Lost in pompeii 2

27

It was a beautiful Sail into Naples, this was going to be the first of 5 days straight of visiting ports.....  with the 3 being Italian ports guaranteed of being busy.....  I booked the three tours with “All around Italy”.   I had the choice of 2 companies that I found highly recommended on cruise critic, but chose this particular one because Fabrizio the owner looked just like the guy that lives across the road from us.

Our guide in Naples was Mariano. He was at the port bright and early from Sorrento to avoid the traffic.  There were 8 of us on this tour and once we were in his brand new Mercedes minivan we were heading off for the Amalfi Coast.  We wound our way around the coastline stopping at vantage points to get lots of photos of these seaside towns. 

First stop was Sorrento. We had an hour to walk around the town and absorb some of he wonderful atmosphere..... Once again I had to educate the others on European men....  When we had pulled up at Sorrento and we jumped out a traffic police man approached Mariano to send him on his way as he was not allowed to park there... Of course all that we saw was our driver in conversation with the police man before we walked off.

When Garry and I returned the others were really concerned and said that Mariano’s van had been taken away and he had been on the phone for the last 20 minutes in what seem to be a very heated conversation.  A little concerned I thought I would wait and see what he had to say...  On further conversation with the others I determined that the impounding of the car was their speculation.....   Of course the car was not impounded but only parked in the parking station just next to where he was standing.  The animated conversation on the phone was just that and just like Greeks, when Italians speak to one another it is in an excitable way.  As soon as he saw the group gathered he raced into the parking station and pulled up ready for us to jump in.... all without hanging up the phone!

Sorrento was lovely as we walked along one of its narrow streets. The shops along the way resembled a flea market. There was a store that had all these lovely inlay wooden tables that we can only guess was the same shop that Garry’s parents had bought their games table many many years ago.

From Sorrento we drove around to Positano, smaller, quainter but much more expensive than Sorrento.... we had an hour walk around this little village where we happen to come across a wedding.  Our guide told us a lot of Canadians come to get married here....

Mariano suggested that we drive another 15 minutes pass Positano to have lunch.... beautiful views at half the price.  He wasn’t joking.... we sat overlooking the water and looking back onto Positano we ate the best Pasta.... Pizza well I didn’t eat any as there were anchovies due to popular demand and well I am not a big fan of traditional pizza as I like lots of vege’s on my pizza.  But I will tell you the story  behind the Margarita Pizza as we have had to hear it several times... it was made especially for Queen Margarita when she visited the region.  They made the Pizza to represent the Italian flag.... White is the Cheese, Red is the tomato and the Green is represented by the basil leaves...... Add mushrooms, capsicum, onion and some meat and you have my favourite pizza....

As we were in a small people mover we were able to travel back on the same coastal road, but for big buses like the ones princess use they can only go one way.... they travel all the way along the coast but have to travel back on the inland road....which is understandable, when you see how winding and narrow the road is...... I would hate to have seen 2 large buses try to pass each other....

Mariano decided that we should visit Pompeii in the afternoon, after all the other tours have been and gone.......and he wasn’t wrong.... He had arranged for our guide to meet the bus and she took us through the ruins..... it is just amazing to see such a big city that had been destroyed by a single act of  god.... there was a building up on hill that she pointed out that was the level before excavations were made to uncover  Pompeii.

After all the days that we have been away and been on tour, today lost Cam Boy ( aka Garry ).  Each tour has been pretty stressful worrying about whether or not we would lose Garry whilst he filmed and we moved on..... So far it had been so good... but today we lost him. We exited the agora section, Garry stayed behind to film some other part..... We turned to our right then the guide turned us right again into the Basilica section.... unfortunately as Garry came around and missed the fact that we turned into this entrance and he continued on...... He was lost in Pompeii for about 20 minutes.... but alas we finally found him.....

All I can say it was another great day..... Capped off with another great sail away that ended up being a couple of hours late....

Oh and that last picture...... as we lost the state of origin Ros and Arnold decided to dress Garry up...