TUESDAY 19th JUNE 2012

AMALFI COAST

Early start again this morning and headed south towards Naples passing through some lovely countryside and bypassing the city and getting to Pompeii quite early for a tour over this ancient landmark!
The ruins are in a very run down and poor area, and once off the bus were bombarded by hawkers and sellers! We grabbed a quick coffee and joined an excellent guide for a thorough tour of Pompeii! It was getting pretty hot, but we all enjoyed the tour of the ancient city all the while overlooked by the twin peaks of Vesuvius, the volcano which buried the city when it erupted!
Back on the bus and on along the beautiful Bay of Naples, snapping off photos through the bus windows at every turn such were the great vistas! We passed through numerous tunnels and then arrived at the beautiful little town of Vico Enquesie built on top of a towering cliff! This was a bonus night because of the ferry mix up and our hotel for night was not the usual Trafalgar stop! We pulled up at a modest little building, but once we entered reception - WOW!!!! The view was breathtaking! You looked down a hundred metres to a lovely secluded beach, and out to Naples and a dozens islands!
Better was in store once we got our room key and took the elevator DOWN three floors to our room, opened the electric blind over the full length window and there was the VERY SAME view! The window also opened fully and we leant out over the vertical drop amazed that this was our room!!!
We didn't have long to ogle though, because it was on the bus again for a drive along a very narrow winding road built on a cliff face to Positano! We had to swap to mini buses because our coach was too big for the road!
It is very hard to describe to describe the next few hours! No words do justice to the views we saw - nor did photos - we just sat back and tried to take it all in!
We stopped briefly at a little lookout and sampled Lemoncello which is a local specialty. It was beaut!
We had a couple of hours in Positano to wander the tiny streets or go to the beach, we chose to wander and I bought a nice linen shirt, while the girls looked at every shop in the town!!!! Den and I found a great little taverna that had ice cold Coronas and we just chilled there!
The return drive gave a chance to suck in some more of this amazing coastline!
Back at the hotel we had dinner looking out to sea at the glorious sunset, and then walked up into the town for a nightcap! Lots of people out and about and the eight of us found a table at a bar and enjoyed a very large bottle of Baileys between us! A fitting way to end a memorable day! Without doubt the highlight of the trip so far!!!