Wednesday, September 25, 2024

We left Ischia by ferry and returned to Naples to grab a different rental (Budget had a lot more paper work) to start our drive down the coast.

After getting to the train station, we rented our car. While it was not manual like the one in Ischia it did have AC which was a plus as we travel south.

We drove toward Sorrento and enjoyed the coast north of Amalfi. We stopped in the town of Meta at Tico Tico and got some lunch on the water. While the indoor part of the restaurant was in a cave, we ate outside – no caves for us yet.

We had to drive down into Meta down a giant cliff to get there.

After lunch we drove through Sorrento and it was packed with tourists. Not a huge surprise but we had not seen many folks so far and definitely were happy to get away from the crowds. We continued on through the Amalfi coast towns. The views were stunning as advertised and the towns interesting. The road was crazy. Lots of cars and turns. The big challenge was the buses. Often there would be a long stop as a bus waited for oncoming traffic to break so it could get around a tight spot. It took the drive in Ischia to a different level. Then it started to rain. Thankfully we had made it through the worst parts of the traffic.

I will leave a ream of pictures to Instagram folks but it was pretty. given the volume of people and cars it is crazy to imagine the chaos during the high tourist season. It was obvious how bad it would be as a local to try and get around anywhere.

We got to an AirBnB in Cetara. We ended up going the wrong way and entering the city. On the way back out, we got stuck behind a funeral.

Our host met us and helped us park the car in the cave garage and we made it to the rental. Pleasant for our overnight stay.

For dinner, we were not able to get into Punto e Pasta that our host had recommended but we did find some pizza and gelato (a common theme). The town was quiet but nice to walk around and we turned in after a long day of driving.