We had another quick week at home. While it was so hot and humid last week, we are back to normal Germany weather; 55F and rainy. To be honest, it’s a welcome change after all the heat.
Brooklyn started with tennis practice every day after school with her team. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts both started as well. Matt worked a couple days at the school and is studying for his next certification exam.
Thursday after school and work, we dropped the dogs off with their friends, Tobi and Paisley, and then flew to Naples. We had a layover in Milan on the way so we didn’t get in until about midnight. It took another hour to get a taxi and get to our hotel for the night.
We stayed in the most interesting hotel! Because we knew we were getting in late, we booked a hotel close to the airport. It was a clean, but bare-basics hotel. When we got in our room, we found a shower in the bedroom. 😂 The bathroom was super tiny and had a shower head over the toilet. I’m guessing the hotel tried to upgrade from the old style, European, over-the-toilet showers. But, with no where to put it, they just put it in the bedroom. The good news is the AC was working; working so well, we all woke up at different times during the night and attempted to layer towels, coats, and clothes to stay warm 😂
Naples Airport Hotel.
Friday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and then took a taxi to Pompeii, which is about halfway between Naples and the Amalfi Coast. We did not want to travel all the way to Sorrento and then back track to Pompeii. Luckily, there were still luggage lockers available so we were able to store our bags and tour the site with free hands.
I visited Pompeii in 2005 when I was 19 and I had forgotten how big it was. It literally was a city and most of it has been excavated so it’s a little daunting when you first enter. It would be impossible to see everything in one visit. They provide you with a map and you can use it to navigate through the city blocks and crowds to see what you want to see. We soon figured out that you can use Google Maps to give you directions between sites.
We toured Pompeii for about three hours and saw some of the famous villas, some plaster casques, a guard tower, the Amphitheater, the Forum, and the Theater. We definitely saw and learned a lot. If I were to do it again, I would hire a guide to take us through. It would have been a much more efficient way to travel through the city, seeing the major sites, and to provide more of an understanding of what we were seeing.
We stopped for lunch outside Pompeii and had pizza and burgers. Napoletan pizza is different from northern Italian pizza, in that there is a ton more sauce, and fresh chunks of mozzarella are scattered on, opposed to shredded cheese. It definitely doesn’t hold together like others so requires a knife and fork. They are so good, I had at least five over the weekend.
After our lunch, we rode the train the rest of the way to Sorrento. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool before dinner and bed.
For dinner, Matt and I each had our favorite dish, a Mozzarella Caprese. These salads are native to the region so we were excited to try them. We found that the cheese is actually much more dense then what we are used to. This could be because many restaurants serve ‘fior di latte,’ in their Caprese salads, which is made from cow’s milk, instead of pure Buffalo mozzarella. Who knew?
Saturday morning, we got up early and were picked up in the morning for our Amalfi Coast tour. We had originally planned to tour the famous towns of Amalfi Coast via the public bus. However, our hotel offered a deal with a guided tour and we agreed the added cost would be worth it to remove the hassle of planning and timing the bus.
It ended up being a great choice because our driver, Mario, was able to get us to Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello and then back to the hotel by 5pm.
We started the day in Positano. We were dropped off near the center and had an hour to spend there. This was the perfect amount of time to walk around and take pictures, visit the beach, and do some shopping. We arrived early so the streets were not as crowded as when we left later. Positano is a cliff-side town, with only one road going North and another going South. The rest of the road is either steep pedestrian lanes or steps.
Next, we were on our way to Amalfi. There, we had two hours. Amalfi is significantly smaller than Positano, but it was lunch time so we used the extra time to have lunch in a seafood restaurant. Afterwards, we checked out the cathedral from the outside and had lemon sorbet and ice cream. On the way back to the van, we stopped at the beach, where Ryan and I put our feet in. The water was so nice; not cold but not overly warm. It would have been great to get in.
Our last stop was Ravello. This town was different from both Pompeii and Amalfi in that it’s perched high on a cliff and can only be access by a one way road. We had one hour and in that time walked around the main square, took some photos from the cliffs edge, shopped for some ceramics, and had drinks in the piazza. On the way back to meet Mario, we stopped for one last gelato.
When we got back to Sorrento, we took a quick dip in the hotel pool and then had dinner at a Thai food restaurant near the hotel. We all needed a little break from the pizza and pasta 😅.
Sunday, we took a guided boat tour to Capri. We were picked up from the hotel in the morning and taken to the marina where we met the boat. After a thirty minute ride, we pulled into Capri’s harbor. We had about five hours of free time. First we hiked from the base to Capri Town using the old stone steps and pathway. It was tough! It took about 20 minutes to reach the top and we were really panting when we reached the top. We walked around, took pictures, and did a little shopping but quickly found we could not afford much here!
We stopped in a cafe for a snack and drinks: €15 for an Aperol spritz (I skipped), €8 for a soda, and €10 for a cappuccino. Switzerland prices! We split two sodas and a pizza as a snack and decided to eat lunch down at the harbor, where surely it would be cheaper.
We hiked back down the steps and found a pizzeria at the port, where the prices were the same, haha! We ate our ritzy lunch and then headed to the public beach to swim until we needed to meet the boat again.
When it was time for our boat tour, we met our group for a quick limoncello tasting and boarded the boat again. The boat took us all the way around the island, where we saw many of the grottos, caves, rock arches, and lots of yachts. We stopped for a swimming break during the trip where we all jumped in. Afterward, we took the boat back to Sorrento,
We had dinner at the cutest family-run restaurant, Master Hosts, near our hotel. It seemed like a hole in the wall but when we arrived, the whole family, including their elementary age sons were working different jobs. I’m pretty sure the grandpa was working and he was the cutest little old man. The food was the best, and yet the cheapest meal we had the whole trip, we wish we had eaten there earlier!
Sunday, we got up early to make the long journey back to Stuttgart. We left the hotel a little before 8 and first walked to the train station. We almost missed the train and had to do a little jog before taking the one hour train ride. Then, we switched to the bus to the airport. We arrived by 10 and were through security by 10:11 thanks to Naples Airport’s family security lines. We were three hours early, so we made good use of our Priority Pass and hung out in the lounge until our flight. Our first flight had technical difficulties, but we managed to make our connection in Milan and were back in Stuttgart by 5:30. We picked up the pups, who had a great time with their friends. We finally made it home by 6:30, with plenty of time for laundry and prepping for the week.
We are going to be home for the next two months! We might do one or two overnights, but we are planning on enjoying being at home and relaxing, not packing and unpacking, every weekend. Brooklyn will be playing tennis every weekend and Ryan starts baseball next week. We are excited to get into a routine and catch up on sleep and with friends!
Gilcrests Abroad 