parts of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun take place with the beach and all the house built into the mountainside. Very picturesque. We stopped for lunch and learned an important lesson to not be afraid to ask the driver to go someplace else. The setting was beautiful but the restaurant was high-priced, slow and no one enjoyed the food. There were several other van tour groups there and the service was dismal and I think they had been running out of ingredients. Jo's pasta with seafood and many empty shells. My scampi had shrimp shells with no shrimp meat and pasta with had clumps. The folks who shared pizzas said it was the worst they had ever had. The bread with lemon infused olive oil was yummy. The manager didn't charge us for my meal as it wasn't edible.

The town was Amalfi and it is so cute. Too bad lunch took almost two hours or we would have liked to spend more time there. The square has a lovely church and fountains and shops. Betty & Bob wanted to find some of the lemoncello candy and I saw a gelato stand and bought a chocolate hazelnut ice cream cone (for lunch).

The next town we stopped at was Ravello which is famous for music festivals. There are lots of terraced orchards and vineyards. Some of us walked to the town square some of us were petering out. Jo has some pictures of the center of Ravello in her set. From there we took the hour-plus drive back through some wooded areas with fall foliage, down to the freeway and back to the ship around 5:30. Were were hungry and tired so we went to our respective rooms to clean up a bit and went to dinner, followed by chick-flick for us chicks (Julie and Julia) and action flick for the guys (G. I. Joe).