The Amalfi Coast

For our first trip from our home base near Sorrento, we boarded a bus for a roller coaster ride along the mountainous coastal roads to Amalfi. It was a white-knuckled joy ride that involved stunning views and hairpin turns that were always announced with a gentle "beep-beep" to let other cars know we were coming...since the road was just barely two cars wide in the most generous areas. We also saw Positano and Atrani, and each town was similar.

I don't have a lot specifically to say about any of these towns other than that they were beautiful and warm and provided us with the best of Italy's gravel beaches for a day in the sun.


Oh...and the fruit stands had the biggest freaking lemons ever.


More pictures on Flickr.

From Rome to Sorrento

After leaving Rome, we headed for a ridiculously cool hostel, 7 Hostel, in Sant'Agnello and used it as home base for branching out to the beaches of Amalfi, the streets of Sorrento, and the grottos of Capri. The view from the rooftop terrace was spectacular...


Nearby Sorrento was a very pretty city with lots of nice shops and probably the best gelato we encountered on our trip - and we would know, b/c not a day went by that we didn't try a new gelato flavor.


Here's Laura in Sorrento's Lemon Grove Garden, where tourists can walk and admire the hulking lemons hanging from the trees before gladly accepting free samples of limoncello. (Good stuff, trust me.)