You want a pizza of this?!?

We are not good at posting during the last day(s) of our European adventures, or following up once we get home.  We loved our first Italian adventure and Rome-ing the area.  We ate too much good food, walked an average of 12 miles per day and drove all around the Amalfi coast.   Rome was my new favorite place.

We had a lot of questions concerning the Amalfi Coast Drive & Pompeii. Over a year later, here is our follow-up blog:

Jordan did a great job driving us around the Amalfi coast; a pretty tough place to drive.  I did my best by praying & putting in correct addresses for parking.   Here is a more detailed run down:

After Paestum, I wanted Jordan to see the only major WWII site -the town of Salerno.  This is the first large town on the Amalfi bay & there are a lot of stories about the Italy beach landing during WWII.  However, after having one of the worlds scariest drives down one way roads, lot's of yelling at people, & almost hitting a house (that straddled the road btw) we did not stop.  We saw the two sites from the car.  I know I should make it sound great, but this should have been our first clue this journey would not be easy.

From here we traveled along a road that makes the Blue Ridge parkway viaduct look like an Interstate in Montana.  We went straight up to Ravello.  This town is well known for arts in this region & many famous people have hung out here.  They had a beautiful church & the best limoncello!   One of the best meals of our lives was found in a cave like restaurant somewhere on the hillside.

Then we went straight down to the beach town of Amalfi.  This was a powerful sea town for a few centuries & now it's a busy tourist beach town.  I stopped in the church (& museum) to see the tomb of Saint Andrew (!).    Road tripping to the next stop, we saw the famous Africans club.  The first beach night club in the world for jet setters where you could even see fish underneath the dance floor.  Also, we stopped at a town that barely exists - Furore - to see this view!  This bridge picture was worth it.

From here we ventured to Praiano, where we parked on the side of the road & walked the only possible way - on the road, in traffic - to the church square.  I did not enjoy this walk, as buses would touch you as they stopped for traffic.  We got to see the famous yellow & tiled church.  We would look over this town from Positano tomorrow.  As we did manage to blog about during our trip, our last stop was Positano & the surrounding hills.   Once we found directions to our B&B and walked up 200 stairs, we stayed in the best flat with amazing views.  

It was quite the journey & I do not want to really experience it again, but the views were magical.  We struggle to understand why people live here because it is a hard life.

After a few days  at the Amalfi coast, we went straight to Pompeii which was magical and terrible at the same time.  The history here was unbelievable and vastness of the city was hard to understand.  We took so many pictures, but it is one of the few things it is best to see in person.   

After Pompeii and Naples, we trained back to Rome for our last few days.  We walked around the rest of Rome including more churches.  Two churches were moving; the Chapel of Saint Lorenzo where it is believe to house the stairs Jesus walked during the days before his Crucifixion.  The church was silent and left you speechless. I am by far not a devout Catholic, but the religious significance here was palpable.  Across the street was the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano.  This church was home of the original Christian church from the 300s.  We ended our trip with more amazing Italian food & wine while enjoying the beauty of Rome.  

I cannot wait to go back to Italy!  I was shocked to say it is my favorite country in Europe so far...

Take it to the limit one more time... Naples

Gritty.  As Jordan & I did not get to experience NYC in the 1970s, Moscow in the 1980s, & have not been to India, we have not been to a city that can truly be described in this way.  Naples / Napoli fits this word.  It's known for the mafia, giving the world pizza, & its Bay.  

I have never put Naples at the top of any travel list, but it boasts a world renowned museum & stopping in the city completes this entire region of Italy.  I decided to be brave, for the third day in a row.  (Hence the blog title!)

Rick Steves says if you are tired of Naples, you are tired of life.  I get that statement once I took a breath & chugged a nice local spirit.   It's the most lively place I have ever been.  As there are no green spaces in the city, people stroll around & sit/stand at any open space available.  Sure, the drivers are crazy & I think the only sound I heard all day was horns, but they have character.

We did see the laundry hanging out, people yelling, drivers doing unspeakable traffic violations, people using pulley systems to get up groceries, and some unsavory people.   That's the Naples you read about.  But I didn't take a purse & Jordan's smart, so we started to take a second look.  I then noticed all the neat shops, the people enjoying each other's company from all generations, the street food, and just city life.  We also had to see the famous churches.  (Jordan is so over churches right now.)

We had pizza for dinner!  And some drinks on a local Piazza.

We woke up early to be the first & second person in the line for the National Archeological Museum.  It has artifacts from Egyptian times to the 1700s when the museum opened.  An impressive lay-out shows money from 500 BC until the Italian unification. The museum is most known for the loot it got from Pompeii.  Anything left there not attached to a building is probably here. It even has a secret room, which you can google.  

Here are two writings older than the Bible.

We then ate some street pizza & got ready for our train trip back to Rome!  So thanks Naples for treating me kindly & I'll never say never on returning

PS) here is proof of me with my backpack in the train station:

Pompeii

Today we wake up on a mountain on the coast of the Mediterranean and will end the day in one of the grittiest cities in the western world. But first, one of the treasures of the roman age; Pompeii. We set out through more dense and vigorous Italian driving for the ruins and manage to find a great parking spot. The ruins are massive and there is little to say but wow. Please look into it if you're interested but there is far too much for this post; we may follow up with some history in a more detailed post when we get home.


















We explore the city of Pompeii which was basically left intact after mt Vesuvius erupted and buried the town. We even have time for a lunch on the old city wall of tiramisu and vino.



Although it is captivating, it also a full city and is exhausting to explore so we eventually have to leave and make our way back to the road and one of the few actual highways we get to experience on the trip. We travel north to Naples which is a whole other story and after returning the little Fiat at the airport dive straight into the busy city. Naples is a serious city so we are a bit worried about it as we head in. We have a plan though and are confident in our skills after having traveled a fair amount at this point. Plus, our hotel is gated. It's also the home (at least in spirit) of pizza so I'm pretty excited.





- Jordan
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Soaking up some Capri Sun

On Wednesday, we got up as the sun was pushing up over our mountain hotel to venture down to Capri. We needed to take the local bus, which was an adventure as it was a packed little bus & the driving is crazy in this area.










We went down the hill to Positano, a fave resort town on the Amalfi coast.  This town was built straight up into the hill so no cars or buses or allowed.  We had to climb down the town to the ferry stop.  We caught the early ferry direct to Capri.







We landed in the port of Capri. Capri has been a resort island since the times of Roman Emperors and even the likes of Jackie O have enjoyed it.




From here, I chose the most cost effective option from the internet.  (Here I admit, my intentions were good but sometimes spending money is not bad...).  I chose to rent one scooter to go across 3/4 of the island.  It was easy to rent.







What they did not tell me was the island is mostly uphill & was pretty much as bad as driving the Amalfi on a tiny scooter.   The directions made no sense and a lot of the island does not have roads, still. This is where I will say I know visiting these churches and praying for the past week had paid off!  After many wrong turns, we made it to the Blue Grotto before the crowds.













The Blue Grotto lets you arrive by boat or climb some small stairs to leap off a platform into a small boat.  The process is very Italian and entertaining to watch.  We got our chance & actually found it magical.  It was truly so pretty! From here, we had to calm down a bit.  We visited the second biggest area on the island Ana Capri.  We saw the major piazzas, shops & churches.  The best church was the Church of San Michele which has a completely tiled floor.




We eventually had to head back to the area of Capri to visit and further explore. We walked the entire town to the edge; where we visited the Garden of Augustus for the views.







Here are the Faragloni Rocks from the boat & the Gardens.

We finally turned in the scooter.  (I survived thanks to Jordan's driving). We got to shop a bit & sit at one of the world's best marinas.  

We had to take the slow ferry back to Positano.  We got off & sat at their piazza / square - the beach.  We wandered this town and ate dinner here.  

We had to psych ourselves up for the bus ride and many many stairs back to our hotel flat!  As Capri was on my original top ten bucket list, I was so happy to be there.  The beautiful island was well worth the effort & I suppose the scooter rides.

Location:Capri, Italy