Adventures In Italy - Day 11

Today was supposed to be the warmest day of our trip so far so we decided to rent a boat. We headed down to the rental place in Praiano around 9am and boarded a 18ft hard bottomed zodiac style boat that would be home for the next eight hours and set off.

After a quick run down of where things were located on the boat, we opened the boat up and headed down to Amalfi. Oh I miss being on the water. This was a total throwback to my childhood where I would spend hours in our little zodiac buzzing around, exploring. And this was just a bigger version of that. Here is the area that we were exploring.

Once we reached Amalfi, we slowly made our way back north up past Praiano and decided to anchor at Positano. The countryside here is gorgeous – since the terrain is pretty much rocky cliff rising out of the water, they have had to terrace the land in order to grow and build. The bright buildings offset the greenery around them, making it feel almost Mediterranean in charm.

Here is Amalfi and Skipper Jeremy…

This has to be one of my favorite photos … love the silhouette with all the gorgeous backlight.

Here is where you really start seeing how they terraced the land in order to build and grow anything.

Can you spot the crazy steep staircase along the side of the cliff?

This was a crazy sight to stumble upon … not sure what castle this is or what the cavern above is, but it was really cool. I looked all over online and you can’t find that cavern from satellite view and the castle blends into the shore too much to find.

Here are the views heading back to Praiano and to Positano. It is crazy how the roadways are curved in along the cliffs.

The large sailboat was moored outside Positano. Pretty sure this was a cruise ship of sorts … it was ginormous.

Here is Positano from the sea – this is one of the most photographed towns on the Amalfi Coast and now they charge professional photographers doing commercial shoots $1200 tax to shoot there and videographers over $2k.

Once we reached Positano, it took a few tries to get the anchor set and I chuckled about all the legacy fights my parents would have about anchoring our boat while growing up. I tried to explain to Jeremy that them setting an anchor was like the Christmas tree fight they had every year (my mom and I bought the largest tree we could find and then my dad had to figure out how to get it in the house and put it up … my brothers and I practically made popcorn and watched from the couch it was that predictable). Anyway, third time was a charm and it hooked.

It was hot out so I jumped in the cold water to cool off. I now have taken a swim in two different seas this trip! I was thoroughly refreshed after swimming around and coming back to lay on the boat to dry off. Jeremy chickened out though, saying it was too cold and he wasn’t hot because he was huddled behind all the shade he could find, haha.

From here we people watched a lot – there was a ton of boat traffic, so it was never boring. Between the activity on the water and watching people on the beach, it was a lot of fun.

From Positano, we headed north hoping to get all the way to Capri. Once we passed Nerano, the wind started whipping through and the seas turned decently rough, so we turned back to anchor in Nerano for a little while. We tucked in near the rocks to anchor out and away from things and first time worked. Even though I brought a book with me, I just laid there and relaxed, looking around at all the lovely sites and of course jumped in again. Nerano is less touristy and more of a working port and there were boats coming in and out of the harbor. The color of the water is stunning too, depending on where you are at.

Around 4 we decided we should probably start making our way back to Praiano and the seas had finally calmed down, so we opened it up and sped back down along the coastline. We wandered around a little more, exploring pockets of areas and then finally decided we should head in. Here are some more shots of that crazy cruise ship.

We asked Michelle to make reservations at M’ama for us at seven. Again this is a place that will come pick us and drop us off so we don’t have to brave the roads. So after showering, we were picked up and driven up, up and up the side of the hill to this lovely place where then took an elevator to the third floor. We came around the corner to this beautiful terrace overlooking the sea and hillside. They had these cool column heaters that kept you nice and toasty and our table was right next to the side of the terrace. Right after we were seated, we were given a glass of prosecco to enjoy while we figured out what to order.

Both Jeremy and I decided to get one of their four course menus so that we could try a variety of local foods that ranged from cold beef, to octopus, I had more gnocchi, Jeremy got pesto with squid, so many different cuisines than I would normal choose and all of it was amazing. The service was awesome and we were both so. incredibly. full.

This had to have been my favorite day of our trip so far. The boat ride was definitely a highlight and M’ama was incredible.