Sunday, May 23, 2010

Day 8: Naples, Italy

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

We woke up around 7:30 and Dad and I headed up to Topsiders to grab food for all of us. The ship was just beginning to pull into the harbor area as we headed upstairs. We caught our first sight of Mt. Vesuvius looming over Naples. Topsiders was surprisingly quiet considering how early everyone's excursions were leaving. Back in the room, we ate out on the verandah to enjoy the views as we pulled alongside the pier. Naples has a beautiful cruise terminal with bus parking located about 30 feet from the gangway. Our excursion meeting time was at 8:30 so we finished getting ready and headed down to Rockin' Bar D, where Katrina was running the excursion process. The excursion operator was the Aloschi Brothers, and I can highly recommend them. They were the best tour operator we have ever encountered. We were assigned to Bus 6 with Shelley, Dennis, and the boys. Our tablemates were on the same excursion, but were on Bus 7. Throughout the excursion, the three boys fought over who get to sit next to me, and proceeded to talk my ear off. But they are cool kids, so I didn't really mind.

We left the port and headed off through Naples on the way to the Amalfi Peninsula. Everyone we had heard from had said that Naples was a big, dirty city that would rob you blind. That about summed it up. Once we turned off the highway and onto the coastal road, things changed. Our route took us down the Sorrento Coast, across the peninsula, and then up the Amalfi Coast. As we started heading down the Sorrento Coast, we got an incredible view of Naples, the Bay of Naples, and even the Magic off in the distance. Every turn brought one incredible view after another, and we weren't even on the Amalfi Coast yet. The roads we were driving on made this quite an adventure. We were driving on a two-lane road that was only one and a half lanes wide, with steep cliffs plunging down to the Mediterranean on the right. The roads are so narrow, that one time, a German tour company tried using a full size bus, and it got stuck. They had to slice the bus into two pieces to remove it. That is how tight these roads are. All along the coast, you can see where buses have taken chunks out of buildings, and even taken out a few balconies.

Just outside of Sorrento, we stopped in a woodworking factory that has been operating for hundreds of years. The stuff was absolutely beautiful, but the prices were outrageous. They did give us free drinks and snacks, so I really didn't mind the stop. We continued on through Sorrento and the lemon groves, and then made our turn to head across the peninsula towards the Amalfi Coast. As we started heading down the Amalfi Coast, the views became even more incredible. Words and pictures combined cannot describe how beautiful this area is. We continued winding along the narrow roads for about 45 minutes, before making another stop in the coastal village of Amalfi. We were given an hour of free time to explore. Even though lunch was coming up, we were all really hungry so we stopped by a pizzeria (couldn't pass up Italian pizza), and ate in the town square. It was a Sunday, so the church bells were ringing and everyone was coming and going from the beautiful cathedral. The whole town was set right between the mountains and the Mediterranean, just incredible. We took a stroll through the streets, checked out the beach, and then headed back to the bus. Several of the restaurants had signs in English, but they hadn't gotten it quite right. For example, one restaurant offered "local typical food." That certainly sounds like a winner.

Back on the bus, we continued driving along the Amalfi Coast for half an hour, passing by some incredible villas and seaside towns. We drove through the town of Majori, and then arrived in Maiori, the town where we would be having lunch. A three course lunch was included in the excursion. We ate on the 7th floor terrace of the Hotel Panorama overlooking the Mediterranean. The terrace was reserved for Disney guests only. This lunch is one of those things that you will never forget as long as you live. It was just magical, eating incredible food, and enjoying a view that words cannot describe. We started with an antipasti platter that included grilled eggplant, fresh mozzarella, and prosciutto. We moved on to fresh rigatoni and penne, and finished with gelato for dessert. The meal also included red wine, bottled water, and bottles of coke. They unfortunately made us leave, so we went over to the beach for a little while and I walked into the water for a little while.

Once our free time had ended, we got back on the bus for the last stretch of the Amalfi Coast. We then hopped on the autopista (expressway) and headed for Pompeii. Our guide handed out the headsets for each of us to wear so that we could hear him as we explored the ruins. After arriving at Pompeii, we were given a quick tour of a cameo factory, and allowed to use the bathrooms. Since we had a little free time, we almost bought sodas, until we realized they were 3 Euro. Fortunately our guide had bottles of water for all of us. We then headed into the ruins. Pompeii is absolutely incredible. It stretches over 60 acres, and 45 acres have been excavated. I could not believe how much of the city was still in place. You can still see most of the buildings and palaces, the theatra, the amphitheatra, marble mosaics, painting, ancient graffiti, the original roads, and most impressing, the town forum. The ash preserved the city almost perfectly in many places. The colors of the paintings are still vivid, and the marble is almost perfect. They even had plaster casts made of some of the people who died during the volcanic eruption. You could easily spend days walking around and exploring Pompeii. During our hour and a half, we barely saw 5% of the ruins. On a side note, they had Disney photographers in the forum. It was funny to see people wearing Mickey ears in the ruins of Pompeii.

After we left Pompeii we had an opportunity to use the bathrooms and try the local limoncello. Then we hopped on the bus and were back to the cruise terminal in about half an hour. We were able to board straight into deck 3, through a door I did not even know existed. After dropping our stuff off in the room, we headed up to deck 9 to grab drinks, while I grabbed some ice cream. We sat in the Cove Cafe for a little while to grab some of the afternoon antipasti. Disney Nature: Oceans was playing in the Walt Disney Theatre, but I did not feel like going so I went back to the room to take a shower. We left port around 7:45, we left almost every port late since people were having a hard time getting back to the ship. There was a string quartet playing in the atrium, so I checked them out for a bit before heading up to Deck 10 to watch us sail out of the Bay of Naples. I then headed down to my usual spot in the Promenade Lounge to work on blog posts and enjoy the band playing.

Dinner was in Lumiere's, and we were having the Lumiere's French Menu. Our tablemates were unable to join us, and Summer and Igor's section was very quiet, so we spent a lot of time talking with them. Willy had no one in his section, so he kept coming over to talk to us, it was great to finally spend more then 5 minutes talking to him. After dinner I took a stroll around the ship, popped into Rockin' Bar D, and then went to bed since we had such an early morning the next day.

Up Next Day 9: Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome)

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