!http://www.italianvisits.com/images/italianmaps/campania-map.jpg!
It’s hard to believe, but I never posted about the cool back half of a trip to Europe. Specifically some of the great places we found outside of Naples (Napoli for the affictionados). Here are some notes of great places to hang out in. This is a region called Campania and is just incredibly for cruising and hanging out on the many islands.
* “Napoli”:http://www.europeportreviews.com/Naples.htm. Called Naples in English, this is the main port. It is a big city, although it has both a sulfur and volcanic pit as well as a huge Roman ruin that is unfortunately being restored right now. I’m not sure I’d spend much time there, but you do have to fly in and out of there.
* “Positano”:http://www.positanonline.it/welcome_eng.html. This has to be our favorite little beachfront village. It is on the Amalfi coast and is a little north of Amalfi itself. It is overrun by tourists and desperately hot, but if you are lucky enough you can swim in the cool seas and it isn’t polluted. If you have a boat, see Ponza for even more authentic an experience.
* “Amalfi”:http://www.amalfiscoast.com/. The marina has the best pizza I’ve ever tasted (I’m not kidding) and the town itself is larger. In the evening, there is a terrific sunset looking out towards the bay. It is both the village itself and the name of the entire coastline dotted with villages hung on the side of cliffs.
* “L’isola di Capri”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capri. This is the place that pants got named, but actually we found it super overcrowded. It is hard to get a spot to moor and because it is on the main high speed ferry line, it is pretty overrun. Avoid it if you can. BTW, this just means the Island of Capri (and the accent is on the first syllable if you want to sound Italian :_)
* “L’isola di Ischia”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischia. This is a little farther out and they have a fabulous castle that we took a quick tour through, but altogether, a bigger island so a little more crowded. The sunsets here are really wonderful.
* “Isola Di Ponza”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponza. This has to be our favorite spot. It is about an hour farther out than Capri and is really very tiny. A huge destination for folks from Rome and Naples, it is a garden of Eden litterally.
* “Pompeii”:http://touritaly.org/pompeii/pompeii-main.htm . This is actually about 30 minutes inland and it is of course where all those folks died when Vesuvius exploded. Not to miss although beastly hot in the summer.
