An Unforgettable Day on the Amalfi Coast 2019

August 14, 2021

The last port day we awoke in Naples. I had been emailing with Carmine since October 2018...so an entire year of anticipation went into this day.

Do you know how much the ship wanted for this type of private excursion? It was insane.

We love Rick Steves and in his book he recommended Carmine. I had initially looked him up for our 2018 cruise but had decided on pompeii in the end...
When we booked this cruise this was the first thing I did...reach out to Carmine. I wanted to see this Amalfi Coast I hear so much about.
The excursion included the towns of: Ravello, Amalfi and Positano for 8.5 hours.

And 300 euros for it to be private???? Spoiler Alert: Nate and I both said it was worth so much more at the end of the day.

love this photo

As we waited for debarkation to open we stood in line talking with OB and Brenda whom we had met earlier in the cruise. They were off for a day in Capri. When we saw them again the next morning they said it was packed and not as enjoyable as they hoped.

We made our way off the ship as soon as they opened the plank

looking back at the ship and from whence we came

We met our guide, Anna, (I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t Carmine himself, but hang in there!), and our guide, Chiro, exactly where I was instructed to go: directly outside the port at 8am. We were escorted for the day in a nice BMW.

According to Anna there were 7 ships in port today and it was going to be busy!

Here we go!!! Nate has no idea what’s coming...only that I’ve been excited and the few pictures I’ve shown in him on Instagram

We headed into the Milky Mountains. Anna was a wonderful guide...let us soak everything in without talking so much that we couldn’t just be in awed silence.
They’re called the Milky Mountains because they have a lot of goats and cows that give a lot of their dairy products.
Anna told us that she speaks 4 languages and all of the different dialects of italian...each region has its own dialect. She’s going to school for foreign relations. She will do great! I find it fascinating that most everyone we meet in Italy or Greece spoke at least 2 languages. I don’t feel that’s quite as common here.
Anna told us she does this excursion almost every day and doesn’t get sick of it. I can imagine!

We pulled over at an overlook to take some pictures

We continued on towards the town of Ravello.

The view from the “parking lot” Chiro dropped us off at...It’s really 3 parking spots in the middle of a hill. There is a WC there also.

We had an hour to spend in Ravello as we pleased. Anna gave me her what’s app info to contact her should we need to.

this was interesting...prior to taking this photo we watched a tiny little cart come down the track. I wish I would have gotten that shot. Cutest!

There’s no other word for me for Ravello other than quaint. It was so peaceful!

After 45 minutes we decided to message Anna for them to come pick us up. If we had gone inside the Villa there we would have needed more time but we opted not to.

https://www.ravello.com/attractions/villa-rufolo/

When we got in the car Anna asked us if we wanted more time at either Amalfi or Positano and we said Positano for sure.

We continued on along the coast to the town of Amalfi; giving Chiro much praise for his driving skills.

We came to the only stop light on the Amalfi coast and had about a 20 minute wait.

can you imagine being in that car when that bus is turning?!

Once again we were dropped off with an hour to roam. We barely scratched the surface of this beautiful seaside town.

Amalfi town:

big man with a little cup. always cracks me up when he drinks espresso

We LOVED Amalfi and would 100% go back to spend more time there. We bought some pasta and some local wine to bring home for a dinner night with friends.

We had about 5 minutes until we had to meet Anna so walked out to take some photos. Many more “wow”s commenced.