The problems with big long vacations like this one is that, from a blogging perspective, it is awfully hard to stay current with each day’s events. I was good up through Marseilles, but fell hopelessly behind once we hit Italy. I’m blogging about Day Seven today; it’s actually Day Eleven.
The Amalfi Coast in the distance, about 6 am.
Two boys at breakfast in the dining room. Post cruise I’ll have to do a post on Hard Rock T-shirts; Cpher is gathering quite a collection of them recently (Chicago, Barcelona, Rome, Venice)
The Blush Dining Room early in the morning…
Today’s journey begins in Pompeii….we hired a private driver and as always were one of the first ones of the ship. Met Mario (more on Mario later!) and left Salerno for Pompeii
We were able to get the boys to listen to the Rick Steves audio guide; worked out pretty well here, the boys were pretty interested in the ruins and the audio tour.
Mount Vesuvius in the background here….
I may be repetitious but it is awfully nice to get to places like Pompeii before the big tour busses arrive. It was hard to get shots without a lot of people but by the time we left there were at least twice the number of people here than when we started…..the line for tickets was at least four times as long…
One of the casts of the bodies in the ruins….
This is described as a the remains of a ‘fast-food’ shop…the marble counter top in front…
Fric and Frac in the arch for the aquaduct…..
A courtyard in one of the houses…
Matthew looking both way before crossing the roads….the one step there is what people used to cross the road when they flooded the streets to clean them…
The bakery……
Last shot of the ruins through the trees near the exit; Mt. Vesuvius in the background. It was still achingly hot today….
Mario, who also works as a race car driver (and I will post some links to youtube videos when I get back to the land of internet) took us over to Sorrento next. This picture is looking out at the Bay of Naples.
Mario makes me wonder what exactly were the arrangements that Suzanne put in place here….Suzanne expressed some disappointment that the guide in Florence wasn’t this cute Italian guy and well, Mario, Mario is just about everything Suzanne could have asked for. He’s in his 20’s, he’s oh so cute, he drives race cars, Suzanne said he had the best hair and oh, he must have said “Mamma Mia” about 40 times….
Coming along the peninsula toward Sorrento
Sorrento…
We spent an hour in Sorrento…in hindsight, we should have spent longer here. The original plan was to eat a restaurant along the coast with great views, but, being rushed like we were here we cancelled that reservation so that we could spend more time at our final stop, Positano.
Always like wandering around the neighborhoods and wandering into these randomly beautiful moments…
A fruit/vegetable stand as we left Sorrento and headed towards Positano…yes, those are lemons; some huge giant variety that are mostly used for decoration.
The first of the pictures along the Amalfi Coast….
The Pano from Amalfi
No waves = really clear water
Limestone = very steep cliffs
Houses as we came into Positano…
We parked in Positano and walked down to the beach….the flowers were simply amazing…
Looking back up from the beach…
The awning over the restaurant where we had pizza…
And, the last shot from Positano as we were walking back up the hill to the van.
Souvenirs: Really haven’t bought a lot of stuff prior to this stop but made up for it here. Matthew got a soccer jersey and soccer t-shirt (Napoli, Sorrento). Mom and Dad got enough limoncello to last us quite a while and a nice bowl and vase from a ceramic shop in Positano. The real hit were the lemon/orange hard candy balls…..we certainly did not purchase enough of them.
Health: Matthew back to normal….Cpher complains of stomach pains as we walk up the hill from Positano. Asks us to pull over on the way back to Salerno and throws up….we have to pull over again closer to Salerno so that he can do it again. Happily (and unlike his brother, who when he ‘lost it’ didn’t get to a toilet or trash can and left us quite a mess) Cpher confined his puke to a bag and out of the car, so, it wasn’t that big of a deal…..
Breeze: Not much going on here tonight; Cpher really sick and throws up quite a bit though the evening. A norovirus that is running through the ship? not sure…Cpher really has it worse than Matthew though.
