Places to Go (Vacation) - Hiking Italy's Amalfi Coast, Part 4 - Positano, Le Tore, Sorrento, and Pompeii

Final post on Italy . . .

On our 4th day, I was tired. Hiking is hard. And the hike lined up for day 4 was our hardest yet, so we decided to take the morning off - explore Positano, then take the bus to a half-way point and hike the rest of the way to our next destination. This didn't quite work out for us.

Up until this point, we had avoided the bus system by hiking from town to town. I'm not a huge bus fan, claustrophobia coupled with lack of control make me extremely uncomfortable. And the Amalfi Coast bus system didn't help to ease my nerves, due to the vehicle's height you can't see the road's guardrails, so it feels as if you're about to plummet into the ocean on a high windy road. As I tried to avoid vomiting, Dan fell asleep next to me (apparently the bus ride affects everyone in a different way). Thus, we missed our stop. One incredibly expensive and frightening cab ride later, we finally arrived at our destination - Agriturismo Le Tore, a working farm/B&B where we spent the night.



After a wonderful meal at the farm, where we dined with a lovely couple from Barcelona, we poured some wine and wandered around the property. The night was crazy dark, so we couldn't see much, other than what felt like a zillion fireflies flickering in between all of the crops. And stars. So so many stars.



Our final hike, on day 5, from Le Tore to Sorrento, was pretty easy and mostly took us through smaller towns, so we lingered, stopping for beers along the way.



Eventually we made it to our final destination, Sorrento and the absolutely gorgeous Hotel Tramontano. Sorrento was much larger than the other towns we'd visited, more along the lines of a "real city." We watched the most incredibly sunset at the hotel's balcony/bar (I still couldn't find a decent margarita).



We spent our last day in Italy at Pompeii, which was HUGE and a little overwhelming. So much to see. We rented audio tours but I kept losing my sense of direction and in retrospect we probably should have gone with an in-person guide. Oh well, the whole thing was both fascinating and depressing, especially with Mount Vesuvius looming in the background.



On our final night in Italy, Dan was picked from the crowd to twirl a street performer's jump rope, which seemed like a fitting end to a fantastic vacation.

The next day, we spent 22 hours traveling home: Sorrento - Naples (cab at 4 am); Naples - Munich (6:30 am flight); Munich - London; and London - Dulles; then cab to Arlington (this is the sort of itinerary you end up with when you book using discounted frequent flyer miles).

Now I keep obsessively checking out the On Foot Holidays website and trying to plan our next trip - maybe France? Or Tuscany? - which Dan keeps saying won't happen for several years. On the upside, the years keep flying by.

Happy Monday everyone!!

Places to Go (Vacation) - Hiking Italy's Amalfi Coast, Part 3 - Praino and Positano

On our third day in Italy, the REAL hiking began. In the morning we left beautiful Amalfi behind and gradually made our way up into the surrounding mountains.



Eventually we descended into a canyon on the "Path of the Mad Bats" (what a name) which lead to the gorgeous Marina di Furore and Luggi's trattoria, where we ate some wonderfully fresh seafood and relaxed next to the ocean.



What goes down, must come up. We climbed to the Path of the Agave Flower, where extremely large cacti seemed to be everywhere, but the views were phenomenal.



Eventually we made it to our lovely little hotel in Praino, the Tramonto d'Oro, where we drank wine on the balcony and watched dusk settle into the night. From our room, we could see the lights of Positano (our next destination), which seemed so close (yet, with all of the inlets in between, it was much farther, by land, than it appeared by sea).



On day 4, we began the climb to an uninhabited monastery in the mountains, San Domenico. When we first saw it from below, it looked like a tiny little speck and I thought "there's no way, I can climb that far", but but then an hour or so later, we arrived. Odd to see all of these gorgeous, old frescoes gradually disintegrating. So much history everywhere.



We spent the rest of day 4 hiking the famed Path of the Gods (which was my big reason for choosing the Amalfi Coast). The hike was gorgeous (though much more crowded than our other hikes, where we usually had the paths entirely to ourselves).



Finally we descended into Positano, a town much fancier than its neighbors. I've never been to Miami, but this is how I imagine it - tons of people dressed to the nines for a day at the beach. I felt sweaty and out of place in hiking boots, so we changed into sandals and relaxed at our hotel bar (the Hotel Pupetto), where I finally gave in and started drinking beer because margarita apparently doesn't translate well into Italian.

Places to Go (Vacation) - Hiking Italy's Amalfi Coast, Part 2 - Atrani and Ravello

I finally have more Italy pics to share . . .

On the second day of our vacation we hiked from Amafli to Atrani (which is right next door). The main reason we decided to use a travel agency (rather than plan it ourselves) was that On Foot Holidays provides detailed direction on how to hike to each destination while avoiding major roads (the secondary reason was they provided baggage transfer, thus allowing me to massively overpack). The directions proved invaluable as cities are often linked by series of alleys and stairways, giving everything a maze-like quality. Our days felt like scavenger hunts as we climbed through narrow walkways. And as I labored on, out of breath after going up for hours, we'd eventually come across some 60+ year old Italian woman practically bouncing from stair to stair.



After checking out Atrani, with its beautiful church and piazza, we started the hike uphill to the mountaintop town of Ravello, which contained a gorgeous sculpture garden, a wonderful church (I learned that basically every town houses a breathtaking church) and hoards of tourists (beauty comes with a price).



After battling Ravello's crowds, we lunched in the (super) small village of Pontone and then hiked to the ruins of a fifteenth century castle, Tore dello Ziro, where, rumor has it, the Duchess of Amalfi, was murdered along with her two young sons. Sadness. On the upside, the views are fantastic.



Odd to see all the towns gradually become smaller and smaller and then grow large again during the long, long downhill climbs (oh, my poor toes).



Eventually, we made our way back down to Atrani, where mojitos and cold beers refreshed us as we people-watched in the piazza and contemplated a day well spent.

Places to Go (Vacation) - Hiking Italy's Amalfi Coast, Part 1 - Amalfi

Dan and I never had a "real" honeymoon, which at the time was the least of our worries. When we married we had both JUST finished taking the bar exam and starting new jobs, I was 4 months pregnant with F, we used all the money we had to buy a house (luckily, in 2004 down payments weren't necessary). We had bar loans and new responsibilities, a two week honeymoon wasn't part of the equation. Still, every wedding anniversary I kept reminding Dan that one of these years, I WANT a honeymoon.

Then in March I read this Washington Post article on hiking the Amalfi Coast (love the travel section). Dan and I both agreed it sounded like a fantastic vacation and maybe some day we could make it work. Then, miraculously, all of the stars seemed to align - the doctors proclaimed Dan cancer free, grandparents on both sides offered to take over childcare (thank you, thank you, thank you), a hole in Dan's work schedule opened up in June. So I contacted On Foot Holidays (the travel agency referenced in the article). Planes were booked, hotels arranged. And before we knew it, after 8 years of marriage, Dan and I were flying to Naples, Italy for our much-awaited honeymoon, which really blew all former expectations out of the water. I couldn't have hoped for more.

All of these pictures are from our first night, in Amalfi. Even though I'd seen SO MANY photographs of the picturesque villages tucked into mountainside cliffs, Amalfi still managed to take my breath away, especially its beautiful piazza and duomo. The first night Dan and I drank wine on our hotel room balcony, checking out the sea views and watching local kids play soccer for HOURS (literally hours), while the church bells continually reminded us of the passing time. Total relaxation. After two nights in Amalfi, we spent the next 4 days hiking to a different town each night. I (of course) took hundreds of pictures, but I'm still working my way through it all, so I'll post them gradually over the next few weeks.

Happy Monday everyone!!