A breathtaking experience

Monday, 27 June

The church bells and city noise did not wake us this morning. Apparently that only happens on the weekend...or we were smart enough to shut the windows last night. We woke up around 9:30, ate our homemade sandwiches and then cleaned up. We had food everywhere from the night before and this morning. We successfully made it out at 11. I would totally recommend Diana City to anyone looking for a cheap central stay in Sorrento.

At first we thought that we should pay the church a visit, but I thought it was better to just drive to Positano and Nocelle before Almafi.

The drive was absolutely stunning. The view was surreal, I can't begin to describe it. We made several stops at the viewpoints along the way before reaching Positano, which is a town down in the mountains. There's basically only one road that runs one way through the town. Once we arrived we found a parking spot reasonably close to the town center, but still a windy way down. I was being lazy and suggested to Anders maybe we can just drive through the town. The walk back up in the heat did not sound appealing. So that's what we did.

We drove through town and then aimed to head towards the number one restaurant per trip advisor called La Tagilata. It was supposed to be north of Positano with a great view. The gps could not locate it, so Anders "followed" the directions he wrote down on his phone. This place was literally supposed to be 1.5km away from Positano. After some minutes of driving, I reckoned we should stop to locate ourselves on the iPhone. We were all the way at Praina, which was way out (10 mins) from Positano and almost to Almafi! I got so upset I cracked it and started laughing hysterically. We decided that we should drive back.

Anders parked behind a car on top of the hill. When he tried to reverse it just went forwards towards the car in front. The space between the cars became more limited and I started getting really scared. After a few attempts, being inches away from hitting the car in front, he got it to reverse. He thinks it was because he was too gentle on the gas. Whew!

To drive to the restaurant, we had to drive though Positano again. The detour cost us 20 mins. It seems like it takes us at least double the time to get anywhere we plan to go. The only good thing about it is that we get to enjoy the breathtaking views twice (or three times in this case since we needed to drive back through Positano to reach Amalfi).

La Tagilata was fantastic. It was a family owned restaurant on the cliff with a breathtaking view. The food tasted like it came out of an Italian grandma's kitchen. It was a set four course meal - antipasti, pasta, grilled meats and dessert. I also drank a half bottle of red myself. We thought this meal would run us about €100, but it was only €70!!! Basically for €35 you get the set menu with wine and the fantastic view and service. We paid extra for the coffees. It was seriously well worth the drive back.

Afterwards we headed towards Nocelle. It's a small quaint town. So small there were barely any houses there, but the view (once again) was breathtaking. All these different view points of the same coast never stopped to amaze us. We had to climb up and down many steps, but we were alone which was really cool. It was definitely worth the climb and visit.

Off through Positano again towards Amalfi. The gps couldn't locate the street where our b&b Locande di Amalfi was situated. We had to use our eagle sharp eyes to find it. It was by the ocean 2km from town. The lady thought we didn't have reservations at first and told us it was €80 a night. Dammit! We paid €90 a night! I was a bit annoyed. Oh wells!

We had to park our car in one of the two spaces they had, instead of the street parking. This also meant Anders had to do a u-turn which he refused for a while in the tight road. He almost headed all the way into town. The parking episode was absolutely hilarious. The husband came out to help Anders back into the space. He kept on telling Anders to hurry up and back in more, but Anders was so slow and was conscious that he couldn't back too far in or else he wouldn't be able to open the trunk. Anders did as he was told and when the husband left he pulled up a bit more to open the trunk. Hee hee hee.

The room the wife showed us was clean but very boxy. There was one window that faced the passageway, so no sunlight. However the place was very clean. It will make do.

Apparently it was Amalfi's patron saint day and there were fireworks in town. We started to walk into town around 8:15pm, taking numerous stops along the curvy roads to take pictures. It was a lovely 2km of walking. A bit dangerous too. At some points Anders got nervous of walking along the edge of the cliff.

After a good 30-40 mins of walking, we finally arrived in town. I spotted street food from the top of the cliff in Amalfi and totally wanted to eat that for dinner. We walked through it and decided it was not too appealing. Lots of cotton candy, nutella crepes, and sausage sandwiches. So into town we went.

As we were about to enter into a street we saw a huge procession of the priest and the statue of the patron saint being carried out. It seemed like all the locals came out dressed up that evening. It was pretty cool to watch it. When the crowd dispersed we made our run down the street towards the Duomo. We ate at the Piazza Duomo. It was a meat/steak place, but in interest of time and making it to the fireworks at 10:30pm, we just ordered pasta and wine. It was all very good. We also had a view of everyone gathering around the Duomo waiting for the procession to come back. We didn't realize what the fuss was all about until they started praying and cheering as 20 men ran up the steps of the Duomo with the statue. It was pretty insane. I can imagine if one person tripped the huge disaster it would of been. We finished our dinner (Anders chugged his wine) and made it to the fireworks. But first, we had to stop by for some sorbet for Anders. The sorbet was delicious and I discovered Anders has a bit of a taste bud issue. He was eating blood orange sorbet and thought he was eating strawberries!!!!

The fireworks were amazing. Literally right on top of us. At some points I had to cover my ears because it was so loud. Anders said it was the best he had ever seen. It ended at 11, which is when we thought the bus was leaving back to our hotel. To our disappointment, it was not until midnight, so we decided to walk back instead.

We walked and walked and walked. After 20 mins, Anders said the b&b was just around the bend. At the same moment, we heard some screaming from the Loconde di Amalfi van. It was the family and they gave us a ride back. The b&b was not around the bend. We were glad we got a ride back and called it a night.