After we finished the tour, Catherine and I needed to exchange dollars for Euros, and our Pompeii guide walked us to the post office, exchanged a few words, in Italian of course, with the guy at the window, and voila -- we had our Euros at the great exchange rate of $1.27 = 1 Euro -- 22 cents better than the airport rate. We had fabulous Margharete pizza for lunch. The Campania region of Italy, where we are right now, is famous for buffalo mozzarella, which is actually made from buffalo milk. Apparently there are herds of buffalo in Italy.
We then went to the beautiful coastal town of Sorrento and had some time on our own. We bought a bottle of local wine to take back to the hotel, which I'm drinking right now while I'm blogging.
Then the fun really started as we headed down the Amalfi Coast. What a wild ride! Disneyland doesn't have anything on the Amalfi Coast, and our bus driver, Jean Lucca, was masterful. I wish I could share a video because it has to be experienced to believe it. At times, we were millimeters away from the retaining wall and the oncoming traffic. It was also unbelievably beautiful -- similar to the Big Sur area of California but much more built up with tile-roofed buildings hanging off the cliffsides. The town in the photo is Positano.
It turns out that Catherine and I were not the last to arrive on our tour. We got to the hotel at 6:30 PM yesterday, and Bill and Noreen, who we met on the original aircraft, arrived around midnight. We were very happy to see them this morning, and we are now bonded as the result of our shared experience, which is now just a distant memory.
Everything is going well, and the tour with Odyssey is exceeding our expectations. Tomorrow we're off to Rome with stop at Montecassino, home of the Benedictine order. 'Til then -- ciao!
I never made it to the Amalfi Coast. It has to be one of the highest of the high points of all of Italy. (Love those scary coastal roads whilst in a great big bus!!!!! Pat C.
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