Positano, Amalfi, Rome

We caught a bus from Sorrento which took us along a windy road along the coast to Positano, about 40 minutes away. Positano is another beautiful town, set on the side of a cliff, where it looks like the houses are stacked one on top of the other. There is an attractive church in the centre of the lower town with a green and yellow tiled dome. The bus dropped us off at the top of the "non-tourist" side of town, and after Elise checked with the Tabacci that we were in the right spot (I had happily let her take over as tour-leader, I'm not sure if she was happy to take that role, but she didn't complain about it anyway) we started the steep trek down the hill to our hotel. The woman who checked us in spoke fantastic english, and told us that we'd chosen a great time to come, as it was the end of the tourist season, so it wouldn't be so busy, and as a bonus, it was a lovely sunny day outside! She gave us the key to our room and told us to make sure that we were happy before we came down and paid.

We were very happy with the room- it had a lovely terrace which we had all to ourselves and on which sat a table and a couple of sun lounges. After dropping off our bags, we headed into the main part of town- the "touristy" side- and wandered down the winding streets to the beach. We ate lunch on the beach, watching the waves, and reading a trashy UK mag which we had found at a little shop. In the mid-afternoon, we wandered along a pretty path, along another beach, then up lots and lots and lots and lots of steps back to the hotel where we rested and relaxed for the afternoon. In the evening we went back down to a Restaurant on the beach for Dinner. The next morning, we woke to find that it was raining. Confident that it was going to clear, we headed to the bus stop to catch a bus to Amalfi, with plans of catching another bus to Ravello in the afternoon for a look.

It was certainly an entertaining bus ride:
Elise tends to get travel sickness, so whilst we have been travelling around Italy we have always sat towards the front of the bus wherever possible (plus, she dopes up on drugs before the ride, so there hasn't really been a problem). We found a couple of seats near the front of the bus and sat down, and it wasn't long before I discovered that the woman behind me was American. I found this out through her accent, as she was giving running commentary to her travelling companion who was sitting behind her, about EVERY SINGLE THING SHE SAW! And I'm not just talking about "Look at that cliff", "Look at the vineyard", "Look, there's three swimming pools down there". At one stage, she said "I just saw a goose, and I don't know yet if it was real or stuffed", which set off a whole conversation with her travel partner about a woman he once saw who had a puppet on her hand which looked like a real goose. Fascinating stuff! But, it didn't end there...

At the next stop, we picked up another group of 4 Americans, who sat down towards the back of the bus. It wasn't long though before one of them- a plump woman with greasy short blond hair and glasses and really bad BO, came and sat in the seat in front of us and started doing some camera aerobics. She was snapping away with her camera about every 10 seconds, all the while exclaiming; "Oh gee!" "Oh wow!" "Bob, can you see this!" "Look at this Bob!" "Oh gee!" "Oh wow!"... I'm pretty sure that NONE of her pictures are going to turn out, and I'm certain that she will still make her friends and relatives sit down in front of the television when she gets home and shows them her slide-show. I'm sure there are some rather lovely pictures of the bus roof and a tunnel wall. And every time she lifted her arm to take a photo, we got a whiff of her BO.

Between the woman behind me, and the woman in front of me, it all came a bit much for me at one stage and I started to laugh, although I was trying really hard not to. It ended up coming out in tears, and I'm sure Elise thought that I was going crazy!

We finally got off in Amalfi, and Elise and I were in hysterics as we walked towards the town. We had breakfast at a lovely pastry shop next to the cathedral, before having a look inside the cathedral. This one had a nice Cloister and houses Saint Andrew's tomb. Amalfi is home to the oldest paper-making factory in Europe, so we also headed to the Paper Museum where they showed us lots of old machinery used to make paper and gave us a demonstration on how the paper was made.

We then stood under the bus shelter and waited for the bus to Ravello. While we were waiting, it started raining. Then it started pouring. Then it started hailing. And all the while, the bus stop was getting even more crowded with school-aged children. Elise and I decided that Ravello could wait until our next trip to Italy, and we caught the (very crowded) bus back to Positano. Just as the bus was about to pull out, who should jump on but "Mrs Camera" and Bob. They seemed to have been having a disagreement, as their conversation was a little frosty...

Back in Positano, we found a restaurant where we could have a warm lunch and get dry, before we walked back up to the hotel.
The next day was a Thursday and we caught a bus back to Sorrento, then a couple of trains to Naples and then Rome.

The next morning we had plans to spend our last full day in Rome visiting the Forum in the morning, visiting our favourite foccaccia joint in Campo dei Fiori for lunch, then an afternoon of shopping. When we woke up to find it pouring with rain, we decided that the Forum could also wait for another day, and dedicated our morning to shopping.

Whilst in Rome last time, we had passed down Via Nazionale, which appeared to be lined with boot shops. It just so happened that this street was a short walk away from our hotel, so we headed that way. I won't bore you with the details, let's just say that Elise and I both bought a pair of boots from the first shop that we walked into.
Seeing as it was such miserable weather, we decided that we would have a nice lunch for our last day in Italy so that we could hibernate for the rest of the afternoon. We actually ended up eating our last lunch in the same restaurant that we had dined at in our first night in Italy (five weeks before)! After we had eaten our 2 course lunch and washed it down with some red wine, we were feeling pretty happy and mellow. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, admiring our new boots and packing and re-packing our bags.

I'm now back in the UK after flying to London on Saturday morning. I was relieved to find that I was only1kg over the checked baggage allowance (at 16kg) and didn't have to pay excess luggage. Elise and I said goodbye at the airport in Rome, as she was flying to the East Midlands Airport.

After 5 weeks in Italy, it was a little depressing to arrive back in the UK to find that the weather was very British. I had the most wonderful time in Italy and I think that it is my favourite country of all the ones that I have visited so far. I will definitely be back in the future, visiting some of my favourite places, and exploring some new areas that I have not yet been to. Anyone want to join me?

Love,
Lis x.