Carnival Vista Review: Day 8 – Naplesfeatured

La dolce vita.

Our first two days in Italy were all about the rich history and stunning architecture of the cities we were visiting. Our third day in Italy? That was our day to enjoy the Italian culture and lifestyle. La dolce vita. The sweet life. And there was no better way to enjoy that than with a day on the Amalfi Coast.

Our last day in Italy on this itinerary would bring us to Naples, which is a gateway to the Amalfi Coast. Colorful villas stretching sky high from pristine, white sand beaches, charming fishing villages, winding roads – seeing the Amalfi Coast in person is like staring into a life-sized postcard.

We docked in nearby Salerno the year before, visiting Capri, Sorrento and touring the ruins at Pompeii on our last visit. On the plus, having already seen Pompeii opened up a full half a day to explore something new, but on the minus, nearly every tour stops at Pompeii because it is the marquee attraction of the region.

Most tours the ship offered visited Capri or Sorrento or Amalfi. We wanted to visit all of them. Just as we were looking into if and how we could DIY it, Carnival listed a new excursion, one that visited Amalfi, Positano and Sorrento with plenty of free time in each. We booked it immediately.

An itinerary like that needs a full day – so full, we needed to be up with the sun to be ready for our early meeting time. Mom tried to make the early wake up better by bringing arepas to the room for a breakfast on the patio, but we were up before the arepa man and the Blue Iguana wasn’t even open yet. We grabbed a quick breakfast in Ocean Plaza instead, before heading to the Liquid Lounge for our 7:30 am meeting time.

Our tour group was small, maybe 20 or 30 people, and we were escorted off the ship, where we met our guide for the day, Tony. What can I say about Tony? Tony was born and raised on the Amalfi Coast. He wore a sassy scarf, called us his babies (which was completely endearing in his heavy Italian accent) and asked us to dive into the culture of the villages we visited. He called our tour group his family for the day, and somehow, that’s exactly how it felt. I’ve been on a lot of cruises and even more tours. I’ve never had a tour guide who loved sharing his country and its culture or who took as much pride in it as Tony.

We pulled out of Naples and set off for our first stop of the day: Amalfi. Tony was giving us a run down of the day’s itinerary before telling us about the history of the region, but my eyes were plastered out the window. The drive to Amalfi isn’t for the faint of heart – if you are inclined towards any kind of motion sickness, the steep, winding curves leading to Amalfi could make you all kinds of miserable. A few ladies on our tour ran straight for the restroom when we got off the bus in Amalfi – the drive was no joke. But for me, the drive was exhilarating, each turn bringing us higher, each curve revealing a landscape more captivating than the last.

Our tour bus parked a few yards from Amalfi’s main entry point, and we had a couple of minutes to use the restrooms before Tony guided us inside. We stepped off the bus and the landscape in front of us was like a postcard – the kind of beauty that is so magnificent that no words could ever do it justice. It just didn’t seem real. I didn’t think anything could top the sleek beauty we found in Capri the year before, but I admired these colorful villas stacked atop each other, perched above picture-perfect beaches and stunning turquoise waters and I just thought to myself, the world is filled with some crazy beautiful places, but the Amalfi Coast has to be amongst the most spectacular.

I didn’t have too much time to admire the seascape, though – our group was reconvening at the entrance and we were all ready to see what Amalfi had to offer.

Tony led us through the entrance and into the main square, before setting us free for an hour of free time to grab a coffee, do some shopping or tour the Amalfi Cathedral, a 9th century Roman Catholic cathedral. We wasted no time, stopping first for some cappuccinos at Andrea Pansa, a pasticceria that has been in business since 1830. Our cappuccinos were delivered with a complimentary plate of cookies, and as I sat there, with my Italian espresso, a plate of Italian cookies, in one of the most peaceful and picturesque towns I’ve ever visited, I just kept thinking This is it. This is la dolce vita. This is the sweetest life. The morning passes by at a different pace in Amalfi. Nothing is rushed. Everything is done with purpose and enjoyed to the full extent possible. Life moves slower and the air is lighter. The good life, in every possible sense.

We left ourselves with just over a half hour to do some shopping, and there were plenty of shops for us to browse. The shopping along the Amalfi Coast is some of the best in Italy, specializing in art, ceramics, textiles and gourmet goodies. I stocked up on pasta, seasonings and sauce mixes and anything lemon flavored and scented (we were in the birthplace of Limoncello, after all!) while Stephanie purchased some decorative ceramic tiles.

Our time was up before any of us were ready for, and we made our way back to our meeting spot at the fountain in between the entryway and the boat launch, taking our time to admire the small details we found along the way.

Tony was the last to join the group – he had stopped to grab some lemons on the way out. The scent of lemons, he said, would help with the motion sickness some of our travelmates were experiencing on the drive over. Thankfully for them, we weren’t driving from Amalfi to our next stop in Positano. Instead, we were taking the more scenic route, traveling by boat.

The best way to tour the Amalfi Coast is by boat. Not only is it usually the quickest transit between towns, but the landscape is absolutely spectacular. Last year, we traveled from the cruise ship in Salerno to our stop in Capri by hydrofoil, a ride we shared with the hundreds of other cruisers who were beginning their tours in Capri. When we traveled from Capri to Sorrento, it was on the public ferry. I think we were all pleasantly surprised to find out that not only was our trip from Amalfi to Positano would be on the water, but our small tour group had our own boat all to ourselves.

We set sail for Positano, leaving the colorful buildings of Amalfi behind our wake, as Tony took the mic to narrate our ride. He pointed out the luxury hotels, the celebrity vacation homes, the Fjord of Furore, the Conca dei Marini…everything. Prosecco was poured and served with some snacks while Tony sang the hits of Frank Sinatra and it was perfect. All of it. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Tony had us all take a big group selfie, the prosecco kept flowing and it was like being on an Italian party boat (but, you know, like a classy one).

Much like our other port stops last year, our day in Naples was jam packed. Our priority was visiting Pompeii, which came at the expense of visiting Positano. We started our day in Capri, had lunch in Sorrento and then spent the afternoon touring the ruins at Pompeii. I was so excited to have the opportunity to visit Positano on this trip because Positano is often considered one of the most photogenic towns on the Amalfi Coast, with narrow streets lined with some of the best shopping and dining in the region. As our boat approached the dock and Positano took form in front of us, I knew we were in for something special. Positano was bigger than Amalfi…taller somehow. And more colorful. The villas spanned from the beach to the sky. It is truly spectacular.

Tony led us to our meeting spot and then set us loose for another hour of free time. There were at least a dozen beachfront cafes and restaurants steps from our meeting point that looked amazing and smelled even better, but lunch was included on our tour and scheduled in our next stop in Sorrento. There were artists scattered around the beach, selling unique pieces they’d worked on that day. But I had two priorities: shopping and gelato. In that order. Though the forecast had showed temperatures in the upper 60s, it felt at least ten degrees warmer in the sun. I needed some reinforcements in the direct sunlight because nothing sounded less appealing than touring Turkey and Greece with a sunburn and, being our last day in Italy, one last gelato was a must. The shopping in Positano was a little different than the shopping in Amalfi. A little more upscale, with less ceramics and more leather and textiles. We stocked up on some gorgeous scarves.

When we met back up with our tour group, Tony mentioned that we’d be taking the bus to our final stop in Sorrento, but that the bus would be meeting us near the Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta, an ornate church that sits at the top of Positano. We had a little bit of a hike to get there. Tony had arranged for a golf cart for anyone who couldn’t (or didn’t want to) walk up for a couple of Euros a person. We opted to walk off the gelato and enjoy as much of Positano as we could take in on the walk up.

There was one more short hike from the church to the spot where the bus would meet us. There were even more shops up at the top, but we wouldn’t have time to browse them – Tony had warned us that we’d need to be speedy in getting on the bus since there wasn’t a proper place for the bus to stop.

The ride to Sorrento was along similar winding roads as our drive to Amalfi. I had to close my eyes a couple of times to keep from getting dizzy at points and a couple of others kept to sniffing the lemons Tony had purchased earlier. Thankfully, it was a short ride and before we knew it, we were driving on a familiar road into the small town with lemon trees lining the streets. We were dropped off right at Ristorante Parrucchiano, where we enjoyed a traditional Italian lunch in a gorgeous garden courtyard. We enjoyed some fantastic Italian wines while dining on cannelloni and chicken, reflecting on our favorite ports and experiences from the trip with our tablemates.

We had less free time in Sorrento, just 40 minutes, so made a break for it as dessert was being served. Having visited Sorrento the year before, we were already familiar with the meeting spot and the shopping options, so we were ready to get our shopping on.

Sorrento is the stop to pick up your typical kinds of souvenirs (the magnets, the postcards, the soaps shaped like lemons). You can get scarves for super cheap. There’s a perfume store, Carthusia, that we particularly enjoy. My first stop was the Carrefour market down the street. I don’t think a grocery store tops most people’s lists when shopping for souvenirs, but it’s a great place to pick up some locally produced snacks to bring back (and some more Kinder Eggs to enjoy on the ship) and they typically offer the lowest prices on locally produced liquors.

After we finished our shopping, we headed back to the meeting point at Cuomo’s Lucky Store, finding ourselves to be the first people back. Cuomo’s is a shop that specializes in inlaid wood pieces and if you buy one thing on the Amalfi Coast and nothing else, buy a music box. We each purchased one on our visit the year before and count it amongst our best purchases from the trip. They’ll range in price from €50 to €100, but they’re so unique, each piece handcrafted and so intricate. None of us were planning on buying a second one, but we found a shelf of clearance merchandise and the prices were just too good to pass up.

Once our group had all been accounted for, we were given a short demonstration on the art of inlaid woodwork, and a tour of the store. There was no pressure to buy, so we enjoyed seeing all of the pieces the store had on display.

Having already finished our shopping, we waited outside for the bus. We couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous day and as it wound down, sitting outside underneath a lemon tree while we waited for the bus, I still couldn’t process the day we’d had. We weren’t even halfway through our trip yet, and we’d already seen and experienced so much beauty and culture and there was still so much left to come.

The drive to the ship took about an hour and most everyone took the time to nap. Tony woke us up as we approached the port back in Naples. A couple of people on the tour passed a hat around to collect tips for Tony and our driver to thank them for such a wonderful day. We parted in the parking lot, exchanging Facebook information before bidding farewell to Tony and heading into the terminal. It was nearing 6:00 pm and the line to board the ship stretched nearly the entire length of the terminal. The line was slow enough moving that it allowed for Mom to wait while Stephanie and I stopped in one of the terminal shops to make a few last minute purchases in a small food and liquor shop.

We made a quick stop at the room to drop off all of our purchases once we were back onboard before heading to the dining room for dinner. Nothing was going to top the fine Italian meal we had in Sorrento, but we were really enjoying experiencing the new offerings on the American Table menus.

We were still docked in Naples when we finished our meal, so we decided to head upstairs to the Lido deck to watch the ship pull out of port, giving us some great views of Naples and nearby Mount Vesuvius (…yeah…that Vesuvius. The one that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum and is still an active volcano).

The most sensational sunset I’ve ever seen was the year prior, off the coast of Capri as we set sail back towards Barcelona. As sunset approached this time, we were treated to another magnificent display.

We sat out on deck for awhile, enjoying the fresh air as we watched the islands we passed become smaller and smaller. The evening pace onboard these port-heavy European itineraries was slower, allowing us the time to relax from such busy days and reflect upon what we’d seen and done.

It wasn’t long before we ended up back in the room, watching a movie as we sorted through our souvenirs and purchases. There wasn’t a playlist performance scheduled, so we opted for a lazy evening of relaxing on the patio.

Mom turned in early, but Stephanie and I wanted to check out the deck party (the first of our cruise) up on the Lido deck. Matt and his entertainment staff really knew how to throw a party – the Lido deck was packed with people mingling and dancing. I didn’t know where they found the energy – it was barely 11:00 pm and I was already falling asleep standing up! We grabbed some pizza at Pizzeria del Capitano, took it back to the patio to enjoy under the stars while we listened to the live Cuban music they were streaming into the patios from the Havana Bar.

And then, in typical fashion, I headed in to brush my teeth, wash my face, and I promptly passed out in the middle of posting a picture to Instagram. We had a day at sea ahead of us, and we planned on exploring every nook of the Vista we could get into.

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