Just passing the time.. (thanks Dave)
Ferry sunset and finally signs of land
Bari is just a stop-over, and we are not really interested in exploring the city as we arrive in the dark. We are whisked to our Hilton hotel room, complete with the strange addition of a see-through shower in the middle of the room! Breakfast is another splendid buffet, and we package up a delightful picnic lunch for the onward journey.
No modesty, these Italians (note toilet behind me - also clearly visible)
Lunch haul from the breakfast buffet
To get from Bari to the Amalfi Coast, and Positano, we have arranged a hire car. It is the first time on the wrong side of the road, and the wrong side of the car, for both of us, so we are more than a little apprehensive!
With Sarah changing the gears, GPS from Australia doing a fair attempt at navigating and Oli trying to stay on the right side of the road (literally) we find our way out of Bari. Once we get on to the open road, things are a lot easier and the ride becomes fun. This is the case until the last 30km, when the road suddenly changes and we find ourselves on a tiny cliff top road, barely wide enough for two cars to pass.
Note... wing mirror position
Said bus
Positano is the jewel in the Amalfi coast. This is also reflected in the hotel costs, but we are staying in a lovely apartment with partial views over the sea and a balcony where breakfast is served every morning.
We spend our time here lying on the stony beach, walking up through the valleys and cliff top streets and dining on salads and pizzas from a favourite local restaurant.
Positano
Our time in Positano passes as above, until the last day when a storm rolls in. Lightening and torrential rain greets us in the morning and our plans of beach are ruined. We spend the day catching up with emails and Skype. A walk in the afternoon between showers is a high point. Plans of dinner outside on the balcony were dashed by ongoing rain, plan B of an outside restaurant was also a washout as we are forced from the table before our entrees arrived by an impending downpour, so we go back to our favourite haunt for takeaway lasagne. To top things off, while biting into a soft bit of salad, one of Oli's back teeth decides it has had enough and breaks in half!
On that note, we are reasonably happy to leave Positano, and set out the following day on our next driving segment of the journey, a 670km trek to the Cinque Terre in north west Italy. As daunting as it sounds, the drive actually goes pretty well, with the Italian highways allowing for good speed. There is no speed limit that we can see, but judging by the other traffic it is somewhere between 120-130km/hr. This does not stop most people from going a lot faster than that, and we enjoyed being overtaken by several ferraris, porsches and the like.
Our rental car (we wish)
We arrive in La Spezia, a town just to the south of the Cinque Terre, and proudly deposit our car. We then catch a train to the first village, Riomaggiore, where we are staying.
We are greeted at our apartment by a lovely elderly woman, who is the mother of the family that owns it and who speaks not a word of English. This does nothing to stop her from showing us around in great detail, talking in non-stop Italian as we nod and smile and pretend to understand.
We look out through the shuttered windows onto the peaceful blue bay of Riomaggiore and know that we are going to be happy here for a few days!
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