European Adventure Day 1 - The Amalfi Coast

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I recently took a trip overseas. It was long past time for me to visit Europe. I had a new passport in great need of being broken in and, for the first time ever, actual family to stay with. It was meant to be. For two weeks I traveled through Naples Italy, ran a marathon in Rome, and spent a few extra days playing in London. As always happens, the money ran out and I had to return back to the states. For now.

Because I don't want to believe that my trip is over and I'm back in the every day working routine of reality, here is my reminiscing of day one of my trip. It's also a great excuse to show off my pictures and make you all wildly jealous that I was there and you were not. Don't worry, it's a bit painful to look at these knowing I'm not there anymore. So sad.

I flew direct on British Airways (Austin now has direct flights straight into Heathrow Airport 7 days a week. Very dangerous for my credit card) into Heathrow Airport. I got in around 10am Saturday morning, and my connecting flight left out of Gatwick Airport for Naples at 3:30pm that afternoon. It took about an hour to get through customs, but with no luggage other than my carry-on (you can see my previous post with explanation as to why I don't check luggage on a plane entitled Why I Don't Check Luggage on a Plane) it was easy to get through. An airport change in England, especially in the London area, is not uncommon so I was able to take an express bus directly from Heathrow to Gatwick. By the time I got through customs and found the ticket kiosk the bus I needed left in 3 minutes. In case you are ever in need of this bus, they do run fairly regularly - about every hour. I planned on about an hour and a half bus ride but was pleasantly surprised to find the journey was a little over 30 minutes. I guess it was light traffic that day.

I got to Gatwick with plenty of time to spare while I waited for my travel companion to meet up with me. Our flight was a little delayed, but we arrived in Naples a little after 7pm that Saturday night. Yay! My brother picked us up without a problem, and the first thing he said was "you look like Denise!" (our older sister). My response to that was "you look like Robin!" (our older brother). Not far from the airport was a pizza joint. After traveling for 30 hours on airplane and airport food anything substantial was appetizing. So off we went for our first authentic Neapolitan pizza. Little trivia in case you didn't know, pizza was invented in Naples. Of course it was fantastic. And yes, the pizza does taste different there than in the states.















After pizza, we drove to their little hometown and stopped at the local gelateria for some gelato before calling it a night. Yes, it was fantastic. I think the flavors I got at this place were stracciatella (it's like a vanilla with chocolate swirls) and strawberry.Yummy. So far the trip was off to a perfect start.





















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In waking up the next morning, this was the view from my brother's living room window. Every. Single. Day.






We went with them to part of church as my brother was speaking, and along the drive there we passed many things. One of which was this life sized statue of Christ smack dab in the middle of the gas station. Oh those Italians.

The walk up the street to the chapel looked like this.












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Then the view of the bay from the chapel was kind of fantastic. Jealously is only getting worse on where they live.

Of course I had to get a picture of the No Smoking sign posted in the chapel. So wrong but yet funny at the same time.












After church we all changed, grabbed some food, and piled into their minivan to take a drive along the beautiful Amalfi Coast. Best way to spend a Sunday afternoon in my opinion.













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This is the view of Sorrento from the drive along the coast, and a little video to go along. (FYI - I don't recommend making the video full screen as it will turn really fuzzy. I had issues uploading, but you'll get the general idea to make you jealous enough).

 

After basking in the beauty of this scene from the scenic outlook on the road, and buying some AMAZING lemon ice from a little vendor stationed there, we continued along the curvy road that hugged the coastline. 

Eventually we came to the little town of Positano where we stopped long enough to park the car and wander around. 

We walked through the beautiful streets full of shops and restaurants, played on the beach, got some more gelato, (strawberry and nutella flavored this time) and I even bought myself a nice little green pashmina. 

Fantastic!

         The water was not as cold as you'd expect. It was pretty nice for March, but then this is southern Italy. We did get a few strange looks from the other Italians lounging on the beach. The weather was probably in the 70's, so very pleasant. But all the natives were bundled up in coats, scarves, and beanies. I think really they were jealous on the inside.

From there we continued to drive along the coast to the little town of Amalfi, where we arrived just in time to watch the sunset and see the lights start twinkling on the hillside. It was absolutely perfect. 

We then drove back to the town of Sorrento to go to their favorite restaurant where I had the best risotto of my life, complete with a little Italian serenade. 

 

And this ends my first day in Naples, Italy. Wow.