Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast!
January 8-11, 2023
So far during this Italy trip, we have taken airplanes, buses, trains, and taxis. It’s finally time for Dick to try his hand behind the wheel of a car! We picked up our rental car on a Sunday morning, making traffic in Rome light as we headed out. It provided for a comfortable “get to know the car” period as we began our trek south.
It’s a good thing Dick is not only a quick learner, but also a confident driver because, by the time we reached Naples, traffic was heavy and crazier than anything we saw in Rome! I’m not sure what the official rules of the road are, but there certainly is not a safe distance between cars, no turn signals, not even any lanes! It doesn’t matter that it is a single lane road, clearly there is room for a couple of cars side by side! Good grief! Well, Dick not only got us to Naples safely, but even managed to get the car parked not far from the pizza joint we wanted to go to!
My dear friend, Rhonda, owns a small travel agency and it was Rhonda who put our itinerary together. Rhonda suggested stopping by Naples for pizza on our way to Pompeii, as Naples is where pizza was invented. Rhonda never has led us astray, so the question was which pizza spot to go to. This is where Rick Steves came in. In his “Naples City Walk”, Rick mentioned two locations. The first is da Michele, which claims to be the precise spot where pizza was invented! I certainly believe it, as the line of people waiting for this famous pizza was incredibly long! Rick Steves also mentioned that if the line was too long there, across the street is Trianon with equally delicious pizza. It was actually a difficult choice, but in the end, time won out and we decided to go to Trianon. It was fun watching our pizzas be made and even more fun enjoying the finished product! Delizioso!
Even though we were full, Rick Steves also recommended the gelateria, al Polo Nord (the North Pole) across the street. This place serves gelato made fresh every day and has been in the family for over a hundred years. Stopping there was not a difficult decision, even without Josh there to influence us!
In Pompeii, we stayed at La Casa di Plinio Bed & Breakfast. This place has a fantastic location, as it was only a half-mile walk to the Pompeii ruins from there! Unfortunately, by the time we got checked in and settled, we didn’t have enough daylight left to tour the ruins, but we did get out for a stroll past them. Being that it was 5:00, we thought Jimmy Buffet would approve of a stop for some limoncello!
Seeing Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii was really a bit overwhelming. If you draw lines diagonally up from the two points on Mount Vesuvius until they meet, that is what this active volcano originally looked like prior to the eruption that occurred in A.D. 79.
The Pompeii population at that time didn’t even know this “mountain” was an active volcano! I would say it’s hard to imagine what the reaction was to this eruption, but casts of several of the estimated 2,000 people who perished in this volcanic eruption show us exactly how they were reacting. The casts show people’s hands cupped over their nose and mouth trying to breath as the ash buried them. It was heartbreaking to view the casts and envision the horror of that day.
The streets were designed for water to run downhill, so along the sides of the streets were raised sidewalks. In the intersections were large blocks of stone, allowing pedestrians to cross without getting their feet wet. These blocks of stone were at the same height as the sidewalks, but low enough that horse drawn carts were still able to pass over them. You can even see the ruts left in the rock roads from erosion the carts left. To think, a year ago, I was super impressed seeing wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail. Yep, that was cool, but this beats it by a few years!
It would be interesting to know how they know Loreius Tiurtinus lived in this house, but it’s pretty cool they have figured it out! It’s obvious he was a wealthy man! Somehow, they have excavated Pompeii down to the smallest details including the art painted on the walls and mosaics on the floors of his home!
The brothel was another interesting stop! Apparently, there were eleven brothels in this town of 20,000 people. At the one we toured, we were able to see the bedrooms (note the stone bed and pillow!), artwork above the bedroom doors, and even graffiti left on a wall – reviews customers left regarding their visit!
We learned the homes in Pompeii did not include kitchens. People ate most of their meals at fast food joints scattered around town! Outside of the theatre (where gladiators performed) there were many of these restaurants. It would have been nice to have sunshine and more time, but the Amalfi coast was calling us, so we called it a day after spending an hour exploring the ruins of this city. Excavation continues in some areas and they continue to make new discoveries. I’ll be staying tuned to keep up to date with their findings!
On the way to Ravello, we passed through a couple of other small cities on the Amalfi coast. Positano was the first city we got to! I think Dick actually enjoyed this part of the drive! The roads were narrow and winding, but the views were spectacular!
Amalfi was the second city we reached. Amalfi is known for its paper and we had hoped to tour a paper museum; however, the museum was closed the day we passed through. We did enjoy seeing the town and the beautiful views it has to offer!
Ravello was the destination for our one-night stay on the Amalfi coast and, once again, Rhonda did not disappoint us with the B&B she had reserved for us! Casa Dolce Casa is an unbelievable B&B! The rooms have views of the coast that make you want to never leave your room!
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| View from our balcony! |
As tempting as it was to stay in, we did force ourselves to get out and explore this city a bit! A quick trip to Villa Rufalo was in order before dinner! We really enjoyed touring the ruins of this medieval estate! We particularly enjoyed climbing the tower and taking in the sunset along the coastline!
So, visiting in January has both its benefits and its deficits! Believe me, the benefits far outweigh the deficits! Honestly, the only downside we found was a Monday thing. January is part of the off-season time, which means essentially no crowds! However, it also means almost all of the restaurants are closed on Mondays! As hungry tourists, we wandered the streets from one place to the next only to find “closed” signs in their window. Finally, we asked a young couple we ran into if they knew of any open restaurants. They got on their phones, calling around to several places before finding Hotel Parsifal’s restaurant was open! We headed straight there and enjoyed a delicious traditional Italian dinner, with a view of the coastline. We were the only guests in the restaurant, so you can imagine the tremendous service the owner of the hotel gave us!
So, we ran into another glitch on our way back to Casa Dolce Casa. Upon checking in, we were given a key ring with four keys on it. One for our door, one for the entrance to Casa Dolce Casa (after hours), one for the small gate onto the property, and one for the large gate at the street entrance. When we left for dinner, everything (other than the door to our rooms) was open. Upon arriving back, it was after hours and everything was locked. No problem! We have our keys – right? Well, we tried all of the keys on the large gate at the street entrance and the gate wouldn’t open. I don’t have a photo of this gate, but picture gates that are weight-activated and automatically slide open when you approach them from the inside. Often, you need a code to open them from the outside. It was a large gate – probably six to eight feet tall. I tried calling the B&B, texting them, repeatedly cycling through the keys – all to no avail. Maurice, who is “Mr. Fix it Guy”, noticed a spot that would make scaling this gate a bit easier, so before I knew it, I was hopping over the gate and safely inside. Now what? I began looking around for a way to open the gate from the inside. Again … nothing! As I was walking down the street, hoping to find someone to help us, I heard Dick talking to someone. Apparently, another resident on the street was coming home and got out of his car, walked up to the gate and simply slid it open! His response was, “Oh, it broke a couple of weeks ago, so we are just opening and closing it by hand for now.” You’ve got to be kidding me! We went through all of this and all we needed to do was slide the darn thing out of our way! Oh, and did I mention it began raining in the middle of all this? Following this, if I was taking a picture and wanted to get everyone to smile, all I needed to do was remind them of me jumping over the gate in the rain. We got the best pictures of everyone after that!!
Before leaving Ravello and heading back to Rome, we spent the morning exploring Ravello a bit more. Ravello is famous for their ceramics, so we had to do a little bit of shopping! Yes, I did find a handmade Christmas ornament to bring home with us!
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| Ceramiche D'Arte Factory Pascal |
Sadly, our time in Italy was closing. We spent our last night at Hilton Rome Airport where we got a delicious dinner, a good night’s sleep and the last of our Italian style breakfasts for catching our flights back to the states. At the airport, we couldn’t help stopping by the bar one last time for our final cappuccino. Italy, we are going to miss you!!!
Up Next: Orlando (Part 2)
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