Ahhhh how the other half lives....We just returned from a wonderful vacation in Italy on the Amalfi coast with my in-laws. This included husband's brother and his wife. The trip was a gift from the in-laws to celebrate their 41 years of marriage. What a lovely , thoughtful gift.
We began the trip all flying into Naples, Italy. From what I saw on the drive out of the city, it looked like a rough place to live. Decrepit high rises with laundry drying in the smoggy air. Roads were rough and crowded. I was happy to be out of the city.
The roads soon turned narrow and winding as we wound our way through and around the mountains along the coast. It seems Italians speak to each other with their car horns. A warning Beep, beep when going around a tight bend, a cheery Beep! when passing a friend or tour bus and a long Beeeeep! when someone has done something dangerous. Our driver Guitano knew the roads well and had driven for my in-laws in the past. His Mercedes van navigated the tricky roads effortlessly and he was still able to hold a conversation in English.
We soon arrived in Positano where we would be staying for 4 days. As we drove through the town, Guitano told us that tourism was down this year but the street still seemed full of shoppers. Four hairpin turns out of town, we pulled into the San Pietro. It seemed small until we took the elevator down and discovered the hotel was built into the cliff and had beautiful views and luxurious spaces for guests to lounge. A guest could choose to take the 400 steps down to the beach or use the small elevator that opened up in a cave-like alcove to go to the beach restaurant, bar or lounge chairs. The boat dock was also down here so guests could catch a boat into Positano, to Capri or take the hotel boat on it's daily 2 hour tour.
We took the boat tour twice. You could view Positano from the sea, houses all stacked up into the hillside. You passes amazing rock formations and grottos. The boat anchored at a small island, with 2 houses on it. One of the houses belonged to Nureyev, the dancer. While guests jumped off the boat and swam in the sea, the captain to the boat put out olives, peanuts and sangria for refreshment. The day I swam, the water was cold and the swells were larger than I was comfortable with. I decided against swimming to the grotto and went back to the boat. Being slightly hung over from prosecco and lemoncello the night before, I felt this was a wise and safe decision.
Another day, Guitano took us on a driving tour of the Amalfi coast, where we saw Sofia Loren's home, huge yachts in the Amalfi harbor and the green grotto. The green grotto ended up being a tourist trap that made us laugh so hard it was worth the 5 euros. "Lookie, Lookie!" the boatman would say "it's magic! The rock looks like Ronald Reagan or Abraham Lincoln if you like." The grotto had a nativity seen under water that some fisherman put there in 1964. I am sure this was a feeble attempt to lure tourists to see the miracle of the grotto. The boatman sang, told stories and did everything he could to earn a tip. We gave him one, we knew the season had been slow.
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