Enter Positano!

Mama Mia, this place is soooo gorgeous!

This morning Hannah and I took our leave of Naples.  Though it was an adventure and an interesting opportunity to visit that huge and busy city, I think the coming days will suit us much better.

We left our hotel around 10:30 this morning and took a cab to the central train station in Naples.  From there we took the Circumvesuvania city train (sort of like MAX in Portland with more graffiti) around the southern crescent of the Gulf of Naples to Sorrento. See this map: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/itgulfofnaples.htm

From there, we took a bus from Sorrento to Positano -- only 9 miles away, but via a very long and windey (like 30 switchbacks) road.

Our new hotel, Albergo Savoia, is awesome! The front door of the hotel opens to the main section of the city.  Our room, which is on the 4th floor, has a balcony that opens out to the town and sea.

But you should see our SHOWER!! It has nozzles from floor to ceiling and I think there are massaging jets and electronic-controled temperature.  It is insane!  I hope Hannah has a great time on the beach. I'll be taking a shower.  A very loooong shower.

We got here at a reasonable time -- around 11:30 -- so we quickly unpacked (we finally are at a place long enough where we can unpack our clothes into actual drawers and closets, sigh...) and headed down to the beach area.  We sat at a seafront restaurant and had a nice though expensive lunch -- pizza and spaghetti.  Oh, and some amazing freshly squeezed orane juice.

Then we decided to lay in the sun a bit in our clothes to soak up our first rays of Positano sun.  Here is our conversation while we laid there:

Hannah:  I need to shave my legs.  But hair doesn't grow on my calves.
Me:  Hair grows everywhere on me.  I'm surprised it doesn't grow on my elbows.

Its these deep, meaningful conversations that make us such interesting people.

We then decided to walk around to see the place and people-watch.  Oh, the people-watching.  This place is a mecca for people-watching.  Tourists from all over the world take day-trips to Positano by boat from cruise ships and neighboring towns.  There's an enormous amount of khaki shorts with black socks, big floppy hats and large cameras.

We're not with them, of course. We have a hotel room here.  We're practically natives.

It's really hard not to people watch when all you have to worry yourself about is which side you want to tan.  So we did.  We watched people shop, browse, look at the scenery, chase their children, board and disembark small boats, and ... scratch.

We seriously watched an elderly gentleman scratch himself for a good five minutes.  Under his waistband.  And then sample his own Speedo cologne.  I don't know how else to say it.  He did this several times in the middle of the beach.  We have video.  We then realized that he's the guy who rents sea kayaks, which we intended to do tomorrow.  We've agreed to not shake hands with him.

After several hours of leisurely strolling in the sun, we had a bit of rain.  That's ok, it gave us an excuse to come and write to you.  :) So hello all of you, from beautiful Positano.

Pics to come very soon! xo