May 15 – Positano, Italy’
Our day – May 14th was largely an in-transit day. We were departing Rome after only 2 very action filled days. We put in almost 20 miles of walking over these 2 days and our feet are looking forward to a little break.
Before I get into the days post I thought I would share a little something with all of you who might be thinking about taking a European trip. If you are, I’m sure that like us you have been watching Rick Steve’s on your local PBS station and soaking in all of his travel guides and tips wherever it is you might be thinking of going. But did you know that you can go to Rick Steve’s website and view a lot of his videos. Here is one I want to pass on to you…
It is a packing guide. Rick suggests that the key to a successful trip is to pack light. From one of my earlier posts you may already know that there are a couple of members in our traveling group who think Rick Steves is an idiot when it comes to packing. Just check out #Moby. Anyhow – just a suggestion.
At 8:00 am, our driver, Mr. Assenov showed up at out doorstep in his large Mercedes mini-bus to take all of us to Ciampino Airport, where we would retrieve our rental car. Trent and I had managed to maneuver the luggage for our group from our 6th floor apartment to the ground floor. it was exciting, because of the tiny elevator that was available. First i loaded “Moby” as Carolyn’s suitcase has been affectionately named, along with a couple of others. Then I step on the elevator and hear the ancient machine groan under the load. Reluctantly, I close the door behind me, as this is all that will fit in the elevator. I have a brief vision as the elevator groans and makes it descent to the ground floor; I wonder if my Holiday might end right here in Rome. Luckily, I reach the landing safely. Both I and the elevator, let out a sigh of relief. Trent and I then make 3 other trips and finally all of our luggage is on the ground floor. I then get to watch Mr. Assenov load all of our luggage into the large mini-bus. As he and I await the rest of our travel group, we chat, me in my broken Italian and he in his broken English, about our travel plans to take a driving tour around Italy and Germany. He looks back at all the luggage he has loaded into the bus and asks me, “you have large bus like this?” I ponder the narrow road we are about to meet on our way to Positano and say, “I hope it wont be quite as large as yours.” He looks back at the luggage and I can tell he is thinking to himself…“good luck”.
As an aside…If you will be traveling to Rome and beyond by car, I strongly suggest that you not have the car while in Rome as parking is difficult, but not as difficult as navigating your way out of the Byzantine maze of streets. So instead we chose to pick up our car at nearby Ciampino airport. You can pick up a car at the Rome train station, but that means you still have to deal with the streets and traffic of Rome. I suggest you take a taxi or arrange a driver to take you to Ciampino. It is a smaller regional airport and much more easily reached than Fiumicino International Airport. Additionally, it is conveniently located near the Autostrada to help get you on your trip with minimal stress.
Now if you’ve ever rented a car in Europe before, you know it can some times take you awhile to retrieve your car. The process sometimes involves waiting in long lines, incessant tapping of keys on computer by overworked and stressed agents and finally navigating your car out of the tiny holding lots. I’m glad to say that the staff at Ciampino was a relative model of efficiency. We were in and out in about 15 minutes.
Our plan today was to drive down to Positano, relax and do a little walking around this once sleepy little seaside fishing village. This would allow us and our feet time to recover a bit before we take on Pompeii, which we would save for the next day.
The drive to Positano first takes you on the A1 Autostrada heading toward Naples. A little past Naples you take a smaller road toward the famous Amalfi Coast. As you approach Positano, the road continues to narrow and becomes more winding. Fortunately, our mini-van was considerably smaller than Mr. Assenov’ bus and Trent and I were able to load Moby into the back of the bus. Although there was little room remaining for all of our other luggage, we did manage to load it all in. We did have to remove the spare tire from the mini-van, as we knew that Carolyn must have packed for every possible eventuality and surely another spare tire must reside inside of “Moby” should we need it. – I’m only kidding. We love Moby.
As we wind our way down the hill nearing the turn-off for Positano, we find ourselves dodging the gnat-like swarm of mopeds, scooters and motorcycles that seemingly risk life and limb darting in and out of oncoming traffic. Carolyn and Elisa are enduring the white knuckle ride down the hill missing cars, busses, bicycles and pedestrians by mere inches. Our mini-van is a nice and new Ford Galaxy and I am certain we will leave some of its paint behind somewhere as we wind down the tiny road. As we reach the turn-off to descend into Positano, I tell Carolyn, “now the road gets really narrow but fortunately it is only one way.” Carolyn groans a little, gulps and says “oh boy”. As we wind our way down Via Cristoforo Colombo through the colorfully painted homes that dot the hillside, we are dodging the hordes of pedestrians that are occupying the same streets as the cars, mini-vans and the incessant motorbikes. Our hotel – Alcion is located almost on the far side of the small town. As we approach the hotel the hordes of pedestrians is even thicker, making passage for our mini-van even more difficult.
Having been to Positano before, Elisa and I were a bit worried about where we would park our mini-van once we got there. Fortunately, Elisa called the hotel ahead and asked about it. When the phone call finally connected, Elisa breaks into her best Italian and begins asking the young female on the other end about the parking situation. After a few words the young lady interrupts Elisa and says, “pleeza speaka English”. Elisa, at the same time is relieved but also a little hurt realizing that her “best” Italian must be hurting the ears and head of the young girl. After a quick conversation we are told we can park in front of the Hotel and unload our bags and someone will be called to take our car to parking.
So today’s winner of the “International Eye-roll Award”, which from one of my earlier posts you know means “Stupid American Tourist” is me. You see as we approach the hotel, our vehicle is having to part the sea of tourist that fill the streets, totally oblivious to the cars that must use the street. The Hotel is not well marked and we happen upon it very quickly. I am now slightly past the hotel (on a one way street). I stop and the traffic behind me immediately begins to begins to honk their horns in unison. Scooters are zipping by me waving and gesturing madly – I’m pretty sure they weren’t saying hello. I pull painfully as close to the left hand side as possible and try to make room for the cars to pass buy. It is difficult and extremely narrow. I’m sure that this is where I will lose some of the paint from our shiny new Ford Galaxy Mini Van. Suddenly, the young female hotel attendant appears at my window side with a panicked look in her face because of all the traffic that I have now blocked. She tells me that I was supposed to park on the “sidewalk”, by sidewalk she means an 18" sliver or walkway on the right side of Via Cristoforo Colombo. I look in the rear view mirror and all i see are cars and a horde of pedestrians blocking the “sidewalk”. The young girl looks back and says, “we will stoppa traffic and a you back a-up”. Another man from one of the nearby shops says he will first get the cars immediately behind me to pass – but i need to fold in my right side mirror – that’s how close the cars are passing me by. He quickly offers to do it for me and I happily oblige. With the traffic stopped and the pedestrians chased off of the “sidewalk” he backs the cars to the right side, leaving sufficient room for the angry cars to get past me. Quickly, the day’s excitement in the tiny village of Positano returns to normal. As Trent and I retrieve all of out luggage, we are greeted by the “International Eye-roll” from all of the locals. Undeterred, we muscle our luggage into the lobby of the hotel.
The pained look on the young hotel attendant is now gone and she checks us in and takes us up to show us our rooms. She tells us that we are on the 3rd floor and points us up the stairs. Trent and I look back at our luggage and are hoping she will point us toward the elevator, but instead she says, “you takaa da smalla bags now and comma back for the others later.” Suddenly, Trent and I are missing the ancient shoe box elevator at our Rome apartment. Once we make our way up to the rooms all of our regrets about having to carry the bags are immediately erased. Carolyn, who has booked our room, is equally forgiven for packing “Moby”. Because when we enter the large suite that is equipped with spacious bathroom, kitchen, washing machine and king size bed, we enter an adjacent large sitting room and are greeted with a spectacular view of the entire town of Positano. Then we are further amazed as she takes us out to the huge private terrace that joins the room. The accommodations are absolutely spectacular. We can’t help but feel lucky that this will be our temporary home for the next 3 days.
Once we unpack, we head out to take a walk and get some lunch. We happen upon a little spot and have a light lunch. We head back into town and make our way partially down the hill, looking for a little shop where we can pick up a few things. I am suddenly incredibly tired, having only gotten a few hours sleep the night before. I’m sure my body is “crashing” from the release of adrenaline from the entire parking episode. So I decide I will head back to the room and take a “little nap”. The little nap turned into a 2-½ hour sleep-a-thon. I force myself to wake up knowing that I could sleep longer but I know that if I don’t I’ll never overcome the jet lag. Elisa and I join Carolyn and Trent on the huge outdoor terrace and we all enjoy the limoncello that Trent and Carolyn had purchased earlier. It was amazing and the only regret we had is that we only had a “small” bottle of the refreshing nectar.
By now, the sun is beginning to set behind the mountain, but the light show makes for some spectacular photography. We make our way down to a little cafe and have dinner. The food is good – not great but now that it is 9:00 Pm we are satisfied. By the time we finish dinner and make it back to our amazing rooms it is nearly 11:00 pm. Elisa and I go back to our rooms a little worried that our long naps will make sleep difficult, but our worries are erased as we both quickly nod off. And for once I’m not up at 2:30am writing this blog. I manage to sleep in until 5:30.
Next, we visit Pompeii – More Later! Ciao!
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