Well, it is our last night in Praiano and it has been quite the adventure since we last wrote. First the good news, our luggage arrived courtesy of our wonderful Italy travel guide Annie (see www.romeandtuscanytours.com) who was able to contact a local driver who drove to us, picked up all our information and went to the Naples airport to scour through lost and found until he acquired our suitcases. He then delivered them to a local hotel, Hotel Le Fioriere, where we had arranged to have them dropped so we wouldn’t waste a single day in paradise waiting at our villa. I need to point out that we weren’t staying at this hotel, yet the owner, Luigi, offered to help us out in any way he could. He placed numerous calls on our behalf and then emailed me when our luggage had arrived. He capped this all off with a car ride back up the mountain so I wouldn’t have to haul two suitcases up the Hill of Death in the rain. He did all this when we weren’t staying at his establishment…..guess where we will stay when we come back?!?!
I just had to mention these two wonderful people for all of you following our blog, who are ever planning to visit Italy, please use their services….. They have my highest recommendation!
OK, now for more misadventures from the Clark’s.
When I write these blogs, I always struggle with what to say; not the actual words, but which of the numerous stories to share. For Instance, I could tell you about the day we walked from Amalfi to Ravello, got lost, and ended up walking 10 miles up hill, literally the entire way…..or I could tell you about the day we rented a scooter and drove to Sorrento and got caught up in big city traffic…..or I could tell you about the continual mishaps with our villa, like the air conditioner kicking on in the middle of the night when it’s already freezing…..or meeting a wonderful British couple from Vancouver Island (Phil and Mary)who we kept bumping into everywhere we went, who were an absolute treat; not to mention an immense wealth of knowledge on how to navigate the buses and funicular……… but I think the best story of the past few days comes from the Island of Capri.
Everyone always says that when you go to Amalfi, you need to take a tour to Capri. I’ve read about its gorgeous grotto’s in Outdoorsman magazine and heard fabled stories about the celebrities and high end shopping on the island, but it’s the boat ride that was the real tale of the day.
We had tried to book a nice and well advertised excursion the previous day via email, but when we arrived, they were all full. Not wanting to give up that easily, we ventured around Positano, trying several other companies until we finally found one that had two spots left. All the other companies told us to check back soon because the sea was a little rough and they thought some people might cancel. After a quick glance out on the horizon, we didn’t see anything too frightening, so we decided to take the final slots, sold from a small tent-like structure on the beach that only accepted cash.
My skeptical nature led me to question the length of the boat, and I was pleasantly surprised when I was told that it was around 25 meters. Regardless of how rough the sea was, a 25 meter boat would be big enough to handle it without too many bumps.
Remember, we are in Europe where everyone uses the metric system, so that’s why my mind thought it heard meters instead of feet. Evidentially on land it’s all kilometers and meters, but on the sea it’s feet and nautical miles. So, what I thought would be an 80 ft. plus boat turned out to be a 20 some foot, eight passenger, floatation device with a motor.
Once we got out of the bay, the sea turned angry and started spewing forth ten foot high swells in rapid succession. If you’ve ever been to Busch Garden’s in Virginia, there is an infamous roller coaster known as the Big Bad Wolf which has laid claim to many tourists’ overpriced lunches. This boat ride made the Big Bad Wolff look like the Tiny Tame Puppy!
The ocean was a pit-bull and we were its chew toy for 30 minutes.
Now if it weren’t for the fact that my back pounded into the seat every five seconds as we crashed off the wave peaks, and that my beautiful wife had turned green, I would have relished the ride. Luckily, she held on until we got close enough to Capri where the waves (and her stomach) settled down. She still spent the rest of the ride laying down in the back corner in the fetal position, just in case.
She missed the grottos but kept her lunch.
Here’s the lesson for the day….there is a HUGE difference between feet and meters, and you would be prudent to confirm which one your ride is measured in!
After that mishap, we enjoyed a nice day on a beautiful, but expensive island. We didn’t see any celebrities, but we did have a great lunch overlooking the bay. We cut our day a little short in order to catch a much larger (and smoother riding) ship back.
We spent our final day puttering around on our rented scooter and mostly exploring the hills of Positano, pausing to take in the amazing views one more time before saying “arivederchi!” to the Amalfi coast and heading to Spain. We are really looking forward to exploring Barcelonia and Madrid…..and to have the spoils that are offered in a hotel that you just can’t get in a villa…..like clean towels and sheets! We will not do a villa again :)
This is definitely a place we will come back to one day; possible in the spring to enjoy the warmer weather, scuba diving, and the overall Italian beach experience.
We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the pictures and stories from our amazing honeymoon voyage!
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