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We woke up and headed to Orly airport in Paris to catch our flight to Naples. The baggage check in process went relatively well but was a bit nerve wracking checking bags and hoping and praying they made it to the other side! European airlines (we flew Easy Jet) have much stricter rules on carry on bag size, weight, and therefore we checked our main bags and just brought little carry on bags with us on the flight.
When we touched down Italy I had to pinch myself. I was so excited to be in Italy, a place I have wanted to visit for over a decade.
Although we touched down in Naples, our actual destination was Sorrento, which is on the beautiful Amalfi Coast. A bus leaves about every hour or so to take tourists the 1.5 hours from Naples to Sorrento. Finding where this bus was located was very difficult! It was down the street from the airport essentially and we were hoofing it with our bags on our backs and it was much hotter outisde than what we had experienced in London and Paris. Eventually we found the bus and were so happy to be on our air conditioned way.
The bus dropped us off in the beautiful little hillside town of Sorrento. Rick Steves refers to it as "Serene Sorrento". The streets were bustling with locals and tourists and it was obvious that a cruise ship was in port. We checked into our hotel Antiche Mura, got settled and went out to explore Sorrento. This little place is where you find many of those picturesque cobblestone alleyways with flowers and laundry hanging from balconies, and street vendors selling lemons and other goods. It is a very lovely place.
The next day Tony had arranged for a car tour along the Amalfi Coast. Outside of our hotel we were greeted by a little italian man who introduced himself as Rafaelo who was to be our driver for the day. The ride was an awesome Mercedes van, air conditioned thank goodness. Throughout the ride Lelo, as he said we could call him, quizzed us on some fun local culture such as showing us that you can tell which trees are lemon trees and which are olive trees by whether the nets are above the tree or below the tree and that nets above the trees are to protect lemon skins from drying out since that is what is used to make limoncello, and nets below the olive trees catch the olives! He quizzed us on many different little questions like this, and it really made the drive fun! He pulled off to different locations along the way and told us about different types of buildings and their cultural influences.he also shared. Bit of the "Italian male machismo" by telling us little gems like "if a woman's cooking is bad the man should tell her, otherwise she'll never learn" and that he calls his girlfriend "his cleaner" since she cleans up after him. I found myself having to bite my tongue and silently remind myself this is a different culture, but the feminist in me wanted to give him a stern lecture. Along the Amalfi coast we stopped at three different towns, Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello. All were beautiful and looked like heaven. In the town of Ravello there is a beautiful hotel with the most amazing infinity pool with a stunning view of the coast. If you want some eye candy go to www.hotelcaruso.com. Mama Mia! This place is beautiful! The kind front desk woman showed us around their hotel and walked us out to the pool for a peek at it even though we were not guests. This is definitely a place I would love to come stay, if I ever strike it rich.
We spent the rest of our time enjoying Sorrento and had fun checking out the quaint little restuarants and cute shops. Sorrento is famous for lemons, and ceramics so we had a lot of fun shopping. Or at least I did! ;)
Next on to Rome!
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