Josh: We spend the first half of Estelle’s 2-week October holiday traveling around Italy, because Italy is awesome. We flew to Naples and took a ferry to the island of Ischia. We stayed in a villa and had breakfast overlooking the Mediterranean each morning. One afternoon we went to a Chopin concert at a lovely, terraced garden on the island, Giardini La Mortella. The next day I got stung by a jellyfish at a hot springs, which didn’t come as a surprise to the people who worked at a nearby restaurant.
We spent the next few nights in a family’s spare bedroom in Sorrento. The father was an antiquarian and spoke to us each morning at length about the Italian antique trade, the history of Sorrento, the large crowd sizes in the summer, and the accomplishments of his sons and daughters.
I think little can prepare someone for the size and steepness of the Amalfi Coast. The bus ride from Sorrento isn’t for anyone who gets motion sick. But the reward of a few days tucked into the quaint, charming town of Amalfi is worth it. Nearby towns are accessible on foot if you don’t mind climbing many, many flights of stairs.
