Positano - Italy Day 1

To say that I love traveling would be an understatement. If I haven't been out of the country in a few months, I start to get antsy and just have the urge to get on a plane and go somewhere.

Luckily for me, my brother had a baseball tournament in Italy and I got work off! 

After the worst plane ride of my life (I'm getting way too used to first class) with an annoying mother-daughter combo who kept waking me up right before I could fall asleep and a quick jump over from Amsterdam to Rome, we finally arrived. 

My dad, Andrew, Andrew's friend Tyler who was also playing in the tournament, and I packed into the car and started our drive from Rome to Positano, a coastal town in southwest Italy.

After three hours, we reached the exciting part of the drive: the Amalfi coast. One of the most beautiful coastal drives in the world, the narrow road winds around the coast and one wrong turn would send you plummeting down thousands of feet into the ocean. Vespas and motorcycles speed past you, and fruit vendors sell their fresh goods on scenic overlooks. 

If you have the chance, I highly recommend coming down to southern Italy. The drive is an experience in itself. 

Mount Vesuvius in the distance. 

Yachts. . . 

Check out the yachts!

When we arrived in Positano, we first stopped at our B&B to drop all of our luggage off. I don’t think we were expecting this to be such a struggle. In order to get to the B&B, you had to climb a steep stone staircase of at least 250 steps. As we later realized, this was not only treacherous with luggage, it took the breath out of you even without luggage. Typing this two days later, my calves still burn so badly I can barely walk. Maybe it’s time to head to the gym when I get back. . . 

The climb was worth it, of course. Check out the view from our balcony. Does it get any better than this?

Wanting to enjoy the last few hours of sun, we threw on our swimsuits and took the bus down to the beach. 

Positano's beach is a unique mix of smooth stones and black sand from the volcanoes nearby. 

We laid on the beach relaxing until our stomachs started growling and it was time to fill them up, Italian style. 

We wandered back up the hill to the bus stop, passing under overpasses of beautiful purple flowers. 

We had to have gelato as an appetizer, of course!

We took the bus back up the hill to the owner of our B&B’s cousin’s restaurant. We watched the sunset over the yachts on the ocean while our food was prepared. 

I ordered the homemade pasta with Bolognese sauce. It was amazing, and I stuffed myself full of it. But my stomach was about to reach a new capacity after this dinner. 

My dad decided to order the 5 course set seafood menu. After he finished the first course, a platter of various chilled seafood, he thought the meal was over. Oh, was he wrong. 

I have never seen so much food served to one person as a single meal before in my life. After the first course came a massive bowl of pasta with mussels and clams. My dad struggled to finish that. 

Then came the main course: two fillets of locally caught fish. Though stuffed to the brim, I managed to squeeze down one of the fillets, which was delicious. 

They then kept bringing out more and more desserts. Lemon cake, homemade cookies, dessert wine, coffee. The owner kept offering more and more and more and we had to cut him off around midnight. Our dinner lasted about three hours because more food just kept coming. When the bill came, we were amazed. The owner never charged us for so many of the things he kept bringing for us. And he gave us a discount on top of that. True hospitality. It was one of the best restaurants I've ever been to. 

Extremely full of food and wine, my dad and I climbed up the hill to the B&B and struggled up the steps at an embarrassingly slow rate. It’s ok, no one else saw.

When we got back to the room, I fell asleep immediately, having been awake for 36 hours. Day one was a success!