Don’t Pay The Ferryman
One advantage of staying in an Airbnb apartment is the fact that you often have a laundry. By the time we arrived in Naples we were running out of socks and undies and needed to do a wash. The washing machine had little handwritten stickers all over it with lots of instructions, unfortunately all in Italian. We had a few hiccups getting it to work and Roberto kindly came & helped, eventually diagnosing the problem; all this delaying the process and meaning that this morning, on our last day in Naples, we had a whole washing machine full of wet clothes to somehow dry and pack. Consequently, we had a bit of a domestic morning. (In case you’re wondering, hairdryers actually make brilliant sock dryers and an iron can work wonders getting a t-shirt dry - even if it is a bit slow!)
Ross ducked down to our local barista and as he sauntered up to the counter, he was already presented with a sparkling water, slapped down on the counter in front of him. A second later, before Ross could say: “I’ll have a…” he was also handed an espresso (again in a molten plastic cup). Who needs words anyway; so overrated?
We were scheduled to catch a ferry to Sorrento at 1pm and thought we’d leave plenty of time to get there. Pushing our big bags along the undulating cobblestone pavement had a high level of difficulty as it was, but throw in some wild Napolitano traffic and it’s death-defying. A moped actually came to a screeching halt right behind me and clipped the back of my calf. I turned around in shock; he even had the audacity to shake his head at me. We then played a game of chicken where I went left, he went left, I went right, he went right… Yikes! I was a little frazzled after that.
After finally wrangling the bags through the busy streets to miraculously arrive in one piece at the Port, we were ready to check-in. You can imagine our surprise when the check-in man with impeccable English, told us the 1pm ferry simply did not exist. I’d booked online through ‘Ferries Direct’ and there was a stuff-up in their paperwork. They had said 1 but should have said 11. The next available ferry was at 3pm so we had a couple of hours to kill. Thankfully, we could leave our bags in safe storage at the port and have a wander around.
In our morning FaceTime with Sam, he’d suggested we check out Via Toledo, a shopping street devoid of cars (but not mopeds- still zipping in and out everywhere!). There were lots of shops - big and small - buskers playing and singing and people everywhere. Three huge cruise ships were in dock, all the passengers ascending on this part of Naples at once. We met Nancy & Sally from California who had been cruising from Barcelona. Essentially a high rise hotel on the sea, they wowed us with tales of giant water slides, an onboard bowling alley and even an ice skating rink. There were 15 pools!
Naples is a city that loves its football, ie the round ball game, and takes it very seriously. Diego Maradona was treated as nothing short of a deity in this town, his time with the Napoli club really putting them on the map. His picture is absolutely everywhere. You can buy his framed portrait, complete with shining saint’s halo, on every second street corner and people have set-up their own personal front-yard shrines to Maradona, his smiling face, surrounded by lit candles, smiling out from behind the glass of their purpose built cabinets.
The Spanish Quarter was full of bustling Italian restaurants with red and white checked tablecloths, flags strung across the street competing for space with the washing lines that are on pulleys, going from one side of the street to the other; washing flapping in the breeze as cars and people buzz below.
I’m sure that on more than one occasion an innocent bystander has been clocked in the head by some wayward Y-fronts or a sailing sock.
As we queued for our ferry, an English couple enquired as to why we hadn’t yet obtained our “luggage tags”. They had theirs but didn’t know whether they should have bothered. This was the first I’d heard so went back to the counter to check. My question: “do I need luggage tags for our 2 big bags?” Was met with a nonchalant “I don’t know, do you want them?”
“Do we need them?”
“If you’d like them”.
I ended up buying them just in case but doubt it would have made a scrap of difference. Ahh the Italians - so fast and loose.
This ferry was much more like a Sydney ferry, perhaps even a little smaller, and the trip to Sorrento was only 45 minutes - not even enough time for a dribble-on-your-shoulder snooze. Sorrento was gorgeous! Such a clean contrast to the grunge of Naples. Beautiful brightly coloured buildings set high in the rocky cliff punctuated by bright yellow pops of colour from burgeoning lemon trees, laden with the biggest lemons we’d ever seen. Our hotel had arranged a transfer for us so we were being met by a taxi. A suited man, who was even donning a chauffeur’s hat, held aloft a sign that said ‘Mr and Mrs Johns’. Close enough.
His cab was a roomy van and so comfy for our half hour drive to Positano. The road snakes in tight twists and hairpin bends around the cliff top, with views of the sparkling sea way down below. As we approached, we could see Amalfi and Positano with their hills of houses tightly packed and tucked into the high headlands. Our driver had the patience of Job, dealing with tight squeezes and pedestrians flowing out onto the narrow road.
Our hotel is set right into the cliff and we are lucky enough to have a room with spectacular views of the town and the ocean. We sat on our cute little balcony enjoying our complimentary bubbles and chocolates (for our anniversary - how nice!) and pinching ourselves again to make sure we are really here.
I needed a little R&R (also known as a nanna nap) so Ross went on a reconnaissance mission this afternoon, taking on the steep terrain and engaging in a selfie-fest (just so you know he’s really here), reporting back on all the vast beauty and sights he’d seen.
We had a sensational dinner at da Gabrisa - probably the best meal of our trip so far - not quite scoring a cliffside table but nevertheless still being able to take in the iconic view as the sun took its last breaths before turning in for the night, casting a pink glow along the horizon.We are looking forward to more exploring tomorrow.
