Saturday morning Alex and I grabbed a train from Rome to Naples, where we would pick up a local train to take us to Sorrento, our base for exploring the Amalfi Coast. While the two-hour trip to Naples was a breeze, the one-hour "train" ride to Sorrento was horrendous - no air conditioning and people packed into the subway cars like sardines for nearly the entire journey, which lasted for over 30 stops. Needless to say, by the time we arrived in Sorrento we were ready for a relaxing lunch in town under the ubiquitous outdoor misting fans. Unfortunately, our travel woes were not yet over for the day. I knew that our hotel was a 20 minute drive from town but we were supposed to be able to catch a local bus to take us there; sadly we had to wait another two hours for the bus and, worst of all, because the bus is often used by budget travelers as a way to see the coastline, we almost didn't make it on because it was so full! After a harrowing and winding bus ride up the mountain - while standing and gripping our bags - we finally made it to Hotel Prestige.
Since we didn't arrive until around 4pm we took advantage of the beautiful views and outdoor pool and relaxed by the pool until dinnertime.
Happy Fourth of July from our hotel balcony!
We decided against taking the hotel shuttle into town (which we will definitely be using going forward!) and dined at a nearby local spot, Il Panorama. Over seafood pasta and Prosecco, we enjoyed a great sunset after a long day getting to Sorrento.
Cleaned up and ready for a nice dinner.
Sunset over the Bay of Napoli.
We started Sunday at a much more leisurely pace and lounged around the pool for a few hours in the morning. I'd read that there are many great hiking trails throughout the Amalfi Coast but most of these start in some of the neighboring coastal towns so Alex and I settled on an hour-long trek down the mountain into town. Once we arrived at the picturesque lunch destination I had selected, Bagni Salvatore, and realized that the spot was also a popular beach club we booked lounge chairs and enjoyed the water for the remainder of the day.
Looking down over the beach clubs in Sorrento.
View from Bagni Salvatore.
Alex taking a dip and escaping the heat. Can you tell why we decided to stay here for the day?!
I loved the colored umbrellas we saw - different patterns for each beach club!
One more shot as we headed back to town.
Once we felt we had gotten enough sun, we walked back up the hill into town for negronis and people watching. Feeling tired from the heat, we grabbed a quick dinner of takeaway kebabs and made sure to time the hotel shuttle correctly! We headed to bed early after a great day in Sorrento and rested up for our tour of the coast on Monday.
Around 11am we joined three other couples from our hotel for a guided tour of the Amalfi Coast and headed toward Positano for the first of many beautiful scenic stops.
Our guide insisted on taking our picture - we can tell why!
Looking down on Positano. This was right before one of the older men in our group ran into the street to violently vomit. Luckily for him (and us), he recovered for the rest of the journey. Too many negronis the night before??
Looking up at colorful Positano.
From Positano, we headed to nearby town Praiano and then Amalfi, where we had an hour and a half to explore the town on our own. While the towns along the Amalfi Coast are all gorgeous and completely deserving of their destination allure, we found the number of tourists to be a bit overwhelming. And, in fact, we were traveling with some who had very different desires than we did, forcing our group to stop at a nearby pottery and tile factory for over a half hour. Alex and I recognize our travel tastes have evolved over the past year and Western Europe has definitely been much more crowded than many of our other stops, but we found ourselves constantly seeking more "off-the-beaten-path" experiences. Instead of using the time in Amalfi to walk in and out of various gelato and souvenir shops, we found a beautiful, quiet restaurant on the beach and perched there for a delicious seafood lunch.
View from Marina Grande in Amalfi - one of the best meals we had in the area. Note the differently colored umbrellas!
We walked a little further up the main road to check out the views looking back on Amalfi.
After rejoining our group, we headed further down the coast to a small town up in the hills, Ravello. Alex and I loved walking around the small pedestrian streets and ended up wandering into a very charming wine store (not so charmingly named Wine & Drugs) offering free tastings. After 10 - seriously! - different wines to try, we decided to send a few bottles home before heading back to check out the views.
Looking down over the Amalfi Coast from Ravello. No complaints!
The drive back to Sorrento took almost two hours so we were feeling a little lethargic after a full day of gorgeous sightseeing. We relaxed a little bit and then headed to another nearby spot for dinner and called it an early night.
Today we woke up early to overcast skies and cooler weather, which was disappointing because we had planned to take a ferry to Capri for the day, before taking another ferry to Naples for the night. We decided to wait out the fog a bit and hoped that it would clear as the day heated up; luckily, we saw the beginning of blue skies as we pulled out of the Sorrento harbor around noon.
Goodbye Sorrento!
Pulling into the docks of Capri is just as scenic as we'd hoped; though after spending a day ogling the Amalfi Coast we definitely had outsized expectations!
Port at Capri.
Alex and I had read about the various well-known attractions of Capri - The Blue Lagoon, Capri Town and Anacapri, but weren't sure we wanted to pay up for the expensive boat rides required to journey around the island. Similar to Sorrento, we arrived at Bagni Tiberio, a lunch spot I had read about nearly a 20 minute walk from town, and found an adjoining private beach club. Making a game time decision was pretty easy once we took in our surroundings - one last beach day it is!
Exploring our own "blue lagoon."
Oh look, it's a $100 million yacht that, as Alex researched online, belongs to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen!
View looking back while taking a boat back to town.
One final shot as we say goodbye to Capri.
The ferry ride back to Naples was far more enjoyable than the local train we had previously taken, but arriving in the infamous city was somewhat jarring. We had read that Naples was a little rough around the edges, but we weren't expecting what was essentially a third-world city in a first world country! Dirty streets and dark alleyways filled with trash, exposed electrical wires and nefarious characters was a pretty stark contrast to the much more tourist-friendly Amalfi Coast (and everywhere else we've been in Italy, for that matter!). We scrapped any potential sightseeing plans and grabbed a quick dinner near our hotel. Tomorrow we are spending the day in Bologna, Italy's supposed food capital, so we are pretty excited!