Onto leg 3 of our trip to Italy...
(this post is VERY picture heavy!)
After our stay in Florence, we hopped in a van and made the 6 hour drive to the town of Amalfi (we did not do the driving, an experienced Italian driver did). The drive was a little longer than we'd anticipated due to some patches of torrential rains and was not aided by the fact that the last half hour of the drive was on the most windy roads I've ever been on. Since the villages/towns along the Amalfi Coast are literally built right into the mountains/cliffs, the roads go with the land rather than through it. So first we weaved our way up a mountain, then weaved our way back down, and repeat until we hit Amalfi. We could see our hotel for a good 30 minutes before we actually got there. My sister-in-law (T's sister) and her husband joined us in Amalfi for the last week of our vacation (so you'll see extra people in some of the photos!)
But I digress - I had high hopes heading to Amalfi and I was not disappointed. This leg of our trip was my favorite. Despite the first day and a half being rainy, we had a great time. We had great views outside of our hotel room (they got even better when the clouds and mist cleared a few days later) and we saw some amazing sights while we were here. Since we got into town in the evening, all we did was walk into town to eat dinner (which was amazing - keeping up with all the other dinners we had on this trip. I honestly don't remember having one dinner that I didn't LOVE).
(clicking on images will show larger version)
view from our hotel room
Our first full day in Amalfi, we decided to walk to the neighboring town of Ravello. As we were making our way up the winding roads, we kept saying that there must be an easier way to get to the town (which is on top of part of the mountain, whereas Amalfi is at the bottom). About halfway up we found a staircase that had a small sign on it that said "Ravello" and an arrow pointing up. Finally! That made the rest of our walk so much easier (and safer!). Once at the top, it was time for lunch and we found this great little spot that overlooked the ocean.
what a surprise, it was raining when we started our walk
still winding our way up the mountain the hard way at this point
lemon trees grow by the thousands here! It is the birthplace of Limoncello, after all!
trying to figure out how much longer we're going to keep walking before we find Ravello
finally! a sign! (and a shortcut!)
yes, I found another cat. This one was friendly
view from Ravello (at the restaurant where we ate lunch)
After lunch we visited Villa Cimbrone, which we were told offered some of the best views of the coast. The gardens there were beautiful and the views certainly were spectacular (though would have been even more amazing if it wasn't so cloudy).
siblings...T, A, and G
view from Villa Cimbrone
my wonderful in-laws
Typical Ts
G is "stuck"
After wandering around the grounds for a bit, we started the trek back to our hotel. This time we were lucky enough to find the shortcut right away and we got down the mountain in a fraction of the time (and with much less effort) that it took us to get up!
view from the bottom - we were at the top of that peak
zoomed in on Villa Cimbrone from the bottom
the view from our room improved with the weather everyday!
downtown Amalfi
The next day we took a trip to Pompeii. I was very much looking forward to this - I have always been fascinated by Pompeii, ever since we first learned about it in elementary school. I was not disappointed! The ruins were amazing and I could have spent so much more time there. I will spare you all of the pictures I took because most of them look the same!
mosaic floor
bath
Pompeii Colosseum
Mt Vesuvius in the clouds in the background
amphitheater
On the drive back, we drove through the town of Positano (our driver's hometown) - it was very pretty!
On our last day in Amalfi, we took a day trip to the island of Capri. We woke up to the most perfect weather and I couldn't wait to get on the boat! The trip over to the island was a little rough on the seas, but once we arrived, things only got better. While we knew the Blue Grotto was the sight to see, they weren't allowing anyone in the cave due to the height of the surf. So instead we signed up for a boat tour around the island and it was awesome! Our tour guide/captain showed us all the beautiful sights around the coast.
best view yet from our room - last day in Amalfi
view on the boat to Capri
Capri from the boat
main harbor - one of my favorite photos from the entire trip
White Grotto
Green Grotto
entrance to Blue Grotto
After the boat tour, we took a taxi to the bigger town on the island where we had lunch. Then we took a bus to the smaller town on the island where we were taking a chair lift to the very top of the island (Monte Solaro-Cetrella). The views were simply breathtaking. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
view from the center of town
view from the top of the mountain
T was excited that we had to take a chairlift - he was only missing the snow
After our visit to the highest point of Capri, we took the chairlift back down and headed back to the harbor to catch our boat back to the hotel. When we returned, we had a car waiting to take us to Rome for the last part of our trip. Stay tuned for that recap (and I promise, I won't take 3 weeks to write that one!)
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