The Coast

On Saturday, we caught an early ferry and started our day with a visit to the coastal village of Positano. A beautiful little town with houses built right on top of each other, all clinging to the hillside, overlooking an incredible blue sea.

Oh goodie. More stairs. But hey! I've climbed the Duomo in Florence. I've climbed the tower in Pisa. You know, I didn't have an exercise program before this vacation. I kinda feel like I have one now. So up we go on the stairs. Finally...finally...we reach a street and begin to head down. A taxi passes us, heading farther up. What the hell... Positano is a tourist town. But more like Santa Fe is a tourist town. Lots of up-scale art, clothing, etc. Oh, there are still the little tourist shops, but they're really pretty.



Once we're back down on the beach, we head up the other side of the crevasse. On this side, there's a beautiful church, and there's a wedding going on. Of course, people are still poking their heads in and taking pictures. Kinda rude, but I guess if you're planning to get married on a Saturday in a tourist town, you probably should expect a few uninvited guests.



We shopped a bit, walked around and admired the beautiful view. A quick bite to eat and now it's time to head back to the marina. Already? Yep. We're catching a boat to Amalfi...just down the coast a bit more.



Amalfi used to be a powerful city before Italy united. It was an important trading center, as well as a place for artisan papermakers. In fact, some of the finest handmade paper in the world is still made in Amalfi. And let me tell you...it is gorgeous paper.



Amalfi is stacked with small houses on a dramatic ravine. The streets are small, darkish and full of closet-sized shops...that is, until you reach the piazza. St. Andrews Cathedral dominates the square and raises your eyebrows.

It's one pretty place. So pretty, we had to sit down and have a drink just to admire it. And, yeah, we climbed the steps.

And as the sun began to set later in day, its rays glinted brilliantly off the gold mosaic facade and made me wonder what would happen if we missed the last boat back to Napoli.

But we didn't. Damn it. We caught the last ferry back to our base in Naples and started the hated ritual of repacking. Time to go. One last indulgence...we watched "The Godfather" in Italian. That was a trip. (We've seen it so many times we knew what they were saying.)

Sunday morning we caught the train back to Rome and spent a wonderful day walking through the city with no agenda. We drank, we ate, we shopped (yeah, we had to buy an extra suitcase because apparently the Italian postal system can't be trusted...at least not in Naples). It was a wonderful last few hours.

And 36 hours later we landed in Dallas. I've been saying this all along...I'm very suggestible and always say I want to go back to live in the places we've visited. But I think I may be serious this time. It's Florence or bust.

Stay tuned for the link to the pictures on Shutterfly. I should get them done in a week or so. Yes. A week or so...we only took about 1200 pictures...it may take a while to sort through them, pick out the best ones and add a witty caption. Just hold your horses...I'll let you know.

Thanks for playing along. I hope you've enjoyed this blog as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Can't wait until the next trip!
Ciao
t