August 29th

The last several  days have been very nice (Since leaving the bay of Naples) – We left Tore de Greco at about 5pm after cleaning the boat doing last minute laundry and filling the tanks. Fresh water, unlimited as it is when you spend $100 for the night, is probably our biggest luxury and we take full advantage- we all ‘shower’ until we’re squeaky clean, we fill every vessel  possible and clean clean clean all the salty surfaces. 

We motored across the bay of Naples around the point (Punta Campanella) and found a spot to anchor near a restaurant. We anchored in the dark with no issue and went to be happy to be away from the Naples area.

For the next few days we worked our way up the Amalfi coast, which I have to say is likely the most beautiful  edge of land we’ve seen thus far- Imagine sheer cliffs (ala California) but studded with little villages and towns. The houses were literally carved right into the rock face with what must be ladders to get to them. Breathtaking.  We spent several nights in Positano and Amalfi, with snorkeling and sightseeing inland (Ravello). It seems that this is where the celebrities from Hollywood come on holiday – pictures abound in the artists studio’s.  We missed Ben Stiller by only a few weeks.

Just before lifting the anchor and setting out for Stromboli, we checked our email and found our neighbors tree had taken Hurricane Irene’s gusty suggestion to take a nap on our house. Disaster! Fortunately Ivan, Shelly and their girls were uninjured, but we can only imagine the sound and trauma. So now we will be remodeling our sunroom while in Italy and Greece.