This is the day that almost wasn’t with a theme song from the Beatles – “Long and Winding Road.”

My day began early as I wanted to catch the sunrise and figured it would be a relaxing day anyway.  I was up before 6:00 and did get a bunch of sunrise photos – Joel would be impressed.

The morning’s departure time wasn’t until 8:00 and we didn’t have to walk  far.  In fact, to begin with we wouldn’t have had to get on the bus as we had decided to forego this day’s tour and just take advantage of our wonderful hotel, the deck and the beach.  But one of our fellow travelers convinced Judy that she wouldn’t want to miss the views as we drove down the Amalfi coast.  So we went.  And, indeed, it was a scenic drive.  It was kind of a cross between our drives in the Rocky Mountains and along the coast in Hawaii.  We had lots of beautiful photo ops of the bays, beaches and cliffs.  But the last part became a little difficult as all of the turning on the bus nearly created some motion sickness … nearly.  We stopped half way at the town of Amalfi and took in some sights – the usual cobblestone streets, small shops and sidewalk cafes.  We walked out on the pier and even saw one topless girl sunbather … just one. 

The afternoon part of the trip included a visit to a mozzarella farm (?) and to the Ancient Paestum – the ruins of an ancient town, a colony of the Greeks before being conquered by the Romans.   The “mozzarella farm” was just a café where you could eat mozzarella stuff, along with all the cows as they actually produce the cheese there.  We had a cannoli – first time I’d had one.  At Pestum there were three temples you could actually walk into – we went in the temple of Neptune.  Then it was back on the bus and a return to Sorrento – fortunately not along the winding coast road.

Dinner was on our own so we walked a ways down the hill from our hotel and found a small café with outside seating that said they’d accept a visa card (running low on Euros).  And it turned out the food was good – Judy had pizza and I had Ravioli.  We were joined by the Brandts and since it was “happy hour,” Kurt and I enjoyed two pints of beer – saved a Euro there!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a small “market” (a hole in the wall shop that sold grocery items).  I stocked up on some beer for the next two days.  Back at the hotel, we had a social gathering out on the Brandt’s deck where Judy shared the bottle of wine we’d had since the winery visit and I had another pint of beer.  An indication of how big the “decks” are: there were over 15 of us on the deck comfortably (our is actually smaller, but we have two!)

I’m actually writing this on Monday morning because it was a late night.  We have elected to stay in the hotel today and not venture to Capri …. and, of course it’s raining … hoping that will stop.  Oh, and we didn’t have to use an alarm this morning – slept in until 8:00!  And tomorrow, Pastor Brown has promised a late start when we head back towards Rome.  But just in case the sleeping in thing might get out of hand, I will set that alarm.