We have arrived to our first stop in Italy, Naples or Napoli as it is know in Italian. When we were here last time, we used a company called in Rome In Limo for all of our excursions in Italy. The company provides you with an English speaking driver, not a tour guide in a luxury vehicle for an entire day. We have found that all of the drivers we have had have been quite engaging and a wealth of knowledge. Most of the tours require a minimum of four people and up to a maximum of eight people. The more people you can get on your tour, the cheaper the per person cost is. If for some reason you do not have enough people, you can post your booking on their sister site Sharing Tours in Italy and find other people to join you. That is what we did seven years ago and we had a great experience. But today we have Terri, Dan, Paul, Jen and the four of us on the Amalfi Coast, Positano, Amalfi & Ravello tour (600 Euros for eight people).
We needed to meet our driver at 8:30am and so we had breakfast in the Garden Cafe before proceeding to the terminal. There was some confusion as to where we were to meet but eventually we did find Alex who was going to be spending the day with us. Before we got started, Alex wanted to know how we wanted the day to go. The tour normally starts in Ravello and ends in Positano but we wanted to do it in the opposite direction. The reason being that we wanted to be driving closest to the water side of the road. We also told Alex that we wanted more time in Positano and Amalfi and less time in Ravello. And with that we were off.
During the one hour and twenty minute winding ride to Positano, Alex told us many things about his life in Napoli. For example, he works seven days a week during the tourist season which is from March to October. Because he lives outside of Napoli, the drive in for work makes for really long days. This does not leave him much time to spend with his two boys Guiseppe and Fernando aka El Diablo. But he really enjoys his job and you could definitely tell that.
Once we arrived in Positano, Alex said that we had about an hour to explore the village. The main thing we wanted to see was the beach. On the way down to it, you go through little alleyways that are filled with shops selling everything from clothing to ceramics to linens. But before we got to the bottom, we came across the Church of Santa Maria Assunta where a wedding was about to take place.
Spiaggia Grande is the main beach which is surrounded by colourful buildings built into the cliffside. Many of them are hotels or AirBnB‘s. We took Alex’s advice and made sure to grab a little something (chocolate gelato for me) from a cafe so that we could use their bathroom before leaving.
We worked our way back to the top and found Alex and the air-conditioned Mercedes Benz van. It was time for the forty-minute drive to the town of Amalfi. On the drive, Alex was kind enough to answer all of our questions about life in Italy. When we arrived, we got lucky and Alex was able to find a parking spot very close to the centre of town. As he was leading us across the street, he said you have two options … run or die. Traffic is crazy along the Amalfi Coast and these are words to live by.
It was 12:45pm and we did not have to meet Alex until 2:15pm so we decided that lunch was in order. On our way through Piazza del Duomo, we came across a wedding that was happening at Amalfi Cathedral. We ended up at Locanda del Marinaio where I think almost everyone had the Margherita pizza.
After finishing up our lunch, we still had time so we walked around doing some shopping. I made sure to pick up some limoncello which we will enjoy when we get back home. Once we all got to the van, it was time to head to our final stop of the day.
Ravello is located in the Lattari Mountains overlooking the Amalfi Coast. It was about a twenty minute ride full of hairpin turns. Alex dropped us off at 2:45pm and we decided that we would meet back at 4:00pm. He wanted to make sure that he gave himself enough time to get us back to the ship.
We spent our time walking around and enjoying the slower pace of this hilltop town. I did have another gelato, this time lemon since it is in season. There are many little shops and I think everyone managed to grab some kind of souvenir of our time on the Amalfi Coast.
The drive back to the port was nice since it was on the other side of the Lattari Mountains. This gave us a different perspective as we were heading into Naples than what we saw this morning as we left Naples. We even saw where the San Marzano tomatoes are grown. We got back at 5:15pm and thanked Alex for the wonderful day.
We decided to have dinner in the Manhattan Room and ended our evening back at the cabin to rest up for tomorrow’s adventures.
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