Advertisement
Published: July 27th 2011
Edit Blog Post
We left Positano early on Tuesday morning. Ottavio, our taxi driver, was at the hotel promptly at 9 am, and we made our sad goodbyes to Tiziana and Dante (her dog). The girls would have liked to have stayed for another week (or maybe a lifetime), but it was time to move on to the south of Italy.
We first stopped in Pompeii, the Roman city that was buried under the volcanic ash from an eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,800 years ago. We had allotted about 2 hours for the tour, and we decided to use a tour guide so that we would have a better understanding for the city.
We were all glad that we hired Antonio. He speaks perfect English and did a fantastic job of making this prosperous, beautiful city come alive once again for us. We looked at the old practice grounds for gladiators and walked along beautifully paved streets that formed the merchant and residential areas. We also went into the well-preserved forum that had a magnificent view of the Apennine mountains in the distance. It was a great tour, and the two hours went quickly. Afterwards, we stopped for a lemon-orange juice made
at the little stand that Antonio’s mom runs, just outside of the ruins.
Our next stop was the oldest pizzeria in Napoli -- La Antica Trattoria da Michele. As it turns out, this is the same pizzeria shown in “Eat, Love, Pray” and they have photos of Julia Roberts plastered all over the place. It’s a very humble place with tile floors and walls, and a giant wood-burning oven. They have two types of pizza: Pizza Margherita and Pizza alla Marinara. There was a huge crowd outside the restaurant, but Ottavio provided a little “gift” (10 Euro) to the waiter, and we were quickly seated.
The pizzas came to our table quickly and they were terrific. Liliana and Chonsa played it safe with the Pizza Margherita, and I tried out the Pizza alla Marinara. (We all liked the Margherita’s best).
Next we spent about an hour driving and walking through Naples, as we had some time before our train to Calabria. We went to the Piazza del Plebescito and walked in the neighborhood there. We also had a gelato at a famous bar right there next to the piazza...delicious!
Our train for Calabria was at 3:42
pm, and it was punctual. It was an uneventful train ride, except that there were triplets in the next set of seats! They were 2 years old, all male, and TERRIBLE! Chonsa and Liliana took pity on their poor mother (who was traveling with just the babies) and they babysate for the whole trip to Lamezzia Terme. The boys were named Luca, Mario and Philippo, and were all HOLY TERRORS!!!! But the girls were happy anyway, and it made the ride go quickly.
And then...home in Catanzaro Lido. It was lovely to come into the house and see the beautiful garden and Italietta and Nin-nam, and Pietro! Wonderful homecoming...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.166s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 70; dbt: 0.0696s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb