Saturday, July 15, 2023

Germany and Italy 2023...Day 12: The Amalfi Coast from the Water

This was a day that I was so excited about! We rented a private boat with a captain for the day to enjoy the Amalfi Coast from the water.

I took a lot of videos and photos during the day. As far as the video clips go, I decided to put them in a single video for viewing. It was such an amazing day, even if I got seasick!

Our charter picked us up in Praiano and we went all around the Amalfi Coast. We swam in many different spots along the coast. We stopped for an amazing lunch on a remote island. I will let most of the pictures and the videos do most of the talking.


Clips from our Amalfi Coast boat day.


Taking in all of the scenery and trying to get used to the waves!


Leaving Praiano



Positano from the water.


Positano with my love


Swimming at one of the many swim spots during our trip. Getting in the water made my nausea go away!


The view of Praiano, the village were we stayed. Our hotel is up there somewhere!



The Fiordo di Furore


Having a wonderful time


One of the gorgeous cliffside hotels


Ken's favorite photo of the day. I mean, how gorgeous is this view?


More gorgeous scenery



I took this photo not knowing that this is where I would get seasick for the very first time in my life! Ken had to hose me down with the hose on the boat. I was so sick. I rallied though. I did not want to miss out on a day on the water.


Ken enjoyed his seafood pasta and I had a very light Caprese salad. I was daring and had a little sparkling rose since I was feeling better after vomiting five times.


The view from our table at lunch.


While Ken was paying, I walked down to the water to put my feet in hoping it would cool me off enough so I would not get sick again.


Our darling little lunch spot


We rode in the little boat on the right back to our boat. 


Amalfi


Us in front of Amalfi


Atrani


Relaxing after swimming around Atrani


Minori


Maiori


More gorgeous Amalfi Coast scenery


Having the best time and no longer nauseous!


Wrapping up the best day with Sun and Sea Charters!


How cute is the Praiano Beach Club?


The entrance to our wonderful hotel.



We walked back to our hotel and got ready for dinner. We found a lovely little spot a few roads above our hotel. We sat outside and enjoyed pasta and wine and of course a little limoncello. 


Limoncello to end a wonderful day.


We had an amazing day with Sun and Sea Charters. Thanks Ken for spoiling me!

Friday, July 14, 2023

Germany and Italy 2023...Day 11: Praiano

We woke up after enjoying a very cold room with great air conditioning. The heat wave continued to follow us and it was so hot while we were on the Amalfi Coast. We had a wonderful breakfast at our hotel with amazing views. 


Lemon trees surrounded our room!


We decided we would go for a nice walk around Praiano before it got too hot. We had planned on hiking the Path of the Gods, but with the heat, we decided that it would not be enjoyable since it is completely exposed to the sun. 


Beautiful Praiano. That is Positano off in the distance.


Beautiful views on our walk



As busy as the Amalfi Coast is, it sure is gorgeous!


We walked up and down many flights of stairs. There was an area where we were and we heard the sound of hooves hitting the pavement and sure enough, it was a train of mules approaching us.


Praiano mules



More beautiful views of Praiano


We decided that we would enjoy the day around our hotel pool and our balcony off of our room. We had such a gorgeous view and we felt that we should take advantage of it.


Ken enjoying the view from our balcony


I rarely eat chips at home, but love to indulge in them as a snack while we are in Europe!



Aperol Spritz with a view


Loving our time in Praiano!


We walked up to the pool in time to have lunch and some drinks before cooling off in the pool.


My limoncello spritz was delicious!


We enjoyed a Caprese salad, which I had honestly never tried before. I learned on this trip that I do like tomatoes!


The view from the pool, which happens to include our umbrella from our balcony


More gorgeous views



Living my best life!


The views from our hotel were absolutely stunning.

Ken loved hanging at the pool with me.


Views from our gorgeous hotel, Villa Gianlica. 



I wish I could say that we had a wild night, but that would be a lie. We found a spot that would make takeaway pizzas and ordered a pizza to enjoy in our room with a bottle of wine. We had a cocktail while we were waiting and ended up talking to some Americans from California. They had upcoming travel to Munich and enjoyed our tips about our favorite city. We ended the night with drinks on our balcony. It was a lovely Amalfi Coast day. We were excited for the upcoming day since it would be our private boat day!

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Germany and Italy 2023...Day 10: Traveling to the Amalfi Coast

We woke up on Saturday excited to get to the train station to get to the Amalfi Coast. We felt relieved that we were going to be on a train that we knew would ultimately get us to Naples. 

With our change in itinerary, we were going to have a layover in Rome which would allow us time to see one of the sites. We looked around on Google Maps and decided we would check our luggage near the train station and go to see the Colosseum. Neither of us had ever been to Rome before or really had a desire to do so, but we were excited to see the Colosseum. 

By the way, there was a huge heat wave in Italy and I believe it was 96 degrees! 

We were walking and out of nowhere we walked out of an alley and there it was. 


The Roman Colosseum


It truly was impressive to see. We only had time to see it from the exterior. I am sure the interior is pretty spectacular. 


The Colosseum with my best friend.


It was fun to check off a new site.


Another view of the Colosseum.


We had plans to have lunch somewhere, but the luggage locker where we checked our luggage never sent me an email with our codes to retrieve our luggage. I was super anxious about it and concerned that this would somehow cause us to miss our train. We decided we would just grab food at the train station and get to the luggage locker. We were able to call the help line and retrieve our luggage. I think most everyone can understand my anxiety over this!

We got back into the train station and it was complete chaos with the rail strike.



Cancellations everywhere. There were people everywhere with no place to go. It was so hot in the train station too. Luckily, we were able to sit in the lounge in the AC and enjoy a little wine.


Once we arrived in Naples, we understood why the sweet lady the day prior had told us that the area around the train station was questionable. We had a private car transport us from Naples to Praiano. I had done a lot of research to determine the best mode of transportation to get to Praiano and a private car was the best. 

The car ride was, oh my, scary and curvy! We drove thru Positano and were relieved that I had chosen Praiano for us to stay. Positano was beautiful but was very busy.

Our driver dropped us off right outside our hotel which was so nice. We checked in and we were very delighted when we arrived to our room.



The view from the balcony of our hotel. It was stunning. It was probably my favorite hotel room ever.


I had made us reservations at Il Pirata which is right on the water with amazing views. I was super excited about having a lovely dinner with Ken.

We decided we would walk to Il Pirata around the small alley ways of Praiano.



Wall art walking around Praiano.


We walked down a lot of stairs to get to Il Pirata, but the view was worth it once we arrived.


Il Pirata


Il Pirata is located right by the marina in Praiano. There were several boats docked out in the water.


Our table view at Il Pirata


A view from our table at Il Pirata




Ken enjoying his after-dinner limoncello


It was even more gorgeous as it was getting dark.


We enjoyed our dinner and decided we would go sit at the bar and have one more drink.



Aperol Spritz to end the night



So happy to be in such a gorgeous area. It was an amazing day.