| Palermo | Taormina | Venice | Florence | |
Sorrento, Isle of Capri and Amalfi Coast, September 10-11, 2004
| Our room in the hotel near Taormina did not look out on the seaside but had a seating area in addition to the necessary space for the bed. Very nice. Our balcony looked towards Taormina, and our window looked out at Mt Etna. In the morning at breakfast, people commented that Mt. Etna was smoking (but that was ok as it was old enough). Here's a picture taken from our bed room window. That plume coming from the top is not a cloud, there really was enough ash and steam for a several mile visible plume. |  |
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At this point we had some serious driving to do. We left the town of Taormina, drove up to Messina, took a ferry over to the mainland and drove all the way from the boot of Italy back up to Sorrento (nearly to Rome). The ferry ride was only 20 minutes, and a bit busy as we left the bus, had to get the pictures (that's mandatory isn't it), were told to use the restrooms and pick up fresh water etc. Both the rest room and the concession were busy, and getting to the right deck to get pictures took some learning, but it did get all done. On the left is the town of Messina from the ferry. |
| On the trip, we actually saw a few lighthouses (but only a few). The one immediate right is just north of the harbor as we came in. The far right is on the road to Consenza. |  |
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The trip along the coast was beautiful, and even away from the coast, interesting (even if we did get a little saddle sore). |
| As we arrived in Sorrento, we made a short stop at Notturno Intarsio (a shop doing inlaid wood pieces). Some beautiful pieces but I don't have any photos of them (and no, we didn't buy the new dining room table, shipping included in the price (that wasn't posted)). You can understand some of the tasks of the drivers however from this photo of the Trafalgar bus trying to park next to two other busses (at right angles behind him) on this "wide" street with traffic to fight. |  |
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In the evening, we took another bus (ours was too big) down to the harbor. Originally Sorrento was built within a series of canyons running up from the coast. Over time, they built platforms over the canyons, so it's now a few hundred feet above sea level (see left). However, to get to the harbor, you have to navigate down these canyons with hair pin turns at the corners (our bus, the short one, had to do a 3 point turn to make it around, with traffic both behind and in front of him). The harbor however was beautiful and we had a delicious dinner in this restaurant (tables on the porch all the way at the end). |
| In the morning, we left the Sorrento harbor (immediate right) and 20 minutes later, we were in the harbor of the Isle of Capri (far right). |  |
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We had the entire morning free on Capri (there was an optional tour
available, but the highlight was a trip on small boats, and that was all
Marnie needed to hear, the big boat was enough fun). The village is
built on top of the mountain, luckily connected to the harbor by a
funicular. Even so, the walk along the shop streets was enough up and
down. So, we window shopped, then had second breakfast, then window shopped, and stopped at a geleteria for an ice cream, then window shopped, took the funicular back down to the harbor, window shopped and got lunch. |
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We had a short break at the hotel, then got in our bus to pop over the mountain range right behind (just north) the hotel and drove down the Amalfi coast on the other side. If you've driven California Highway 1 north of San Francisco, you can understand this route, but I've never tried Cal 1 with a 40 passenger bus. As you can see, it was beautiful (see left), but our driver (who was a substitute for the day) earned his money on this drive (see right). The fun part is that, a little later, the road got too narrow and we had to park the bus and take 2 mini-busses to get into Positano. |
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| The village of Positano extends from the road down (probably 300' vertical). This picture taken from the beach shows the connections between the houses. There are actually paths between the houses (most of the time) but no roadways at all. The trip to the beach was fairly quick (not so quick going back up!) but quite steep and a mixture of stairs and paved ramps. |
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As we were leaving, there was a small accident (a car thought they could leave a meter on the right edge of their car while they passed our bus (this is a two way road)). So, while the mini bus driver got out to negotiate the settlement, I was able to get this picture of the road we had just negotiated. |
| Palermo | Taormina | Venice | Florence |
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