Based on our misadventures before with transportation we packed up pretty early to get going. But lucky for us when we walked out front a taxi drove by, and having learned the lesson of being nimble watched Tena chase it down. We are on our way to the train station! I got to sit in front this time and again, I just can't say enough about these drivers! It is an experience that you must experience for yourself to understand it. He was literally missing bicyclists and pedestrians by mere centimeters and nobody flinches. Absolutely no expression at all on anyone's faces. Except the Americans in the car. A few gasps and grimaces.
I, for one, will not be driving in Italy.
The train station was chaotic but luckily standing by the ticket machines they generally have assistants who can speak very good English to help us. She even gave us a few safety hints.... Only get help at the train station from those who have the company lanyard AND a badge. Oh. That makes sense.
Once we got our tickets in hand, unfortunately only 1st class was available 😀, we went to the platform and jumped on our train. The seats are comfy. They have a desk you can work at and they serve snacks along the way. I have no idea how fast the train actually goes, but as a friend had told me, when it hits the tunnels it picks up speed so fast that your ears need to pop. We were out of Rome in no time and the countryside went from flat rolling hills to craggy mountains...and Volcanos. It is truly beautiful here in the Spring, I am sorry that we have hit a week that reportedly we will have evening or afternoon thunderstorms, but the spring mornings are spectacular.
It was super fast and I am so excited to have taken the train ride. I am going to book a train journey one of these soon days, who wants to go!?
We ended up in Naples and the ladies were such a good sports. They were willing to lug our huge backpacks 1/2 to a famous pizza place called l'antica pizzaria da Michel that I wanted to knock off my list. Napoleon pizza in Naples! Original! Check! It is a 150 years old, and much like Hudson Hamburgers in our neck of the woods, it is the go-to place and the rite of passage is to stand in the line for up to an hour. And so we did...
You stand in line so long you end up making friends.
Side note..Pierce would have been absolutely thrilled to see all of the support the Napoli soccer team (2023 series champions) gets as there are streamers, posters, banners, flyers, scarves, tshirts, jerseys draped everywhere! As it should be. Go Napoli!
After our hour wait we managed to get into the pizza joint to try the famous pizza. They only have four pizzas on their menu. And the fourth is actually only a half and half of 2 of the other types. So we tried all three versions. It was very very good and again so different from the pizza we had in Rome, even with extremely limited toppings. For instance, one of the major listed toppings of one was the oregano. Another thing that we are noticing is that it appears everybody orders a pizza of their own. If there are four people at dinner there are four pizzas served and everybody eats an entire pizza in one sitting. So bizarre. Little tiny women sit next to me and eat an entire pizza in 15 minutes and don't seem affected by it at all. It must have something to do with the dough. It is not nearly as filling as our dough back home. We could not even finish the three we had in front of us and ended up bringing pizza home to our fridge yet again.
Our driver, who I mentioned before is absolutely awesome, was willing to pick us up at the pizza joint and bustle us off right to our doorstep in Positano. Despite the fender bender on the way and then the massive storm that hit us upon arrival, the trip was fairly uneventful. Well except for the scenery that is beyond description and several of the pictures I post have no filters whatsoever. If it is your first time coming to Positano I think I would start your trip off with a private driver out of Naples. It is worth your money to get to the destination without the hassle... unless you speak fluent Italian and have a sense of humor. Our host at the VRBO arranged this for us.
Our VRBO is fantastic. I will show the link here and I would recommend it because it is closer to the beach than most...right next door is the famous hotel Le Sirenuse. From our deck we can watch the chefs with their chefs hats through the windows and watch other patrons enjoying the sea view as they enjoy their meals.
It looks so awesome that on this 1st night we decided to have our evening meal just next door. Another fun thing about Italy is when you sit down they bring you snacks with your drink just as our mexican restaurant brings chips and dip. I like these snacks better. It usually involves a small bowl of potato chips or crackers (or both) a bowl of nuts almonds or peanuts and usually a bowl of olives.
We enjoyed several unique drinks and several glasses of fantastic wine, I didn't know they had wine from the Amalfi coast? We decided to try 4 different dishes and share them and the wait staff were super accommodating setting up our table family style. I guess I should say table and couch and chairs as they put us in a parlor of sort in the bar. Oh yes, I should mention if you want to have dinner here be sure to have reservations. We just wanted to sit in the bar and even that was more fancy than anticipated. Frankly, I was a little concerned they would not serve us based on the long travel day and rag tag appearance, but they were more than welcoming. A very special place indeed.
We shared the meatballs, the artichokes, a fennel salad and a fried shrimp and calamari dish. As several people have mentioned on my post you cannot go wrong with the food in Positano so I won't bore you by raving on about how each dish is fantastic, but let me assure you that you will enjoy the food here tremendously.
By staying in this particular villa you get to share a private staircase with Le Sirenuse down to the beach and shops below us which is a shortcut of sorts. Jan and I wandered down to find the little market and see what was below us. She was like a billy goat coming right back up all those stairs but I was huffin and puffin all the way. I think if I stayed here for a couple months I could get back into shape pretty darn quick.
Tip: Do not come here if you cannot do stairs. Period. I may mention this more than a hundred times. We saw several older people trying to get up the stairs and on the 3rd step they were already unhappy. I certainly didn't want to be there when they got to the two hundred and fifty third step. Or more, just to get to the top which is the street.
We had drug up the bare essentials from the market, those who have traveled with me know what I mean. It's coffee, cream and wine. We ended the night by sitting on the balcony watching the twinkling lights on the ocean of all the boats who are moored here and the hillside covered with beautiful homes built right into the cliffside. A glass of wine and a good day!
Buonanotte!
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