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...