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I can’t believe I’m already halfway through my time here in Italy. Time flies! We spent Labor Day weekend along the coast, taking a train on Saturday from Rome down to Pompei, where we explored the famous ruins that were buried under a pyroclastic blast from nearby Mount Vesuvius c. 70 A.D. First of all, the excavation site is huge: good walking shoes are a must. Secondly, it’s hot as hell by midday, and there’s virtually no shade anywhere. Suffice it to say we learned the hard way that it’s better to start exploring it as soon as they open in the morning. After we saw the arena, the temple of Apollo, and dozens of incredibly preserved frescoes and mosaics, we walked through the Antiquarium, which was my favorite part. It was filled with relics that had been collected from the structural ruins of the city, and I was very impressed by how fine the craftsmanship was. We also saw the famous plaster casts of the casualties of the explosion, their final shapes frozen in the sudden sediment for nearly two thousand years. From Pompei, we took a private transfer to Positano, which is where we stayed for the next three nights. Our driver, Giovanni, was an Amalfi coast native hailing from Sorrento, and he had one of the sunniest dispositions I’ve ever encountered. He recommended restaurants, pointed out the island of Capri on the western horizon, gave us safety tips, and helped me practice my Italian. All along the beautiful drive, we had front-row seats to scenes of the Monti Lattari (“milk mountains” because of the limestone) being enveloped by the evening marine layer. We saw networks of bougainvilleas covering countless buildings in pink and purple blooms, as well as endless stands of lemon-motif goods 🍋 Lemons are a big deal in this part of Italy: there’s limoncello, candied lemon peel, lemon-painted ceramic goods, lemon-patterned clothing boutiques, and whole lemons the size of small melons (honestly, they looked like they may have been grown in Chernobyl). Once we reached apex of our drive over the peninsula, Giovanni warned us that we’d be descending something called “the mamma mia road,” so named because of how steep, windy, and narrow it is. Bounded by sheer cliffs going up on the left and sheer drops into the sea on the right, we threaded our way around cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians. I can confirm that the nickname is quite fitting. After checking into the hotel, we got a table at Tre Sorelle down near the waterline (one of Gio’s recs), and had just sat down to eat when it started storming so hard that the waves destroyed a nearby dock. We allocated Sunday to exploring Positano and spending some time on the beach. Our hotel recommended steering clear of the main public beach near the marina, so we hiked (I’ve never done so much hiking to get to a beach!) through the town to get to the less crowded one. We rented an umbrella and two chairs at the Da Ferdinando beach club and posted up there for the afternoon, indulging in stuffed local squid, carbonara with eggplant, gelato, and volcanic rosé. After dinner, we stopped into the bar at Le Sirenuse for one of the best cocktails I’ve ever had. On Monday, we took the first ferry to Capri, where we booked a gozzo boat tour around the famous island. Unfortunately, the blue grotto was closed because the waters were too high that day, but we were able to swim in some other water holes that were spectacular. Our skipper, Paolo, in addition to regaling us with the ancient history of the island and teaching us Italian swear words, treated us to some his homemade limoncello, which was delicious. After the boat ride, we hiked up the hills to the main city of Capri, which was every bit as exhausting as our hikes around Positano on the mainland. I thought I was in good shape, but Italy has shown me otherwise. We had one final amazing meal at the Palazzo Murat, which we enjoyed and recommend as much as Tre Sorelle. We returned to Rome on Tuesday, utterly exhausted. We took our touristic activities in the city pretty easy for the rest of the week, only doing the Spada Gallery (four rooms total), the Pantheon (took twenty minutes), the Piazza di Spagna (I opted out of climbing the Spanish Steps), and the Galleria Borghese (absolutely stunning except for the anachronistic Damien Hirst monstrosities woven into the exhibit). I had never done the Borghese before; I forgot how talented Bernini is (the Daphne & Apollo statue in particular).
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