Pompeii and Praiano

Monday, May 13th

Today we relocated to our next destination, Praiano. We used a car service to shuttle us, which worked great! We scheduled the driver to take us from Sorrento to Pompeii to Vesuvius to Praiano.  Tony was our driver today - We had loads of fun joking around with him; it helped that he had a great laugh. And, of course, like all the Italian men, he loved Finn and nicknamed him, "Captain Finn" for the day.

The size of Pompeii was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. I was surprised to learn that Pompeii was first destroyed by an earthquake, then rebuilt, before it was buried in ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvious. 

The crew in the "town center" 

You can see the grooves here from the chariot wheels

Used to be a shop and apartment above it

Our guide - Maximo

Gladiator training area / prison

Plaster casting of how some of the people were found buried under the ash

Statue of Daedalus

After the tour, Tony picked us back up in the van and drove us to lunch. We literally hit a road block on the way to lunch when some construction workers decided to park their truck right in the middle of a narrow street to have their lunch break. Tony exchanged some heated Italian words and hand gestures with the workers, and he eventually got them to stop eating, get back in their truck, and move it over so we could get through. It was pretty funny, and while he was mad, he had a great sense of humor about the situation! 

Lunch at Mt. Vesuvious:

The entrance to the vineyard with the gulf in the background

EVOO and vinegar made by the vineyard

First course - pancetta bread!

Quite the lunch setting

The EVOO and vinegar

Ocean on side and vesuvious on the other

Captain Finn ready to tackel some homemade spaghetti

Italian lemon cake 

Big Boss and Vesuvious

The terrace where we lunched

More vineyard and Vesuvious vies 

After lunch, Tony shuttled us back in the van with our luggage to our Airbnb in Praiano. It was about a two hour car ride from Pompeii. 

Praiano is located between Poisitano and Amalfi Town. There are many ways to get to the Amalfi coast: ferry, bus, or car service. As you can tell, we took a car service to get from city to city. Praiano was small and quaint. Our Airbnb had sweeping ocean and hillside views, and a great outdoor space. 

I think we were all surprised by how many stairs we had to take to get around Praiano. The beach and the restaurants were all in walking distance, but every walk was more like a strenious hike. We calculated the steps from dinner the first night and it was 323 stairs up to our place and 500 vertical feet! 

Starting to get pretty!

The Amalfi coast

Gina's favorite little truck

Dropped off at Piazza Antico Seggio near Casa Albadamare

Walking to the Airbnb

Our resident kitty

Views from our back patio

Love the tile and turquoises kitchen

Taking a dip in our "cold" tub

Cat's life Praiano

Our back patio

Ocean views

Church and plaza next to our place

The only way to town or the beach

The walkways in Praiano are covered in ceramic art 

Our first trip to "Bob Art and Winery" for supplies

More ceramics!

Bougainvillea - always my favorite!

More ceramics! 

The walk down to dinner at Il Pirata 

Almost there...

Dinner on the water with my buddy

So pretty all lit up at night

Affogato - this one''s for you, Mama!

Affogato time to get us pumped up for the walk home

Love seeing the little boats docked and lite up at night

Up and Up and Up we go!

Are we still walking?? 

Tuesday. May 14th

Morning hike, yes an actual hike, on The Path of the Gods Trail. This trail starts in Praiano and ends in Poisitano. We didn't do the entire hike, but made it pretty far up. When we first considered doing the entire trial, I texted our Airbnb host to ask about ways to get back from Poistiano after the hike. His response was, "Do not do this. It is VERY hard." 😅

The best part of the hike was the surprise ride we caught back down the mountain! It's easiest to explain what happened using pictures. 

Starting to head up and out of town

Beauty all around

I'm ready to go!

More steps

You can do it!

Why is my brother torturing me on vacation?

People actually lived this high up!

Who's pumped for this - Jay!

Cool gate into someone's garden

This is where it started to get fun! We had been noticing this metal rail along the mountain side and wondering what it was for. It seemed like maybe it was part of an old train system but we weren't sure. Suddenly, the railing started vibrating, and we heard what sounded like a lawn mower. Surely enough, a dog started running towards us followed by his owner, who was sitting on a metal cart moving along the rail and down the mountainside.  They narrowly passed by us on the skinny trail. 

At this point, Jay wanted to hike further ahead. Gina, the kids, and I decided we had a good enough taste of the trail and views that we could turn back. As we headed back, we caught up to the man in the motorized cart, and he summoned us to hop on! We avoided many steep steps down the mountain and had a giggle fest as we headed down on the rickety, motorized contraption. 

The operator of the cart, Ramone, introduced himself at the end and explained that he lived on a farm way a the top. He uses the cart to take supplies up and down to his homestead. He did tell us that the cart was not meant to transport people, but I guess he figured we looked tired enough that he needed to give us a ride back down. It was one of the best memories from the whole trip!

Railing on the right

Off goes Ramone - before we joined him

There goes the cart before we got on

Ramone gives us a lift!

Passenger cargo

Hold on tight! 

Jay continued on and got some nice photos from the "top:"

Another glimpse at the trail and monorail heading back down

Post hike / Pre-beach Lunch at Kasai

Artichoke starter - so good!

Pasta with smoked eel

Beach time at One Fire Beach Club, only 5,559 stairs to get there. 

Are we there yet?

Finn makes a new friend...

...and they jump in together

The path to the beach

Down, down, down, we go

Swimming in the Med!

Chill time! 

Spritz time!

My little fishies! 

Looking back at Poisitano

Dinner at La Strada with a Sunset view! 

Italy looks good on these two 😍

More octopus - because, "When in Rome..."

Italian Shirley Temple

Awesome view from dinner!

Sunsetting behind Poistano

The walk back post dinner

Poisitano at night

Wednesday, May 15th

• Spent the day at a different beach in Praiano, Marian di Praia
• Took a sunset cruise from Amalfi Town to Poistitano
• Risked our lives on the crowded, coastal bus that follows the winding, narrow, cliff-side road. 

Sunrise from Finn's balcony 

When you can't sleep, at least you can catch the sunrise

Hello Kitty

Beach club #2

Gina's octopus sandwich - she wins for best choice!

Marina di Praia Beach Club

Looking back at the beach

More "Bob art" on the walk back

Hope no one is claustrophibic...

...or afraid of heights

Are we sure two cars, not to mention busses, can fit in there?

Thousands of tourists waiting to board the bus in Amalfi

Gelato will help us relax

The moka pot

Why???

Looking for our sunset cruise

Pulling out of Amalfi

Sunset Crusin'

Cliffs and cliffs and cliffs

How do they build on these cliff sides?

"Sisters"

The crew in front of Poisitano

"Sunset"

Cemetery on hillside 

We opted to not take the bus back to Praiano after the insane experience getting to Amalfi. Instead, the boat company from sunset cruise ordered us a cab. I had the pleasure of sitting up front of and speaking via google translate to our old, Italian male driver. He was a previous bus driver along the Amalfi coast route and had lots of funny things to say. Like, when he said that driving the busses on the Amalfi coast was less stressful than going home to his wife, kids, and mother-in-law- lol. 

One last trash dump in the street after10pm

That's a wrap on Amalfi - time for Roma!!