Amalfi Coast

After a challenging summer, towards the end of August after getting an okay from D's doc we headed off on our Italian adventure. We took a red eye (usually our flight of choice) into Naples, Italy. Our hotel was in Sorrento, a popular city just outside the Amalfi Coast.

There are three ways to get from Naples to anywhere on the Amalfi Coast. Train, ferry or private car. We choose the most convenient method, private car.  Why? Well with a private car we were picked up from the airport and dropped off at our hotel. In case of a train or ferry we would have had to take a taxi to the train station or port and then another taxi to our hotel. We had only two days, were jet lagged and convenience always wins for us. We had booked the car in advance and the driver was waiting for us when we arrived. 

Why Sorrento? Pretty much the same reason as above. Convenience. To get to any town on the Amalfi Coast you would first have to get to Sorrento and then take a car,ferry,bus etc to get to that particular town and do it all over again on D day. With only two days we didn't want to waste it all commuting. 

Now that all the boring bits are over.. let's get to the exploring. 

We checked into our hotel Antiche Mura (my dream check in is when the room is available early) sadly this was not the case. After leaving our luggage with them we headed out to grab some breakfast. We ate at Bar Del Carmine. 

For our first day we had planned on spending it in Positano, the most famous and iconic village on the Amalfi Coast. We had pre booked our ferries (highly recommend it during high season) and had some time to kill so we wandered the markets of Sorrento. 

The theme was lemons. Amalfi lemons are one of the most impressive lemon varieties from Italy and among the most highly prized lemons in the world. Here's a reel I made.

It was a steep walk down to the port.. we could only imagine how fun the walk back up was going to be.

The ferry was on time, spacious. But I would recommend getting there early. The top filled up fast and the inside compartment was extremely hot. Us Americans are very spoiled with all the air conditioning. 

We slept through most of the ride so I can't tell you much about it but our first steps off the ferry produced a wow. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the narrow streets, popping into shops and eating not one but three desserts. It was a very very hot day. And our first stop was to Collina Bakery for their lemon gelato in a lemon. It was fine. Kinda small. 

We wandered some more.. the streets were a bit tricky and when it came to get to the restaurant I had made lunch reservations for we found ourselves back tracking quite a few times.. did I mention it was hot. By the time we got to the restaurant we were demolished and even though it looks pretty, the food was also just okay. 

and I don't know, maybe it was the heat or the hype or we are just jaded but the more time we spent in Positano the less we liked it. 

Next on our to do list was to try the delizia al limon (lemon cake) by Pasticceria Buca di Bacco. Here's a reel of all the other pastries the patisserie had to offer.  

On a whim my pistachio loving husband picked up a pistachio cake as well. Now I hate to say this.. but the pistachio cake was better than the lemon! 

What was happening? This place that was supposed to be like paradise was not at all paradisiacal. M and I kept thinking back fondly on how much better Mykonos was. This must try lemon cake had to be finished by force. We had a 4pm ferry to catch and we could not imagine how we were going to wait so long. And the glamourous beach looked trashy. 

Well we persevered, hid out in a shaded cafe until it was finally time to leave. This is proof of how deceiving social media is.. because the reel I made looks idyllic. 

We made the treacherous climb back to our hotel and collapsed on the bed. Yay air conditioning.. finally. 

M and H hit the pool while D (can't be in a pool yet) and I took showers and became humans again. Then we headed out for dinner.

The evening had cooled down, the lights were on and people were in a relaxed mood. We had a delectable dinner. Gotta watch the reel to see what we ate.

and ate one of the best gelatos of our entire trip. There are a few more contenders but this one ranked pretty high up there. 

All in all the day ended on a high note and we had hopes for a better tomorrow.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel (included in cost) and then were off again to catch another ferry. On today's agenda was the town of Amalfi and Ravello.

We got to the ferry early and were able to get seats on the top. And I must tell you.. the entire ferry experience was different. There was beautiful breeze.. oh it was perfect.

Now here's where things got tricky again. The second village we wanted to visit, Ravello, is not a port village. It is actually up in the hills so to get there you can go on an a strenuous 1.5 mile hike or a 25 min bus that leaves every 30 minutes. We opted for the bus. We also decided to go to Ravello first just in case there were any bus issues on the way down we didn't want to miss our ferry. There was no ticket buying kiosk and after asking two people we finally located the man in the park with the neon vest selling tickets. The cost is under 2 euros. Unfortunately the bus left seconds before we got there! Argh. Half of us stayed in line while the other half went to grab some gelato. We had to kill the time some way, why not gelato? 

Now the fun was when the bus arrived. The wonderful single file lines turned into a mob. Thankfully we come from Pakistan where no one ever make a line and we instructed the kids to just get on the bus, we'd fingure everything out later. Well we got on the bus and then a few minutes in the engine overheated and the bus shut down. We were overheating on the inside as well. But we had learnt from the day before and the kids had a pack of cards and M and I have our audio books. The bus started moving again only to over heat again.. the 25 minute ride become close to 45 minutes but it still beat hiking. Finding the silver lining is really important when you travel because things don't always go as planned.

Oh Ravello was a breath of fresh air.. literally. 

 We meandered through the winding streets until we reached out lunch place, Mimí Pizzeria & Cucina. 

The pizzeria had a beautiful outdoor space where they were growing grapes and peppers, basil and lemons. 

We had amazing pizzas, ours was zucchini cream with as you may have guessed, zucchini's on top. Yum. And a platter of assortment fried vegetables and cheese. Food reel! 

We walked around a bit more before grabbing a bus back down. The pushing to get into the bus was more intense this time. The women who made a face and complained about the pushing did not make it on the bus. The only reason I made it on was because the rest of my family had made it on. 

Back in Amalfi, we first stopped by at the Duomo di Amalfi.

 

Then we grabbed another lemon sorbet in a giant lemon. We liked this one better. The lemon was bigger, there was more sorbet. It was such a refreshing treat. 

We window shopped and bought a lovely watercolor postcard to frame. 

It was soon time to hop back onto a ferry. This time we were okay with the lower area. M and I closed our eyes for a bit while the boys played a card game. 

We once again made the long hike back up to our hotel and after a dip in the pool we headed out for dinner at Da Gigino.

Not one of our favorite meals but decent. We followed it with Gelateria David which was not only average but also a little out of way. 

And that is a wrap on our two days on the Amalfi Coast. Compared to all the places we have visited we unfortunately give Amalfi Coast a 6/10 

       

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