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| Coastline of Sorrento |
| Glenn's Positano Journals 5-16-02, Part 1 Today's plan was to check out Sorrento and then head to Positano later in the day. Buses to Positano left quite frequently and the bus ride along the edge of the cliffs was meant to be spectacular, and in turn, should be taken during the day so you can enjoy the views. (From Sorrento to Positano you should sit on the right side of the bus to get the best views.) We awoke, showered, packed, paid our bill, and left our luggage downstairs while we toured around Sorrento for the day. Sorrento is a quaint little town with beautiful views and wonderful shops (less crowded than the big cities) to browse in. We took off our separate ways and planned to meet back up with Dave and Marile at 1:00 pm in the town center. We found a great little shop where Erin had a chance to try on some new clothes and ended up buying a new, and very comfortable, outfit. She was very happy to have something different to wear after wearing the same clothes for the past 7 weeks. We also found an art gallery that had the neatest bronze frogs for sale. Each frog had it's own name and, as you can imagine with bronze, were well out of our price range no matter how much we liked them. It was getting close to 1:00 pm so we hurried back to town center where we met up with Dave and Marile. We decided that we were both ready for lunch and wanted to try out a place that we had seen the night before. It was a cozy little restaurant with outdoor seating right on the street with reasonable prices. Both couples bought a pizza and split it among ourselves. We had the luck to sit next to a young couple (at least very young at heart) from California. Frank and Mona were truly a joy to chat with as they told us about his joy of sailing and the sailing school that he used to run. Frank and Mona were a very happy couple who provided us with laughter in our day. Frank even invited us out for a sail at any time. We shared our website addresses and said we would maybe meet up in July when we were home. Again, a very wonderful couple. After lunch we finished walking around a little longer before heading back to the hotel to gather our things. We packed our way back to the bus terminal, bought tickets, and waited for the next bus to Positano which was to leave in about 40 minutes. The bus left town around 3:50 pm and arrived in Positano around 4:30 pm or so. We had reserved beds in the local hostel for the night (Thanks to Dave and Marile having brought a cell phone with them we had a chance to call around before arriving in town to verify availability.) and were told where to get off the bus nearest the hostel. The bus ride was spectacular as foretold and we did get to sit on the right side of the bus for the best views. We arrived in Positano and walked back up a slight hill to the hostel. The hostel was open when we arrived and we went upstairs to check in. We both decided on dormitory style beds which, in this case, was a room with 15 beds. At this point though we were only sharing the room with one other person. The Ostello Brikette had too many inconvenient rules including lockout from 10 am to 4 pm, curfew at midnight, and no food or drinks allowed on the premises unless it was purchased on the premises. We quickly decided to check out our other options for the next 3 nights that we wished to stay in Positano. We dropped our bags and quickly headed out to check other accomodations listed in our guide books. Our first stop was the Pensione Maria Luisa. Upon entering the pensione we were promptly provided with a high recommendation from someone who was staying there currently. The quad was available for 20 Euro's per person, which matched what we were paying at the hostel, and it didn't have all of the rules the hostel had, especially the lockout. The gentleman running the place was extremely positive, helpful, and happy. The only issue was that we could only have the room for 2 nights as it was already booked for the 3rd night. Oh well, what to do??? We thanked him for his courtesy and went on our way to locate another accomodation. We checked out a few other places and the closer to town the more expensive they were getting. Marile then came up with a great idea to stay the 2 nights in the pensione Maria Luisa and then move on to Amalfi on Sunday for a night or two. We quickly agreed and returned to book the quad at the pensione before it became unavailable. Actually Dave and Marile went back to the pensione to reserve the room while Erin and I took off into town to locate an internet cafe. |