DAY 11: Cruising the Amalfi Coast & Pompeii Has Gone to the Dogs

Worth seeing too!

Quote of the day: "It's worth seeing." JM answering a Brit tourist who was asking to be directed to the Pompeii redlight district, causing HM to screech, DADDDDDD!

VM: We had another early start today to head for a day trip to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. The day after Easter is a holiday in Italy, so our guide, Carlo (another shout out to Jeannine McDonough for www.yourtourinitaly.com), was getting us out of Rome early to hit the coast early.

EM making new friends at a cliffside stop (they belonged to
the shopkeeper). Photo creds:HM

The whole thing made me chuckle as this is a similar pattern you seem to see in all major cities – "we need to get away from the city rat race so let's all go to the beach and be sardines together." I’ve seen this with New Yorkers who go to the Hamptons, Bostonians who go to Cape Cod and even Buenos Aires folks who go to Punta del Este. I guess the Romans aren’t any different.

Because of the early start, we reached the coast by around 8:45am and were treated to amazing views and stops along the way. The Amalfi Coast highway is treacherous and I would never want to drive it ourselves, I’m so glad we had an experienced driver to maneuver it.  It is unbelievable because it is sooooooo narrow.  We were in a van and at times, we had to stop to let others pass. Again, just like in Rome, the drivers just “do” this. They all seem to understand the unwritten code of how to drive the Amalfi Coast!

The views along the way to Sorrento were beautiful. Photo creds: HM

Carlo taught us that they harvested olive trees
by opening nets underneath the trees and shaking them in!
These trees were literally on the roadside as we drove into Sorrento.
Every bit of land that can be cultivated is, taking advantage of mineral enriched soil.

The view of Sorrento from up above.

EM supervising her freshly squeezed lemonade.

Even the fruit juice truck is cute on the Amalfi Coast. 
Photo creds: HM.

The area is known for olives and citrus. And when I say citrus, I mean badass citrus! The orange and lemon trees are EVERYWHERE and they produce these unbelievable lemons that look like they are on steroids. According to Carlo, they are beautiful and good, but produce little juice. On one of our “let’s look at the view” stops, we enjoyed tasting the freshly squeezed lemon and orange juice. The o.j. got a thumbs up from HM, but EM deemed the lemonade 

too sour. It was definitely not Chic Fil A lemonade, but I enjoyed it.

The o.j. was a beautiful sunset orange hue.

We reached our first destination, Sorrento, by 9:30am. It is a quaint coastal town with tons of alleyways and shops to explore. We didn’t stay long as we were

moving down the peninsula to visit Positano, yet another picturesque town on the Amalfi Coast.

Sorrento fruit stand with lemons on steroids.

Fruit sellers readying for the day.

The water is truly a spectacular color here, but we were struck by the fact there is actually very little beach to enjoy and that it is A LOT of work for the locals to even enjoy it. It requires some precarious climbs down some super steep cliffs and what really blew our minds was the thought of coming back up!

We reached Positano around 11am and had about an hour and a half to go explore. Like most beach towns, this entailed checking out quaint shops and making our way down to the teeeeny strip of sand they call Spaggia Beach.  And when I say teeny, I mean teeny. It’s probably no bigger than a half a block.

EM on teeny Spiaggia Beach.

For my birthday, JM talked me into a major family splurge to commemorate our Italy trip. As I was drooling over the gorgeous ceramics at a local store, we decided to order some new everyday dinnerware for our house. It was a real treat!

Picking out new dinnerware was an unexpected Positano indulgence.

We loved our lunchtime "greeter."

By now, we had trekked up and down & our stomachs were talking. Carlo loaded us in the van to take us above Positano to a fabulous Italian eatery named La Tagliata.  Built into the cliff, the restaurant overlooks the incredible Tyrrhenian Sea (which is why I think they just say Amalfi Coast!). We were greeted at the top door by a beautiful husky who acted as we were long lost friends. Yes, it was going to be another dog day.

The view at La Tagliata was spectacular, the ambiance welcoming and the food was yumola. It was a wonderful meal (although in all honesty, we have only had one mediocre meal since arriving in Italy).  The lovely owners of La Tagliata even gifted us with a couple of souvenir plates from their kitchen as we had been oohing and ahhing over them.

Trattoria La Tagliata welcomes you warmly from the moment you arrive.

EM clowning around.

The view from up above Positano is
just as pretty as down below.

Homemade pastas served family style were absolutely delicious.

Another beautiful meal.

After enjoying a leisurely linner, we headed back up the coast to go to Pompeii, a specific request from HM.  Having studied it in school in 6^th grade, she was really eager to explore this ancient ruin.  Carlo efficiently handed us over to Maria, a Naples-based, young tour guide, who walked us through Pompeii.

A street in Pompeii facing Mount Vesuvius.
The "steps" in the middle of the street are exactly that -- stepping
stones so the people could cross from one side to the other without stepping
in the sewer and horse muck in the street.

JM, HM and I all agreed it’s not exactly what we thought it would be, but it was interesting nonetheless. EM had no expectations so she didn’t seem to care either way. I think JM, HM and I had always heard that due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., Pompeii was “frozen in time,” with people literally stopped dead in their tracks as they tried to escape the ashes which ended up being 13 to 20 feet thick. While this is all true, you still have to use a fair amount of imagination to understand what was there, how life was and how the people tried to survive the eruption (which they couldn’t).

HM navigating the streets of Pompeii which
had deep grooves from chariots wheels from so long ago. Man-made horse "hook-ups"
were up and down the streets in front of what were retail stores and homes.

A moment of sisterly love on the streets of Pompeii.

One of the things that was really amazing was that when Mount Vesuvius erupted, Pompeii was a coastal port. Today, the sea is at least 1-2 miles from the site. The volcano literally changed the landscape.

As Pompeii was a busy port, it had many sailors coming in and out of town.  The incredible number of sailors apparently did their part to maintain the oldest profession known to mankind. 

Yes, friends, Pompeii had a redlight district.  How do we know? There are buildings where the ladies of the evening where housed and to explain to the many sailors who spoke many languages what, er, services were available, they had graphics on the wall depicting these acts. And when I say graphics, I mean graphic graphics. As this is a family blog, you’re just going to have to use your imagination.

Clever directional arrows awaited sailors
in Pompeii.

And if you were a sailor walking up the road in search of these fine establishments, you just had to follow the very phallic arrow. No kidding. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this as I found it so incredibly brilliant – I can imagine one sailor telling another, “just follow the penis.”

The Pompeii site is quite large and to date, has only been partially excavated. In fact, we got the impression that this is a bit of a lost opportunity to be an incredible landmark, but I think the Italian government has some bigger fish to fry. There are some samples of the poor souls who perished here, but they are simply encased among a bunch of excavated pots.  They don’t seem to have the “respect” I feel they deserve.

Pots excavated from the Pompeii site.

Man covering his mouth trying to
escape the ash shower. Photo creds: HM.

Pregnant woman covering her mouth as she tried to escape. Photo creds: HM.

Net, net, Pompeii would be a perfect place to be taken over by a private entity. But instead, it’s being taken over by the dogs.

Yes, you read right. The dogs. There were some very well fed and sweet dogs lazying about Pompeii. As I had read a little about this before coming, I had warned the girls not to pet them if we came across any. And who was the first one hanging with the dogs? JM, of course. And those dogs knew a good dog man when they saw him; even if chickens are his specialty! And in case you fear for our health, these dogs were scruffy, but clearly they were being looked after.

    

Pompeii has some very friendly canines.

This sweet girl followed JM when we walked away, proving dogs ARE great judges of character.

Dogs visit Pompeii too!

Beyond the dogs of Pompeii, we couldn’t believe how many visitors brought their own personal pets to tour the site. I guess they wanted to learn some history too!  Of course, this delighted us and we had to stop and meet every doggie we saw. I’m pretty sure Maria, our guide, thought we were nuts.

We headed out from Pompeii around 5pm and Carlo safely deposited us back in Rome by around 8:15ish due to heavy traffic coming back into the city.

We were grateful to Carlo for a wonderful excursion.

Ultimately, we all agreed it was a beautiful way to complete our Italian vacation. We feel very blessed that we’ve been able to explore this great country and have so many wonderful adventures filled with history, intrigue, our Catholic faith and of course, delicious fare!

Tomorrow we head out early for Paris and we can’t wait for what awaits.

JM and his girls: Pompeii edition.