We sail from Capri to Salerno.

This would be a short sail of only 30 miles.
We left at 10am by which time the port was humming with ferry boats!

One night in Capri was expensive enough for us.
We had a great sail out of Capri and decided to turn east first and then around the island to see the famous rock formation on the southern side of the island. This is where tourist boats drive though a rock arch and go to see the lovely blue Grotto caves.

Then we turned for Salerno -  and the beautiful Amalfi coast.
The wind died!
Motor – ON      …grrrrrrrrr!

Marina D’Arechi – could this be the next greatest marina in Italy?

Our destination was to a brand new marina not mentioned in the pilot books and we were greeted by the most enthusiastic and professional mooring team ever!  -  Marina D’Arechi!

We moored ‘bow-on’ and had plenty of help - unlike Capri! 

We were soon settled in and then – the staff bought Cathy & Les a small present each!
It was a miniature ornament of the rocks they used to build the outer wall structure of their new marina - a very interesting keepsake and a super thought.

Nothing seemed too much bother for them. Our extension power cord was a little short and so they made up a new extension cable to suit! Great stuff!
The team also arranged for a car hire company to come over the next day too. We tidied the boat up whilst Cathy made a great chicken pasta for our evening meal.

The marina is not yet finished. They still have a lot of new shops, restaurants, chandlers, play areas and the like to build – plus the new flashy bridge, but you can see it is going to be magnificent when finished next year. The amazing pontoons are in. Huge, wide and solid as are all the personal facilities.  This marina may not be in the centre of Salerno with all it’s nightlife and activity – but then neither is it smelly, dirty, disorganized or shallow. We just took a taxi ride (or the car) when we needed to slum it!
With customer service like this they cannot fail!

After we took delivery of the rental car Bob drove.
Actually, Bob drove whenever there was driving to do – period!
John hates driving and if there is someone else to do then that’s just fine!

We took the famous ‘Amalfi Coast Road’ – and met the dumb Italian drivers close up!

The non-drivers had fantastic views overlooking the coast and into the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Bob had fantastic hairpin bends overlooking cliff edges with tooting Italians overtaking on bends and motor cyclists weaving in and out. Italian drivers follow within 2 meters of your rear bumper - in case they miss an overtaking opportunity. When in Italy do not dare to think for more than 1 nanosecond before launching into the unknown – why spoil the fun!  Italian drivers just can’t seem to understand why some drivers might like to cling on to life! Driving seems to be a display of how much testosterone they have sloshing around in their bodies and who is prepared to die first – just dumb.
Bob did really well to keep up.
We counted the number of people he managed to overtake during the day.
He overtook – yes, overtook more than 6 people during the day – AND – only 3 of them were cyclists and one a tractor. Great stuff!

After an hour avoiding random Italian driving we finally reached ‘Ravello’ high up in the mountains and overlooking the Amalfi coastline.  Then, Bob then took us on the round trip of the whole peninsular and the famous coastline itself. Gosh! We travelled through Salerno, Sorrento, Vico Equense and other name dropping places!
Once again we saw Capri but this time from the land!
Unfortunately it was misty until we came down from the mountain and out of the cloud cover. We were all hungry by now, and looking for somewhere to stop.

There was yet another town, ‘Postenia’, that was on the must do list. We decided to eat there.
hmmm… Two from two miles one side to two miles the other side of the town there were cars parked bumper to bumper on the side of the road. Stopping for a place to eat had more to do with finding somewhere to park the car first!
We continued on. Looking. Looking. Success!  
Finally we found a parking spot.
It was a hotel but the receptionist said we could park there for their restaurant just along the street. Great!
We all needed a pit stop. It was now 5.30pm.  The staff greeted us and laid a table especially for us. Then they said they were not actually open until 7.30pm but that they could do food from 6.30pm.  We told them we just couldn’t wait another hour! 
3 minutes later they returned after conflab, and  ..YES! they would start the kitchen up right now just for us!  We were now sitting under vines of lemons with a spectacular view of the bay. The restaurant did a great meal.
Bob still had another 8 miles of winding roads before we would be back in Salerno.  As dusk fell the light of the towns came on and again we had a new prospective of the views. For Bob it was extreme concentration as one hair pin bend flowed from a previous one and then on to the next.
There was a very lucky pedestrian out that night – I hope he’d bought lottery tickets.  In dark clothes, on the wrong side of the death trap road suitable ‘just’ for two small car widths he had decided to go for a stroll in the pitch black! Good job Bob was alert – he screeched to avoid him and got promptly tooted by the Italian driver flowing us for stupidly slowing down to miss a pedestrian! Silly Bob.

The next day we were off to Pompeii.

“..but Mom, do we have to set up home here that big mountain just over there has got this smoke coming out of it!”
“Oh, hush now and get on with your pizza.”

The motorway drive to Pompeii was easy – no bends and little contact with Italian driving.

This is not the place to describe Pompeii – but oh my god! It was a huge bustling Roman city for many hundreds of years before that fateful day – 24^th August, 79 AD.

That big mountain that provided the beautiful backdrop to their Oceanside city (and now the whole modern day Naples plain) decided to blow it’s top and cover the whole area under ash and rock – ½ the mountain blew off! Those that couldn’t run immediately they heard the blast were doomed. A few of those that ran did survive. Those that were left have been preserved as poses for all time doing what they were doing at the time. Pompeii is now a few miles inland.

The immense size of the ruined city was awe inspiring.
We had guide books to help us understand how life was before Vesuvius erupted.
A vibrant busy city. 
We were there for seven hours taking in the sights.
You could ‘feel’ the towns people all those years ago busily going about their lives.

A must see visit for anyone!

John checked the weather and we all felt we should spend another day in Salerno. The winds then looked perfect for a short sail along the coast. Iona, the very efficient manager at the Salerno marina rang the port of Agripoli and ‘negotiated’ a berth and it’s price for us – “welcome to southern Italy”. 
All the pontoons within a port authority are leased separately! Great guys, very organised!
It is virtually impossible to arrange a mooring until you actually arrive in a port  - and then you are confronted with a myriad of competing dinghy’s vying for your business - dumb.
Internet guys!  Internet! ..get with the program!