September 16th – Amalfi Coast (Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii), Italy

Another port day, another 6:15am wake up time, and another excellent burrito for breakfast! Yummmmy! I wish I could have one right now haha The port area offered beautiful views of the sunrise over Mt. Vesuvius:

Today was the first of 3 days when I organized private tours with people from our roll call. For all 3 Italy ports, we used a company called Rome In Limo. They received excellent reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, and it was a breeze to organize tours with their company. They have a great website which outlines the many different itineraries that they offer, and they answered all of my questions within a few hours via email (sometimes I could swear that Jany, the lady who I coordinated with, never slept because she replied at literally every hour of the day!) As a special perk for booking 3 tours with their company, Jany gave us a 50 Euro discount on each of the tours. They charged 600 Euros for the 8-person van (but we only had to pay 550 Euros with our discount), and they even offer a tour sharing website to help you fill your vans if you are not able to do so via your roll call. They might charge a little more money than some other companies, but they were fabulous to deal with, and all of our tours were great, so I thought it was worth the extra expense.

Ok, back to Naples… Our group met down in the lobby at 7:45am so we could all walk off the ship together, but we were surprised to see that today, we exited from deck 3 instead of deck 0, so we actually exited right next to where we were meeting anyway! We met our guide, Diego, right outside the port terminal. Diego was very enthusiastic and spoke near-perfect English, although sometimes we thought he offered a bit too much information and wouldn’t stop talking! haha

We all got in our 8-person van and drove 20 minutes to Pompeii. As we were approaching Pompeii, we noticed some dark clouds in the distance. Diego promised us that it would not rain today, and told us to leave our umbrellas in the van. He said that the tour would be free if it did rain. I’m sure you can guess how that turned out… it rained for about 20 minutes, but sadly, the tour was not free haha

As I have already mentioned, we requested to have a private guide in Pompeii for an extra 100 Euros total (which we paid her directly at the end of our tour). Our guide’s name was Libby and she spent 2 hours walking us through Pompeii. Libby was fantastic and worth every penny as she really made the ruins come to life. 

Pompeii was empty at first, as we arrived right when it opened at 8:30am. Even though it did grow more crowded as the morning went on, Libby knew where to go to avoid the crowds.

One of the highlights of the day was visiting the brothel. It was incredible to see how well preserved it was! This engraving in the street paving stones pointed the direction towards the brothel:

This projection outside the building was how they knew which door to enter for the brothel:

The beds inside the brothel didn’t look very comfy… guess the ladies didn’t want the men to stay too long!

These frescos were featured above the doors of each room. I was shocked at how graphic they were!

Men would etch ratings for each girl on the walls of her room to tell other men if she was good or not (and if she had any diseases!)

I knew people had said it was interesting to see the brothel, but really had no idea what to expect. Libby’s commentary to point out all of the details inside really made it come alive and it was an experience I will remember for years to come.

We also visited the bath houses, gymnasium, several homes and stores/restaurants/bakeries, and the amphitheater. 

Entrance to the bath houses

Inside the bath houses

A restaurant

The Amphitheater

The gymnasium- notice the mosaic on the floor of the front entrance:

After 2 hours, we paid Libby, used the rest rooms, then got back in the van to continue our day. We drove for 30 minutes along the Amalfi Coast, with a brief stop to take some photos along the way.

Our next stop was Sorrento. Diego dropped us off and said we could have 2 hours to shop and eat lunch, and he pointed us in the direction of the stores. Tons of shops and restaurants lined the pedestrian street, selling every type of lemon product you can imagine- soaps, lemoncello, candy, candles, clothes, etc. 

I bought several souvenirs as we walked around the town, and I also bought a prosciutto and provolone sandwich for lunch.

There were also several gelato shops, but Diego told us to go to one called Gelato Primavera because it was famous for it’s over 70 flavors! 

I ordered straciatella and mint chip

Diego met us at the arranged time, and we drove along the Almafi Coast to Positano. The drive was beautiful, and we stopped at another view point on top of the hill to see the coast before descending into the town. 

Diego dropped us off in town and said we could have 1 hour to walk around. I walked all the way down the hill and down 85 stairs (yes, I counted!) to the black sand beach. The views were amazing, and it was worth the work out. 

This is one of my favorite photos from the entire trip. He was painting the church up on the hill:

Now it was time to head back up the stairs…

The lemons are HUGE… just for reference, these are my sunglasses!

Diego was always aware of the time and knew that all aboard was at 6:30pm, so he said we had to leave Positano by 3:45 in case there was traffic. We got back to Naples at 5pm, so Diego drove us around Naples briefly and let us walk around the town square for 10 minutes.

When we got back to his van, Diego had bought us a little snack- he said it was Naples’ version of a canoli. It was a pastry with an orange cream filling. It was okay, but I didn’t think it was worth the calories haha Diego then drove us back to the port, and he gave us a bottle of lemoncello to share on the ship. Overall, this was one of my favorite days of the entire trip, and I hope to someday have the opportunity to return to the Almafi Coast and spend more time exploring!

We took very fast showers and arrived at dinner a little late at 6:15pm, but it was fine. We got to watch the sail away at 7pm as we ate dinner.

Udon noodles with seafood and chicken as a starter

Escargots

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Dessert menu

Amaretto cake

Sunset as we left the port of Naples

No one knew any details about the show for tonight except that it was called “Man of Steal.” It turns out, the performer was a master pick-pocket and he was the best solo performer of the cruise! He was very funny and a unique entertainer. After the show, we went back to the cabin to rest up for Rome and my favorite towel animal was waiting to greet us!