Italy: Positano

Italy:  Positano via Pompeii & Mt Vesuvius

After a relaxing morning and continental breakfast at our B and B we packed up, we headed down in the quirky lift - just fitted 2 at a time with our luggage. 0.2 Euros per ride!

We waited for the private driver Annie booked to take us to walk the rim of Mt Vesuvius, tour the ruins of Pompeii and then onto Positano. After the booked pick up time came and went Annie headed back unto the 3rd floor to seek assistance from the B&B Manageress. After phone calls we discovered a communication breakdown and while all the emails between Annie and the driver had stated June 14th their reply stated14th July (but this was in Italian) and we did not pick up the error. 

We waited down stairs in the cool area under the archways...interesting how we chose to pass the time.

 

So a replacement driver arranged and we waited on the steps underneath our B&B for about 90mins.

Upon arrival I was delegated to re negotiate the rate for the driver for the day....after much tooting and front we were off!

While we had been sitting on the steps, the cold concrete steps, the hard cold concrete steps, waiting for our car and driver, Annie educated us about Pompeii. With today's population of 25, 000, it is close to its original population before it was destroyed and buried by the lava flow from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD. It was resurrected as an entity by Bourbon King Charles  VII in 1748 who commenced the excavation of the site. Unfortunately many valuable artefacts were lost but today the city is a tourist attraction commanding over 2.5 million visitors a year, mostly in the northern summer.

We ended up with a very informative guide Annalisa who toured us through the ruins.

 

 These are the ruins from the Roman baths - such a big part of Roman history.

 While still waiting and on the hard concrete steps earlier in the day Annie also educated us about Mt Vesuvius which we then got to visit late in the afternoon.

Mt Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the European mainland and stands over 1281m tall. Since burying Pompeii and Herculaneum it has erupted more than 30 times, the last in 1944. It's current dormant state is the longest in its known history. At the moment we will be potentially walking the rim in the sunset !!!!

Left Pompeii hungry as we still had not eaten since breakfast due to all the kaffuffle of the day so far. Headed off to Mt Vesuvius finding all restaurants closed for siesta. Arrived at the national park gates just in time to jump on the all terrain vehicle for our trip to the top. After a very bumpy weaving track we arrived at the summit path shaken but not stirred. With a forty minute return walk to the crater our fearless leader opted to keep our seats warm while the other three forged to the top through the low cloud. Reaching the top we viewed the crater and the odd glimpse of the valley below when there was a break in the cloud. We did not have the time to circumnavigate the entire rim. We then forsake the offer to purchase a wine or limoncello in order to return to the waiting vehicle. Combining walking Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius trish's fitbit registered 20,103 steps - perhaps with a little help from the vehicle with its extremely efficient suspension!

 

  

We somehow communicated to our non English speaking driver that we would skip food in order to get some supplies for our apartment in Positano and arrive before dark.

On our arrival our driver had trouble locating our accommodation and spent much time on his phone getting frustrated. Finally, after undertaking a u-turn on the narrow coast road we found our accommodation. The advertised 25 steps to our apartment was more like 50. Luckily our host carried our "small" bags to our lodgings. 

Trish and Annie then spent what felt like an hour with our host learning all the intricacies of the apartment and surrounds ending in his garage to scan passports, pay money and share some bootleg limoncello. Squizz and Sandy in the meantime prepared dinner and we finally got to sit and relax on our balcony with our magnificent view of the Amalfi coast and Positano. All worth it!

Solutions:

1 Annie needs to learn Italian!