Up hideously early which I began to realise might be the norm :( and headed to the Vatican, a city in a city (it's actually it's own country) to the museum. Devices in our ears I have to begrudgingly say two things. It was nice being in a tour group that pre ordered tickets and organised a time for us to enter in front of the crowds that were already lined up, and I can (begrudgingly, yes I repeat myself) say it was good getting there early.
We followed our local tour guide Christina from the day before. She was great, good humoured without being cheesy, though I still could do without the 'watch the tricky step' aka crack in the pavement. We were walked through the courtyard with statuses, ruins, gardens, through rooms filled with ornate artefacts, tapestries handwoven over years, sculptures, paintings, frescoes and jewels. We were also given a sneak peak look at a set of stairs previously unopened that was used as the Pope's private stairwell. It's really too hard to even describe the nature of these amazing pieces, I just don't think I'd do them justice. We ended the tour by walking through the Sistine Chapel. It was incredible especially once we had had an explanations about the certain stories and little nuances that Michael Angelo included.
We bid our tour farewell and got back on the bus. We travelled for quite a while until stopping at a cemetery that commemorated many of soldiers who died during wartimes. By this stage we had been going quite a while since breakfast and there seemed to be no break or food in sight. The troops were getting restless and I was quite concerned that some of the older group participants may laps into diabetic comas lol...but seriously it wasn't planned all that well. About half an hour later we arrived at a truck stop where we were given copious amounts of instructions and a word of warning...that if they throw a cappuccino at you just laugh a they do it to everyone...WTF!!!
Well the experience wasn't as bad as that but wasn't far off. The staff there certainly didn't look like they got a lot of job satisfaction, nor cared about delivering the right meals to the right customers...one even had a little tantie and stormed off...ahhhh the passion of the Italians lol. Anyway we all got something and stocked up for future bus trips.
We finally arrived in the area of Sorrento where we got on smaller buses to head down to the Amulfi Coast. Our bus driver was cute!! And instead of our usual tour leader Letizia we had Dan give us some info about the area, as he had lived there for a period of time a while ago. He was quite entertaining. We stopped for photos and I was offered a uncovered sugar coated almond by aforementioned cute driver, whilst trying to be polite and decline, he was quite persistent.... I think by accepting the almond I now maybe engaged lol.
After lots of twists and turns down a beautiful coast line we arrived at Positano. It was a gorgeous sea side down, nestled into the coastline of the Amulfi Coast. We had free time so Letizia helped me find a cafe that the Aussie cinque terre team had recommended. I and a few followers traced the streets down to the beach where we found a great cafe. I said hello on behalf of the girls to their favourite waiter and settled in for a drink of lemoncello. Yum! The sun was setting and the lights were slowly coming on in the town. It was lovely definitely a place I could see coming back to.
Returned winding back to Sorrento, hotel johanna and got ready for a group dinner in the hotel. The wine flowed freely as did the conversation with my mate Sharyn and two other Australians, older ladies but lovely and two American ladies who were younger than the other pensioners and good value. Along with friendly service to compensate for earlier in the day, I wet to bed happy and full.
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