We
were up at 6 am and in the Princess Theater at 7 am for our tour of the area around
Naples. When we got up we hadn't docked
yet because of heavy traffic in the harbor.
A few minutes after we were in the Princess Theater they announced that
we didn't have to assemble for the tour until 7:30. We were already there, so we stayed. We were about an hour late docking and
starting our tour.
Our
tour was scheduled for all day. We drove
along the coast to a town named Sorrento.
On the way to Sorrento we could see Mt. Vesuvius and some of the
excavated ruins of Pompeii, which was destroyed when Vesuvius erupted in 79
AD. In Sorrento our first stop was at
Coumo's Lucky Store. There we had a
demonstration of how they do their specialty of inlaid wood furniture. That was also our toilet stop. We had about an hour of free time. I had a cache loaded and we walked to one of
town squares and to the top of some stairs in a canyon that lead down to the
marina. The cache was near the
bottom. Because of the distance we didn't
go down. We walked around some of the
shops and met our group at the designated spot.
Our group then went for lunch at a local restaurant, Parrucchiano. We had Cannelloni and a chicken dish, it was
very nice followed by a very light, lemon tasting cake.
After
lunch we got back on the bus and drove along the coast to Salerno. In Salerno we boarded a small boat and
traveled along the Amalfi Coast past several small villages to the town of
Amalfi. Along the costal cliffs there were
a lot of both ancient and new looking buildings. They looked like they were perched very precariously
on the cliff and if there were roads we couldn't see them. We had some free
time and walked around the small shops.
Amalfi is built on the cliffs and has very narrow streets with a lot of
motor scooters zipping back and forth among the pedestrians. My GPS also showed a cache within .25
miles. We walked toward it but it was opposite
the one in Sorrento. There were many
stairs to go up a couple of levels, a lot of steps up instead of down like in
Sorento. We didn't try it.
It
was a 45 minute boat ride back to Salerno where we re-boarded the bus for the
drive back to Napoli. On the drive back
we got a better view of Mt. Vesuvious, the clouds had lifted. We also got another fleeting view of
Pompeii. We had one more stop before
getting back to the ship. We visited a jewelry
store specializing in making cameos.
Until this demonstration neither of us knew that cameos were carved from
seashell. I had always thought they were carved out of some type of rock set on
a darker rock. Gerri bought a pair of
earrings before we left the store.
We
got to the ship docks at about 6 PM. My
GPS showed a cache less than 100' away from where the bus dropped us off. The description said this one was placed so
it could be quickly found by crew members of cruise ships. We zeroed in on GZ and read the hint. We had no luck finding the container and were
running out of time, so we boarded the ship empty handed. When I posted my DNF on this cache I saw that
another cacher had also failed to find it.
So far I haven't had any luck finding a cache in Italy. I also missed
one in Vatican City because of the rain. I have two more shots at Italy, Messina
and Venice. I hope for better luck in
Turkey and Greece.
The
ship sailed about an hour after we boarded.
Our course is south around the boot of Italy and then generally east to
Mykonos.
We
went to dinner at our regular seating,
Lou and Mona were there. We had a
good dinner and conversation. After
dinner we stopped in the Vista Lounge and watched a few minutes of a name that
tune featuring 70's music.
Tomorrow
is a sea day so we plan to sleep in.
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