Pompeii to Praiano (Amalfi Coast, Italy) 14-21 September 2013

Nick and I had been to the Amalfi Coast back in 2006, off season, so we understood how difficult it was to get around and the chaos of the coastal roads. You truly need to be a local to drive around the cliffs with all the big buses and many cars trying to pass each other on a tiny, winding road, with a sheer drop to the ocean. One road in and one road out! We had stayed in the town of Amalfi and visited Salerno and Positano back in 2006.

Naples is not doing so well financially, so unfortunately, although I said I would NEVER go along the coastal road by bus again, we couldn't catch the ferry from Naples to the coast because it had stopped running in 2013 due to a lack of funding. So I hired a min-van (a very high luxury service called Benvenuto Limos that took us all to the coast and took us all back to Naples in two separate groups as Nick and I stayed on longer in Positano after the 'family' part of the trip ended - we'll get to that in the next page). The Limo company offers a special where they allow groups to stop in Pompeii to see the ruins... not everyone wanted to stop, but we did anyway as the majority of us wanted to have a look. Unfortunately we only stayed for one hour which is hardly enough time to see anything in great detail, but just to get a sense of time past was fabulous:



 

Nick and I were lucky to discover the Roman Baths that had been closed for some time, only recently opened again to the public. It was a magical and grand place with a peaceful ambience - not what I expected to see... we were glad to have some time here...

Given it was Nick's Mum's Birthday, she chose the Villa we were all to stay in. It was situated in a sleepy local-based town called Praiano, not far from Positano. It's a very, very steep cliff area, so it is a hard walk anywhere, but the place we stayed in (Villa Astra + the additional room they gave us next door) was really nice + the local bus was just outside (it took us down to the local beach and all the way to Positano, although it was a hell ride as all bus rides can be in this area!). We were also located right on the town square near the San Luca church with a small grocery store (market) walking distance. So it was quite ideal given the area. Very peaceful... weather perfect again!

The main family and their friends all stayed in Villa Astra, and Nick and I stayed in a private room situated down a long flight of stairs - it was next to the house adjacent (that was unoccupied) - so we had a lot of privacy (apart from some builders working on the house). The pool was down the stairs near our room - of course, no one actually used it, or even sat next to it. Although it was hot for part of the day, it wasn't always hot enough to swim, especially in the evenings.

I won't go into what we did every day in this sleepy town - I'll just show some photos of the Villa and our room on this page and on another page, I'll show some photos of the local area and some day trips we did (just the two of us, or sometimes with the group).

So, this is Villa Astra in Praiano... it's smaller than a lot of other villas in the area, but it was very clean and the local caretaker was very nice (Severio), although he didn't speak much English (I won't tell you about the hassles we had with the collection of the keys at the local hotel - that will be left to a complaint with the company!). I was surprised how much Italian I knew and picked up... I was even making all the local phone calls every time we needed a car service to take us somewhere!

 

This is the beginning to the stairs that take people down from Villa Astra (door to Villa pictured here) to the annex where Nick and I stayed, attached to the house adjacent... this is the outdoor scenery down the stairs including the pool, the lower gardens and views from our private room...

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

These are some photos inside the private room that Nick and I stayed in. It was a large, fairly old-fashioned room, with big bathroom, small kitchen (that didn't really function - but we had a good fridge), and the only room with a/c (which it needed as it was quite warm). It had French doors that opened to the terrace. It was very peaceful. As with most Italian beds, especially those in Villas, it was wayyyy too hard to sleep on (giving us both bad backs and other pains... a story for another time), but we improvised with outdoor lounge chair covers (thick foam) to make the bed softer!!!