About a month before we left, Cindy and I decided to to our own thing and plan a day in nearby Amalfi. We would forego the included walking tour of Sorrento and the official Globus excursion "Charming Positano" and strike out on our own. Our options were either a bus ride to Amalfi or a ferry. Psh! No question about it; we booked the ferry. It would take about as long, and we'd get to see Positano and Amalfi from the water as the ferry navigated around the isthmus. Keith and Barbara opted to join us instead of going with the group. Of course, we let Simonetta know of our plans, and she had absolutely no problem with us doing this.
Our hotel was on one of Sorrento's high points, quite a bit above sea level. I was pondering how we'd get from "up here" to "down there." The hotel staff was most helpful in giving us directions to the ferry terminal by giving us a map and drawing the route to a public elevator. It was about a 20-minute walk to the elevator, so we didn't need to pay for a taxi.
We got to sleep in about 45 minutes longer than yesterday and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast without the inherent time pressure to be ready to join the group. Today, we would be able to explore the city and shop for souvenirs at our own pace. Andiamo!
A quick reminder that clicking on any photo will display a large format of it in a new window. The same holds true for any links (in blue). Clicking the link will open a new window so you won't lose your place here.
A long way down to sea level
photo by Cindy Newman
Priorities
photo by Cindy Newman
As much as I love lemons, I could definitely see myself living here, or at least visiting for an extended time. Priorities, right? Amalfi is even more lemon-centric than Sorrento from what I've seen.
Vesuvius in the background
Enjoying the view
We found the public elevator, but once we got to the bottom, we discovered that it wasn't a free service. No worries; it was just a couple of Euros for a round trip. We paid for the round-trip ticket since we'd need it coming back.
We were way up there?
photo by Cindy Newman
If you'll click on either of the above photos, you can just see the railing at the top of the photo. That's the same railing behind us in the "Enjoying the view" photo above. This will give you an idea of how high up we were compared to sea level.
The ferry company advised us to get to the boarding area about an hour before boarding time. We spent the time hanging out near the boarding area, taking many photos.
Sorrento from the ferry terminal
Our ferry arrived and discharged its load of passengers in short order. We boarded as soon as the last of the departing passengers cleared the gangway and found seats on the lower deck. We wanted seats on the upper deck, but those were quickly taken by the people boarding ahead of us. The trip would take just under an hour from Sorrento to Amalfi, including the quick stop in Positano.
Our route
I took a screenshot of the local area on Google Maps and used MS Paint to draw our route. In hindsight, I'm happy we chose the ferry instead of a bus. We had already spent plenty of time on a bus, and this would give us a unique view of the famed Amalfi Coast.
OST
When we booked the ferry tickets, we didn't know it stopped in Positano first. Not a big deal, really, as the ferry stopped only long enough to debark and embark the passengers. Had we known this, we might've booked tickets to/from Positano and taken a taxi from there to and from Amalfi. Neither of us regrets not doing this, though, as we had plenty of fun in Amalfi.
Ciao, Amalfi!
photo by Cindy Newman
Our plan today was to just have fun exploring. We had no specific route or places to go, other than finding somewhere for lunch (and gelato) and hopefully finding some souvenirs for friends and family. Interesting side street? Let's see where it goes! What's in that store? Let's find out.
St. Andrew's Fountain
photo by Cindy Newman
I don't know anything about St. Andrew, but I like his style! And yes, water is streaming from the lady's.....ummmm.....chest. And to quote Forrest Gump: "That's all I have to say about that." Yes, of course Keith and I made several funny comments. At least they were funny to us.
Duomo di Amalfi
Lots of "up & down" like Assisi
La fontana "De Cape 'E Ciucci"
photo by Cindy Newman
We had plenty of time to explore Amalfi, even at a leisurely pace, and had the chance to introduce Keith and Barbara to gelato. Unsurprisingly, both of them loved it. They were happy to hear that they could find it in their local grocery store back at home. But it won't be the same, will it?
Here are some photos of Amalfi and the coast along to Positano and on to Sorrento that both Cindy and I took. As is usually the case, these photos do absolutely no justice to the beauty we tried to capture.
Cindy and I decided to explore this long pier, since we saw people walking along it. This was west of the main part of Amalfi and where the ferry docked.
Check out the photo below to get an idea of where this is in relation to the rest of Amalfi. The red circle indicates the navigation aid pictured above, and the green rectangle shows the general area of the ferry terminal and where many of our photos were taken.
Screenshot captured from Google Earth
What a fun day! We walked back to the ferry terminal early enough to be near the front of the line. We were determined to get seats on the upper deck for a better view going back. Keith and Barbara opted to stay on the lower deck since the seats were more comfortable.
Underway for Positano & Sorrento
photo by Cindy Newman
photo by Cindy Newman
Uh-ohhh....
It's definitely more windy up here on the upper deck. Cindy brought her jacket along for the day, but I opted to keep mine at the hotel. Had I known that it was gonna get cooler, I would've brought mine. The wind chill made it alllmost uncomfortable for me. Nope, that's all you'll get outta me regarding my decision.
Approaching Sorrento
photo by Cindy Newman
Our walk back to the hotel seemed shorter than our walk to the ferry terminal. We had enough time to drop off our purchases and grab our radios to turn in to Simonetta. We had already prepared gratuity envelopes for her and Gerardo, so we grabbed those and the radios and went back downstairs.
Gerardo would take two groups at different times for those purchasing transfers to Naples airport. We had our own plans for tomorrow, Sunday, so this didn't apply to us. Take a look at those times. Egad!
Final plan for tomorrow
The farewell dinner was like the other "included" dinners in that while generally good, they weren't the quality of the excursion dinners or what we had on our own. I understand that the "mass-produced" meals couldn't get the attention that individual meals did, but this last one was disappointing. Did this "ruin our trip," as I've seen other people proclaim? No, not in the least. Being the foodies we are, Cindy and I just happen to notice these things.
After dinner, we said our goodbyes to each other and went our own way. The tour would officially end the next morning at breakfast. For those leaving with the early group, a boxed snack was available since it was too early for breakfast to be served. Cindy and I ordered one more drink from the bar to enjoy on our balcony before retiring for the evening.
Final thoughts and going home:
An offhand comment by one of our group members during dinner completely changed our plans for the next day: "I sure hope that rail strike doesn't affect too many people tomorrow."
Wait, what?? Rail strike?
Apparently, there was a national rail strike from 9 pm Saturday night to 9 pm Sunday night.
Seriously??
From talking to the hotel staff, this wasn't uncommon in Italy and was treated as just part of life. OK, well, that's fine for those who live in Italy, but what about those of us on a schedule?
Almost a year before our tour, when we booked our air transportation, we made the deliberate decision to leave on the Monday following the tour. Neither of us wanted to get up at 3 am to catch a flight out of Naples. We would spend Sunday in the area and take a train to Rome that afternoon. Yep, you can see where this is going, right? A train to Rome....on Sunday afternoon.
Our original plan was to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before checking out. We would take a train from Sorrento to Naples and store our luggage for the day in some lockers near the train station that we reserved online. From Naples, Keith, Barbara, Cindy and I would then take a train to Herculaneum to see those ruins.
From extensive research, I learned that the Herculaneum ruins, while smaller in total area, were actually every bit as good as, if not better, than Pompeii. Fantastic, let's do this! Spend the morning in Herculaneum, take a train back to Naples and enjoy some pizza for lunch. We booked high-speed train tickets for Sunday afternoon from Naples to Rome (Roma Termini) and would then take a local train to the airport (FCO).
I booked a room at HelloSky, which was on the airport's property. With our flight leaving at 12:50 p.m. on Monday, this allowed us to sleep in, take our time with breakfast, and make the short walk to the terminal to check in for our flight. Delta Airlines recommended arriving at least three hours before the flight to allow enough time for check-in, security screening, and so forth. Our room at the airport made this very convenient.
That was the original plan.
Once we found out about the rail strike, our priorities changed to just getting to Rome sometime, somehow on Sunday afternoon. Herculaneum would have to wait until our next visit to Italy.
I want to emphasize this next point carefully. Our tour was officially over on Sunday morning. Cindy and I approached the hotel staff, explained our situation, and asked for their advice, as locals, on how we should get to Rome. Should we take a chance that our Naples to Rome train would actually run? The concierge said he would look for a suitable alternative and he'd call our room after 8:30. I let Keith and Barbara know the change and to just hang tight until we figured out what we were going to do.
Around 8:45, Simonetta called our room and said she'd been working with the hotel staff to resolve our situation. Yes, our Tour Director, Simonetta, who had no duty or responsibility to act, took it upon herself to help us out. Wow! Thank you again, Simonetta; you are truly a gem! Both she and the hotel staff recommended that we hire a minivan to take us four directly to the airport in Rome. After consulting with Keith and Barbara, we agreed to hire the mini-van, and the hotel made the arrangements for us. It would be expensive but split between the two couples, it was feasible and the surest way to get to Rome. Simonetta shared with us that even she had doubts that she'd get home (near Florence) any time soon as her train ride was also in doubt.
The van would pick us up at 12:30 pm for the three-hour ride to FCO. Cindy and I decided to take a final walk around Sorrento after breakfast to take in one last view. Our route was similar to that of our trek to the public elevator. A crowd of people on a side street caught our attention. As we approached to see what was going on, we noticed we were close to a church. The crowd was celebrating Palm Sunday, and it was fascinating to watch.
After looking for a few last-minute souvenirs in some local shops, we dropped into a pizzeria for a light lunch to tide us over. At least we got our pizza.
With a few minutes to spare, we got back to the hotel and awaited our pick-up. Farewell, Sorrento, until next time.
By the time we got to FCO, we could check into our rooms without waiting. I had to laugh at the layout of the rooms. It reminded me of the way certain jail and prison "pods" are laid out. At one time, my late brother was a detention officer at a county jail, and he showed me around the facility.
Being on airport property, I was curious how noisy it would be. Much to my pleasant surprise, the room was as quiet as those in an isolated area. Nice! A good night's sleep and we'd be ready for the long day ahead of us.
The next morning, after breakfast, we made our way through check-in and security in minimal time. We cleared passport control just as quickly and had time to check out the terminal's shops. Cindy found a neat chocolate shop and purchased some "flight rations" for us. As if we wouldn't get enough to eat on the flight....
I'll finish this series the way I started it, with my "aviation nerd" stuff that I enjoy so much. I'm a nerd, and proud of it.
FCO to ATL
DL 67
N575DZ (A350-941)
Depart rwy 25, arrive rwy 8L
Our ride to ATL
OST
True to form, our "dining experience" began about an hour after departure. I've been constantly impressed at the quality of Delta's inflight meals and this one was even better than our flight over.
Basil chicken with gnocchi
The long flight back gave me time to reflect on what a marvelous trip we had. Did it live up to our anticipation? Absolutely! Would we use Globus Journeys again? Cindy and I are already looking at tours for next year.
Wow, look at our altitude!
As we approached Atlanta, I kept an eye out the window and spotted the airport. I noticed we made a long downwind leg to the west before turning onto base, then final. Our pilots made a soft landing and it was but a short taxi to the gate.
ATL
With our Global Entry membership, clearing immigration took less than five minutes. Clearing customs, on the other hand, took much longer. Once we claimed our bags, we joined those from another flight and faced a long line awaiting customs clearance. The line did move at a good pace, though, and once through, we dropped our bags for re-check onto the belt and went through security again. It seemed odd to me that since we never left a secure area, we had to clear security again. No worries, we got through this in about 20 minutes or so. The inter-terminal train took us to the domestic terminal, and from there, we walked to our gate.
Eventually, Keith and Barbara joined us, having been quite a bit behind us, deplaning and claiming their bags. We had enough time for a quick snack before boarding our final leg home. By now, it was starting to be a really long day, and all of us were ready to be home. Well, at least we would be home. Keith and Barbara would stay the night with us and drive home the next day.
ATL to HOU
DL 2051
N630AT (B717-22A)
Depart rwy 9L, arrive rwy 4
Due to some weather between ATL and HOU, we would take a southerly route to avoid the storms. It would add a little more time to our flight but avoid the danger of flying into bad weather and make for a smoother flight. Fair enough, let's get goin'!
Our flight crew didn't exaggerate about taking a "southerly routing." I took a screenshot of our route from one of my favorite websites (I told y'all I was an aviation nerd!): Flightradar24.
ATL to HOU
screenshot from FR24 website
At the time, I didn't really give our route that much thought. Once we got closer to Houston, though, I noticed we were flying over......water. Water? As in the Gulf? Yep, my hunch was correct. This would've been cool to see during the daytime, but the lights gave the area a different view, much like our drive back from the family farm restaurant in Sorrento.
Approaching HOU
screenshot from FR24 website
Pretty lights!
Thankfully we didn't have long to wait for our bags or for the Uber I had called. Less than half an hour later, we walked through the door to be exuberantly greeted by Higgins. We were as happy to see him as he was to see us. Our fabulous dog sitter took great care of Higgy, and I'm thankful she was available. All of us would enjoy sleeping in tomorrow and not being on any specific schedule.
And there you have it, my wonderful readers; our journey has come to an end. I sincerely hope you've enjoyed reading this series as much as I've enjoyed writing it. If I made you smile or even laugh out loud then my efforts were worth it. Thank you for spending your time with me.
Next up: Who knows....I haven't decided yet, and am open to suggestions. Any ideas, y'all?
Stay tuned, folks!
Previous installments in this series:
Until next time....
carpe cerevisi
