Our Italian Adventure

During our planning stage for our trip in Italy, we had decided to make Sorrento our second destination. We both highly recommend Sorrento as a homebase for the Amalfi Coast and Capri Island. While many visitors will make those latter choices as another multiday destination, they are more expensive and isolated than Sorrento. By using Sorrento as our homebase, we decided to travel to the Amalfi Coast and Capri Island on day trips. The question was how to do this. Upon travelling to Sorrento, the original plan was Capri Island on Tuesday, May 13th, and the Amalfi Coast on Wednesday, May 14th. However, while driving to the Herculaneum Ruins, I received a telephone call from MBS Blu Charters indicating they needed us to reverse that order. No problem, it didn’t matter which order we did our Sorrento day trips. Weather-wise, it probably turned out better.

Getting to the Amalfi Coast from Sorrento has different options. One can drive to Amalfi and Positano, take the public bus, take a shuttle or private driver with a commercial company, take a public ferry, or arrange a small-group boat trip with a commercial company. As I researched the options, I quickly learned that the winding road to these destinations is narrow, packed, and full of hairpin turns. Many wrote of heavy traffic which made driving extremely frustrating. Others were getting sick while riding buses on the winding roads. Plus, many talked about the best views were from the water. Okay, easy decision, we would eliminate all road options. I initially looked into taking the public ferry to both the Amalfi coast and Capri Island. While watching YouTube videos of those on the public ferry, it looked very cutthroat as tourists would climb over each other to take pictures on these very crowded ferries. That didn’t look fun, so I looked into the semi-private boat tours which I assumed would be too expensive. However, I found out that their prices were reasonable and the reviews were outstanding. Many offered a day trip to both destinations while having time to explore the towns. Best of all, they offered the chance to swim in the beautiful waters near the shores of these idyllic paradises. I quickly reserved boat trips to the Amalfi Coast and Capri Island with MBS Blu Charter.

We woke up early on Tuesday, May 13th as we walked down to the harbor to meet our crew for our boat cruise to the Amalfi Coast. Our skipper would be Tony, and our first mate was Urzula. There were eight of us aboard, with two from Scotland and the others from the States. The weather was overcast and threatening, but Amy & I sat at the front of the boat. We knew this position would give us the brunt of the wind, but it felt very refreshing. Shortly after leaving the Sorrento Harbor, it started to rain, but ended about 10 minutes later. When travelling to the Amalfi Coast from Sorrento, one heads in the direction of Capri Island. As we rounded the mainland and headed for the Amalfi Coast, it became sunny as the clouds slowly disappeared. However, it looked like Capri Island would be socked in for a few more hours. Good thing, we got switched. Sometimes, the couple from Scotland and one of the American couples would join us and we all got along quite well. The other couple mainly stayed to themselves in the back. The scenery along Amalfi Coast is spectacular and the water gleamed in the sunshine. It was turning into a great day! Eventually, we arrived at the village of Amalfi. We only had about 45 minutes, so Amy & I chose to have our morning cappuccinos at a small cafe overlooking the sea. Sitting behind us were several local older men who must have been discussing politics. Their conversation was lively and quite animated. Italians are known to talk with their hands and all of the men seemed to waving their hands around while dismissing other points of view. With the men bickering and voices rising, it was quite entertaining even not really knowing what they were talking about. One of the men, must have seen us enjoying their conversation, because he walked by us, smiled, and then looked back and exaggerated the animated conversation with the other men.

Once we were all back on the boat, we reversed our path to arrive at Positano. This cliffside town keeps going uphill and we had a couple of hours to explore. We kept waking up steep stairs and streets while enjoying the fabulous views around us. Eventually we arrived at a cafe I had chosen before our trip based on reviews. Sitting and enjoying the wonderful views made this day very magical. Of course, a perfect Italian day wouldn’t be complete without gelato. After Positano, we began the long, slow journey back to Sorrento. Tony would masterfully guide the boat into rock caves and Urzula entertained us with fun facts. Plus, the beer they gave us during the trip made everyone relaxed and happy. Tony proved to be a crazy captain as he followed another boat’s wake causing quite the spray and bounciness on the boat. Apparently, he knew the other captain, and both would challenge each other. We weren’t done however. We stopped in a beautiful location and Urzula told us that we could now swim in the beautiful and cool waters. We didn’t waste any time as we jumped into the water. Eventually the other two social couples joined us, as the quiet couple stayed onboard with Urzula & Tony. The water was nippy when we first jumped in, but was comfortable as we moved about. I almost forgot another event during the trip to the Amalfi Coast. . Amy & I were relaxing in front, enjoying the fabulous sights when suddenly we saw dolphins jump out of the water right in front of the boat.  At least, we thought they were dolphins.  They did seem slightly smaller, so we told Urzula what we saw, and it turned out they were tuna.  I knew tunas were large, but I never saw a live tuna until this day.As we neared the Sorrento harbor, we were singing to the tunes Urzula turned on. It was truly a magical day.