Day 4: After our trip to Salerno we were jonesing for a boat and beach day. The heat of the coast was too much …
Day 4:
After our trip to Salerno we were jonesing for a boat and beach day. The heat of the coast was too much to bear without air conditioning and escaping to the water would be our only way of cooling ourselves off. So we went to one of the small huts at the Spiagga Grande to figure out, which boat adventure we wanted to take the next day. I wanted to save Capri for my birthday, and the Australian girl suggested that we go on the Amalfi Coast boat tour. We’d be on a boat all day swimming through grottos and then stop off for a special lunch. I was reluctant to fork over more money for lunch, but the sheila said it would be very special and worth it. We signed up.
The heat of the Positano awoke us the next day, we were eager to start our adventure. I had no expectations. I just imagined a day of swimming along the coast, but it would turn out to be one of the best days of our trip!
We boarded a small boat with four others, two men from NYC, and an older couple from Genoa. Our captain, a native of Positano, James, was a large blonde man, who claimed to be Italian despite his thick English accent. His father was Italian, and his mother English. He lived in Positano during the summers, and traveled for the rest of the year around Italy, and often to London. All in all he was a real character! I couldn’t wait to meet this man’s father, who would be our captain on our trip to Capri.
James and the six of us set sail for the Amalfi Coast. Traveling on a small speed boat was wonderful. The weather was magnificent, and we got a real sense of the cliffs as we road by them in a small speed boat. Our first stop was a small sea arch where James anchored. The water was very green and beautiful, I was a little reluctant to dive right in, but as the Amalfitian sun began to beat down on me, I dove right it! The water was cool and refreshing. Jason and I, and the others swam around the sea arch, and between several large boulders. I had never swam through such waters. The waves were strong and demanded a strong swimmer, thank goodness I had been on swim team all those years in highschool :p
Tired from swimming through the boulders we climbed up a giant rock and rested for awhile. Only to be splashed by the giant waves. We swam back to the boat, happy as a clam for our first experience swimming off the coast.
It was around 11am, and James headed toward the ice chest. He broke out a bottle of Prosecco. I love Prosecco, but the thought of drinking at 11am was foreign to me. Jason grabbed a glass, and I joined in, after all we were on vacation! We sat back and sipped our Prosecco as the boat took off again. Ahh this is the life I thought. “Baller-style!” retorted Putorti.
Our next stop was a giant cave. James stopped off outside the cave. This time I was the first one of the boat. I began swimming as fast as I could with no sense of fear. I couldn’t wait to see what was in the cave. The cave was quite large, the water inside as shimmered a pretty green. There were shallow spots where you could stand on rocks. Jason and I felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie, and of course he ended up with the scars to prove it!
I sat quietly in the cave taking it all in. I had never done anything this adventurous before in my life, but I was happy that I had taken the time out to do.
We had one more stop before lunch. Close to Amalfi Town, there were three large water falls that we could see in the distance. First swimming through a cave and now swimming under a water fall! Once again I was the first to disembark. As I approached the falls I felt the water getting colder. But it was still refreshing. The source of the falls were probably about 50 feet high. Despite the heat, the chilly water started to get to me and I headed back to the boat.
Hunger pangs started…I had come to Italy to eat! James set sail one more time for our lunch spot. We stopped in the middle of the water and were greeted by a man on a hydrofoil. We boarded the hydrofoil and in the distance saw a small restaurant perched on the a beach. The hydrofoil was a experience, its faster than a speed boat, but pretty bumpy, imagine a really fast raft.
We got to the beach, where people were swimming, sunbathing, and snorkeling. It was a pretty chill location, we strolled up to the restaurant, which was open air. We took our seats at a large table and awaited our soon-to-be large Italian feast!
First they brought out wine, and bruschetta. By this point in our trip we were pretty sedate from the Prosecco, but Jason insisted I have a glass of the white. I continued to indulge myself. Our first course was a pasta course, clams in linguine with a garlic sauce, yup! The next course was seafood, calamari and octopus. The final course was dessert, and my favorite Italian dessert: tiramisu! They brought it out with two liquors. One of the liquors was the traditional limoncello, which I wasn’t a huge fan of so I took a couple sips. But next to it was a dark chocolate liquor. The chocoholic in me couldn’t resist! As I sipped the cool and smooth liquor I was in heaven! It had the perfect balance of liquor and chocolate, I highly recommend it. Buzzing by this point, and still wanting to enjoy the full Italian lunch experience I topped the meal off with a rich cappuccino.
Stuffed from our large mid-day meal we climbed aboard the boat for one last swim before the end of our adventure. Jason proceeded to take pictures of the coast as I lay back and relaxed. The older Italian couple and I struck up a conversation. The husband spoke fluent English, but the wife only spoke Italian so he translated for her. Apparently, she wanted to know where I was from, and how old I was. Wow, Italians so inquisitive! I told them I was 26, vacationing with my boyfriend, and that we were both from California. What I had wanted to say was that I was a young Indian Princess galavanting through Italy, which is certainly how I felt!
Our final swimming spot was calm water, I suspected James had picked this spot because we were all too stuffed to really swim. I jumped in and enjoyed one last dip.
We headed back to Positano, our tummies stuffed, and our hearts full of the beauty and thrill of swimming and sailing along the Amalfi Coast!
