Coastal Chaos- traveling through Naples to our base in Vico Equense and a day in Capri

Our few days in Rome quickly came to an end and we were off to Naples via the high-speed train on a pleasant journey traveling to the south of Italy. As soon as we arrived in Naples we knew we weren’t in Kansas anymore surrounded by the noise, smells, crowds and chaos that is the fiber of this busy city!  We rented a car and I was so thankful that Vyse had elected to do all the driving as it was nuts navigating this city, honking, swearing, swerving, breaking…..and that’s just getting out of the parking lot!  There are no rules, it’s a free for all and a big game of chicken when driving in this part of Italy. The four of us with all our luggage jammed into our little rental looked like a comical frat prank on how much can you cram in.

Once out of the city it opened up on the freeway and we were on our way to Vico Equense where we had rented a beach house as our base for touring the Amalfi Coast.  We had a bit of trouble finding the place and checking in but someone who’s door we had knocked on gave the owner a call and he sent someone to meet us about 45 min. later.  A little hassle checking in and finding a place to park (no street parking, we had to pay a neighbor to use their empty garage) but we were very pleased with the house, its location and incredible views. Directly below our patio where a few lidos/beach clubs, across the cove was a small public beach with restaurant, bar and café, Vesuvius was clearly visible across the Bay of Naples and at dusk we were dazzled by the most amazing sunsets. Here is a link you want to check out the video from our beachhouse and the town of Vico Equense.  If you want to see pics of Vico, here is a link to the photo gallery

The next day was spent visiting Capri which had a wavy start!  Sandra gets sea sick easily but was prepared with anti motion sickness medication and she sat at the bottom of the boat to minimize the effect of the waves.  After an incident I had on a ferry ride to Cozumel I was also a little apprehensive about the sea voyage.  As soon as we departed the ferry started jumping and riding the waves, it was like being on an amusement park ride- the Ocean Motion/ the ship that swings back and forth.  I thought I was going to hurl and we were so concerned about how Sandra was doing below.  All around us they were dropping like flies and the attendants couldn’t hand out barf bags quick enough, people were hanging on for dear life with a few screams here and there.  A few people passed out and crew were gathered helping them to come too, a guy beside us was hurling non-stop and not doing very well.  It wasn’t a pleasant journey but luckily Sandra made it okay and I wasn’t feeling to terribly either but we did need to stop for a drink to settle our stomachs.  We happened to sit beside and recognized the prolific hurler that was beside us on the boat and his girlfriend was trying to help him recover.  I had never seen someone with such bad sea sickness, he was uncontrollably shaking and I was worried he’d go into shock.  We gave him some ginger candies and told him to drink something sweet to get his blood sugar up and it seemed to help, I sympathized with the poor guy knowing how badly I felt after that ferry ride to Cozumel. We had a nice afternoon in Capri and enjoyed the scenery despite the overwhelming number of tourists everywhere.  If we ever return we’ll plan instead to arrive a little earlier and head straight for AnnaCapri to avoid some of the tourists and take in more of the beautiful countryside rather than Capri and its overpriced shops.  Here is a video of our day in Capri, just click on the pic below.    Next post we are off to drive the Amalfi Coast! 

Here are a few pics, if you want to see more, here is a link to the gallery.