Hanging with the Super Yachts on the Amalfi Coast and Capri

Milly amidst the super yachts anchored at Capri.  And this is just a smattering of the parking lot.

We had contemplated renting a car and driving the coast from Solerno to Sorrento so as not to miss any of the villages along the way.  We were advised that traffic and parking would be a nightmare and so on a beautiful day, we cruised along the coast with a host of other yachts.  Even water traffic required an eagle eye and galley paraphernalia safely stowed away for wake from every direction.  Our views of the stopped traffic on the coast road from Milly while sipping tea/coffee made us very grateful to only have wake to contend with.  The views were spectacular.  We didn't see every village but I think the views from Milly bettered whatever we would have seen by road.  Take a look!

The beginning of the Amalfi coastline starting from the east end at Cetara, begged for a photo but it just got better and better.

A rocky mountainous spine had kept the towns on this Sorrento Peninsula isolated until recently.  Now tastefully speckled with sumptuous villas.  Watch towers transformed into inns and villa adjuncts.

The peninsula is about 25 NM, or 50 km for you landlubbers, long.  It is stunning the entire way.  Luckily, we have two sets of binoculars.  

We considered stopping in the town of Amalfi along with hundreds of others.  It was crazy busy on land and sea and didn't really hold much appeal.  Even if we found a spot for Milly, we knew that the boat boys on the beach would not welcome TomTom.  We moved on but enjoyed the land view.

Pretty dazzling!

After a great day of gawking at the beauty and wealth, we anchored in Portofino, the jewel of the coast.  We wanted to walk around but there was no place to leave TomTom.  Most people in big boats who went in for dinner were on a boat with crew who dropped them off from the large, opulent yacht tender.  We hauled TomTom up on the Portofino beach amidst the bathing beauties.  But we seemed invisible.  No one seemed to notice.

Portofino in the a.m. light.  Our walk about the evening before had revealed a tourist town with countless inns and restaurants clinging to the steep rocky slopes and a pedestrian only shopping area nestled in the valley.  High end shops in sweet pastel buildings with only the occasional souvenir t-shirt.  Fun to see - we were underdressed.

The anchorage in Capri.  Milly was a relatively tiny boat.  

The cliffs around the anchorage were dotted with caves which we gamely explored on TomTom.  Capri is a limestone rock and, hence, has amazing and wonderful rock formations - caves, arches, cliffs - in stunning blue water with equally clear blue sky.

Our anchorage was on the other side of the famous Il Faraglioni, pillars of rock emerging from the sea. 

We motored through the arch on TomTom. Happy guy!  Apparently, every Italian destroyer has a photo of itself motoring through at 30 knots and every boat around tries the same thing.

From Milly we could spy a walk way along the bottom of the cliff.  But very few to no people walked it.  The coast below it was rough with huge boulders.  One guy had set up a very makeshift camp in a cave - right of mid screen - with chairs and cooking equipment on his outside patio.  He walked around nude - why not? - as did other bathers there for the day.  The walkway seemed to be our route to town and the rest of the island.  But where to leave TomTom?  We anchored him and tied to a boulder, climbed up the exceedingly steep incline to the abandoned/closed walkway.  Closed because, we think, of falling rocks from the cliffs above.

This was a sophisticated path to get us up a vertical cliff.  We understood why it was closed, but played ignorant and tiptoed around the fallen rocks.

The town of Capri was essentially a compilation of high end shops, restaurants, bars on narrow lanes - no gas vehicles, except the odd garbage truck, allowed in the village.  All very tasteful, elegant - expensive.  We walked the streets and then took the local bus to Anacapris, a less touristy town high on the limestone mountain.

We visited the house Axel Munthe, Swedish doctor, psychiatrist and animal-rights advocate had built on the site of the ruins of a Roman villa.  He had collected Roman relics and art, some of which was found on the property and dispersed it among the heavy furniture in this lovely home built in the early 1900's.

Peter had discovered and loved Munthe's book and memoir about his early career as a physician, his discovery and love of Capri and building of the house, The Story of San Michele, when backpacking through Europe just as he entered medical school.  So, of course, we needed to visit.  

Tranquil and immaculate gardens with a chapel turned library made it a magical place.  Munthe had bequeathed it to the Swedish government who had a consulate in this tiny village next door - and obviously took great care of it.

I haven't yet reached the part in the book which I am now reading, but the Munthe found this Egyptian sphinx on the property buried under other relics.  He dragged it to it's new perch himself.

It was a magical place with a spectacular view at 327 m above the sea, hanging onto a cliff.

On the blue spot, waiting for the single chairlift to the top of the mountain.  The assistant was bored - not amused by my excitement.  I'm used to having skis on for this maneuver.

View from the top away from the crowds.  Wildflowers and a phenomenal view.

A hike to the other far east side of the island brought us to the Natural Arch.  It is all that remains of an incredibly high ancient grotto at about 18m high and 12m wide.  Mother Nature is amazing!

It acts as a great picture frame.

Milly was still there after our day on our feet.

And so was TomTom.  We had left him tied to shore, anchored off the rocks.  And there he was at the bottom of the steep cliff we had to get down.

The multi coloured town of Corricella on the island of Procida was completely opposite to the deluxe Capri, all about Napolonese coming over to sit on their little boats partying, singing, chatting, swimming, diving, eating and drinking and then heading home at sundown.  This time Milly was the biggest of over a hundred boats in a remote bay during the day evacuated to be one of two overnight. 

Brothels, Bistrots and Body Casts at Pompeii

On the 24th of August, 79 A.D., after several days of earthquakes, Vesuvius, thought of as merely as a mountain, erupted.  The plug of solidified lava was ripped off by a huge build up of pressure below.  The explosion projected 20 km into the sky and a shower of lapilli or pumice stones and then volcanic ash settling 70 km radius to the southeast.  Pompeii was buried in a few hours.  The inhabitants were killed by the poisonous gases released by the pumice stones and the city was buried.  Above the forum or the centre of life in Pompeii - Vesuvius always in the background, not looking too menacing today.

After our adventures on Stromboli we headed back to the mainland: Cetraro where we caught up with Sandy and Al on Sandali, good friends after two winters in Tunisia and Turkey as next door neighbours; onward to a small tourist town, Camerota, catering to Italian tourists; Agropoli, a castle town with a maze of narrow lanes perched on a cliff overlooking the harbour and, finally, Salerno, a working city, home to a famous medieval medical school which prospered for over a thousand years.

View from Milly of the old town of Agropoli perched on a cliff.

The Agropoli castle, well kept for events.

Milly at anchor in the small Agropoli harbour with the new town beyond.

The Salerno duomo considered to be the most beautiful medieval church in Italy, is unique in our experience for it's  courtyard bordered by graceful arches inside it's main entrance.  

The cliffs along the coast between Cetraro and Agropoli soared straight from the sea and were dotted with ancient watch towers.  Green slopes were further inland with a few hilltop towns.  Minimal tourist development is apparently for ex-pat Italians returning for summer holidays from their new homes across the seas.

We left Milly safely at anchorage and took the train to Pompeii.  What a day trip!  Full of poignant history with Vesuvius always looming in the background.

These plaster body casts were poignant illustrations of the human tragedy and cost.  Before being buried by ash, these inhabitants were desperately trying to get to the nearby port and safety.  The archeologist poured liquid plaster into the hollows left in the ash where the bodies had decomposed to recreate the human figures where they lay at the moment of their death.  The same technique was used for any material that decomposed, including wood doors, windows, stairs etc.  Hence, reconstruction is more accurate.  

Via Della'Abbondanza could be anywhere - even with sidewalks - and was the main drag.  As a flourishing trading centre, thousands flocked to the town from the surrounding area and stayed in boarding houses along the street attached taverns and fast food establishments where local wine was served.

Pompeii's fast food restaurant, the thermopolium.  Warm meals served from the masonry bowls inlaid in the counter were eaten on the spot.

Election propaganda on the facade of a tavern

The laundry of Stephanus.  The tank was used to wash finer cloth.  The rougher cloth was trodden on by foot in five basins. at the back of the establishment along with a press used to fold the cloth.

The Amphitheatre could seat about 20,000 people to watch the bloody show of gladiators and wild animals.  In summer, a canopy of flax was fitted above the seats to shade the spectators.  We could've used the same - it was hotter than hot in the burning sun.  Next to the stadium was the Palaestra a huge playing field bordered by a colonnade.  The area was reserved for young people as a gymnasium and sports centre.  Youth were organized into teams, the intent of which was to inculcate the Imperial ideology in the minds of the young as decreed by the Emperor.

Standing in the VIP seats of the small theatre or odeion, covered with a roof at the time of the explosion.

Atlas, poor guy, held up a pillar of the roof.

The lupanar or brothel had ten stone beds with stone pillow each in a small room of it's own.

A close up of the comfy bed, reportedly covered with a straw mattress.  The  brothel was managed by a 'leno' (an owner of prostitutes) who bought the girls as slaves, primarily from the East.  Have times changes?

The illustrations on the walls and doors of the rooms  advertised the specialties of the local prostitutes.  There were many erotic pictures found in Pompeii.  Some "mythological"  paintings were appreciated by the Roman upper class.

Others were more instructional.

Still others were advertising.

All quite explicit.  Priapus was a favourite character.

Maybe the first "Beware of the Dog" sign in mosaic at the door of a small villa.  It's behind glass so the reflective glare partially obscures his ferocious head and teeth.  But I think he's wagging his tail.

On the edge of the forum were areas/rooms packed full of archeological findings.  A tragedy that left an incredible wealth of intact artifacts still being unearthed along with an amazingly clear vision of life in the first century.

A striking body cast - praying?  Seems appropriate.

Pompeii was an amazing insight into first century daily life.  A city immobilized in a single day.  Incredible!  I only wish that it hadn't been 35 degrees with no shade.  We saw a lot but would've seen more in spring or fall.  Don't go in summer - even June, when we went is too damn hot!!