Ciao Regazzi! Trip report of 6 nights on the Amalfi Coast, August 2021. Part 1.
8/25/21- left Chicago for Naples, with a layover in Brussels. Though the flight was delayed by an hour due to lightening, we quickly realized the $2000 round trip business class fare was going to be worth the price. More room to breathe and the extra extra leg room was nice. The experience, however, wasn’t as nice as we’d hoped. Little attention to service. Few extras you’d expect in the higher class seating.
Boarding in Chicago amounted to getting in line, being told we needed passport stickers, told to get into another line, waited. Waited. Waited some more. Getting irritated for missing out on the pre-flight champagne (which was never offered). When finally at front of line, nothing checked. A form shoved in our face and a sticker stuck to passports. Off to board. We’d planned ahead, just in case, with a Covid test within 72 hours of boarding. It wasn’t needed.
8/26 - Boarding in Brussels after a layover was only painful because we never got the alert to board and missed an opportunity to use the nasty restroom before boarding. Making our way through passport control was a snap. We were the only people in line. Flight on BrusselsAir was dirty and packed.
Our pre-arranged driver picked us up at the Naples airport on time. Whisked us off in his Mercedes for a 130€ fare to final destination on Amalfi Coast, Atrani. While en route it began to rain. Then flash flooding. Water poured off of rock faces and down stairways like waterfalls. We were afraid of land and rock slides. Luckily we made it down the mountain safely out of Ravello. By the time we arrived at our hotel in Atrani, Palazzo Ferrioli, the sun was out.
The hotel had asked for a 24 hour Covid test. They agreed to accept our 72 hours test. At check in, they asked for nothing. Interested only in the 260€ cash fare from Napoli and return.
Dinner at Le Palme. Drinks at Cafe Vittoria. Wine on the roof top terrace and off to bed.
8/27 - rainy breakfast meant breakfast would be taken indoors. Classroom-style seating and the breakfast buffet laid out as a point and plate assisted by the hotel staff filling the plate for you. Strange. My first breakfast looked like this: ham, cheese, boiled egg, tomato, prune, pear, and a roll. Ate all, along with multivitamin juice and cappuccino.
Wandered about town, had a Spritz on the square at La Risacca, lunch at Savo with the family’s Limoncello after expresso, napped, had a massage at hotel, napped again. Arranged an all day, 8 hours, boat excursion for next day to Capri for 400€. Hotel wanted 50€ cash and issued a voucher and told us to pay skipper 400€, with meet up at 0930-1000 at an Amalfi restaurant on the harbor. Walked to Amalfi for mediocre drinks on the main square, 11€ Negronis were bad but the view was great, dinner at RS recommended Bar La Piazzetta. Walked back from Amalfi and enjoyed some nightlife before bed.
8/28 - breakfast taken outside to start the day. Then, an electric cart taxi ride to Amalfi to catch that boat excursion. Confusion galore at the restaurant but someone agreed to take us out. Too windy for a trip to Capri, which was ok by us. Boated to Positano, for a short stay in the heat with a bit of shopping for linen clothing, then back toward Amalfi for lunch at a beach club, along with a short jaunt around Minori and Maiori and drop off. Six hours instead of eight hours. Same price. Temperatures checked and information documented (name, table number, phone number) in Positano cafe.
Walked to Amalfi for dinner at RS recommended, La Taverna di Masaniello. Passed on mediocre Amalfi drinks. Walked back to reality and fair prices. Covid test will be taken tomorrow. Half hoping we’ll fail.