Friday, October 17 - Amalfi Coast to Fiumicino AP, Italy

Well, it took juggling 3 or 4 maps at a time, and we still got lost a few times, but what a spectacular day it was! We enjoyed our breakfast at the Torre Barbara Hotel, and successfully negotiated our way onto the road, heading toward Sorrento. The scenery along the coast is unbelievable, but so are the roads and drivers. Larry picked up Italian driving very well and did a great job negotiating extremely narrow streets, weaving motorcycles and motor bikes and giant oncoming tour buses. He seems to have mastered the necessary skill of using one hand for the gear shift, and one for the horn with a bit of steering in between. We worked our way to magnificent Positano, where we worked our way slowly to the bottom of one cliff and gradually back up another to the coast road. We didn't stop because there were not parking spots, but also because it was so mobbed it wouldn't have been very pleasant. We drove on to Amalfi, which appealed much more, parked, enjoyed wonderful pizza at a restaurant on the beach, then wandered the streets for an hour or so. Shortly after leaving Amalfi we spotted a sign point to the autostrade, and decided we should start back toward Rome. Of course we didn't know the autostrade was on the other side of a mountain! It was an interesting journey, with more amazing scenery -- steep slopes cultivated with various crops, tiny villages and of course, precipitous drops to little valleys. Eventually we hit the highway and had an uneventful trip back as far as the Rome ring road, where we managed to get lost! After a bit of driving around we found a sign & got back on track. The hotel was easily located & a welcome sight as we were hot and tired by then.  

Photos 17 Oct