Amalfi, Italy

This post starts the Biggest Vacation of our time in Europe - 9 days touring through Italy and a 7 night Mediterranean cruise. Like Austria, we've decided to break it into sections, as our posts for a weekend are probably too long, much less a post for 16 days.

Friday, May 1st (Aaron's 27th Birthday)

As is becoming the standard, we left first thing to catch an early flight.

Now I don't know what the deal was, but we were definitely on the Geriatric Express. We're assuming there was some kind of tour, but it made for some interesting people watching (including the woman in front of us, who was very upset about how far back the seat in front of her leaned back).  But, we were lucky to be offered an "upgrade" to the exit row, which had an extra 3 cm of leg room.  Woohoo!  We also got nice views passing over the alps, so all in all not a bad flight.

Our flight arrived in Naples, in southwest Italy. From everything we'd heard, Naples is a little seedy, and the only thing worth stopping by for was Pizzeria Da Michele. This is supposedly the best pizza joint in the world (Italy is the best country in the world for pizza, Naples is the city with the best, and Da Michele is the best in Naples, so...). As a result, it was the one destination on our stop in the city. They offer 2 options - Margherita (with tomato sauce and cheese) or Marinara (sauce and spices, no cheese). We got one of each (€5 each, and the size of an average dinner plate). Even though it was a little bare for American standards, it was delicious, and well worth the hour wait.  Unfortunately, later in the trip while trying to make space on a camera memory card by deleting the "bad ones," Aaron accidentally deleted the one picture that we had of the restaurant - something he will never live down.

From Naples we hopped the train to Pompeii. This is a Roman city (now ruins) that was destroyed by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in the early ADs, at the height of the Roman Empire. The city was literally wiped off the map, as several feet of ash encased the population in a matter of hours. In the 1600s, the ruins were discovered, and excavations were begun, which have still not been fully completed. It is known as being the best preserved look into what life was like in ancient Rome.

It was very interesting to tour around. There were old homes, a stadium, and of course several common areas. The most interesting thing that we saw, though, were plaster molds of citizens. As archaeologists were excavating, their tools discovered hollows within the solidified ash-rock. These were the holes where the bodies of the citizens once were, and had over time decomposed, leaving an empty space. They poured plaster into these "molds" and excavated around them, resulting in a model of how and where the people of the city were sitting when they met their demise. It was surreal to think about, especially considering that they chose to stay in the city while the ash began falling around them (they say the eruption lasted for about 18 hours).

After leaving Pompeii, we started our trek to Amalfi to get to the hotel. We had a terrible journey - an hour train ride, a 2 hour bus along winding treacherous cliffs in the pitch black, all capped off with a 5 mile cab ride that set us back €50. What made it worse was that when we arrived, the hotel owner who was sitting out front said "You shouldn't have taken the cab, you should have just called and I would have come pick you up for free!"

Saturday, May 2nd

The hotel was called Holidays Fico d'India, and was by far the best place we have stayed. Located in a smaller village outside Amalfi, it was a family owned place with 6 rooms, all overlooking the beautiful cliffs, ocean and lemon groves that the area is famous for. The same owner who greeted us on arrival, Pino, served us a great (even better since it was free) breakfast of a tasty vanilla cream-filled croissant and maybe the most delicious pastry we've ever had, a thick, heavy roll filled with a delightful lemon filling. Here is a photo from the patio where we had breakfast:

We headed into the town of Amalfi (got a free ride from Pino, as the bus wouldn't be there for an hour). The views were amazing, although the beaches were very rocky. The town was also very touristy, and rightly so as it was completely packed with tourists - so many as it was difficult to move around the center.

This is where our friend Rick began to prove his worth. Let me tell you a little about Rick...

Rick Steves is a tour guide and travel book author who got his start by travelling for fun through Europe for a few months every year. After a few years, he figured he could make a living by guiding tours and writing books, and now he is fairly famous among travellers. On this trip, his advice proved to be immeasurable, as did our Rick Steves' travel backpacks - purchased a few months ago in the US, and perfect for us as they have the capacity of a medium sized suitcase, are manageable on the back, and fit in the overhead compartment of a plane. (Throughout our trip we continued seeing other travelers walking around with Rick's book in their hands.)

In this instance, our friend Rick led us winding up and down through the back streets of Amalfi, where we saw what you'd think of as a quintessential Italian village - aged-white buildings with flower boxes and laundry hanging from the windows. After a 10 minute walk we popped out in Atrani, a neighboring village with a small sandy beach and not a tourist in site. We spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up the sun and spectacular views and had the first of MANY gelatos (Italian ice cream). After the sun was mostly gone, we went back to Amalfi and had a quick dinner and headed back to the hotel, ready to head off to Rome...(to be continued).