Aldo! + The drive to Positano + Amalfi

We got up really early today and our day started waiting for the bus outside the base Kyle works at. We are headed to Positano and Amalfi with our favorite person, Aldo! It was a perfect day out too, the air was really nice and pretty clear for Naples.

You could see Mt. Vesuvius from across the bay which was pretty spectacular, it got even clearer throughout the day, this was still early morning.

Our itinerary for the day was drive to Positano, get off the bus there and explore the area. Then from Positano we were going to take a boat over to Amalfi which is only 45 minutes away by boat. The bus driver would meet us in Amalfi. We could spend time in Amalfi then hop back on the bus and drive back to Naples. But as we have learned before with Aldo, the "itinerary" is just a guide to what we will actually be doing that day. Which is what happened within a few minutes of getting on the windy road to Positano. Aldo knew a guy who owns a little shop that he makes beautiful inlay woodwork pieces. Aldo was using this for us to have a bathroom break since there wouldn't be one for quite sometime as well as being able to explore this little shop. We were in luck too because the master was in the house and was hard at work on some beautiful little puzzles. We got to watch him work which was really cool!

These are the cliffs next to the woodworkers shop, what a crazy backyard!

This is the master woodworker at work. The machine he is working on sucks air in so all the pieces stay in place and he uses a tiny pick to pick the little pieces up and place them where they need to go, like a puzzle. They explained to us that they would take balsa wood and dye it whatever color they needed and cut those out on their different drill press machines, some were electric and some were run by hand or foot.

After the stop we got back on the bus and kept heading towards Positano. Aldo pointed out all the vegetation to us along the way too. Italians grow everything out in those hills! There were every kind of fruit tree you can imagine plus nuts they also had vegetable gardens of all kinds as well. Its crazy the amount of things they produce on these crazy hills! The roads are so windy, narrow and steep you would think that it would be hard to flatten out a piece of land to grow crops on, but they have it figured out. All the cherry trees were in bloom, there are lemons and orange trees everywhere as well as chestnuts, walnuts and olives.

♥ Mae

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Building a table

So these are some of the things I do all day while I'm home alone when Kyle has to work. I usually go down to the corner cafe then go over to the markets and get what I need for dinner that night or any other random things we seem to need. If its not raining I'll go walk around the neighborhood and get lost and find my way back. This all needs to be done before 1 or 2 because thats nap time over here for everyone. All the shops close up for a few hours and go have huge lunches then sleep till its time to open up again for the evening. So today I built a table during those hours! Kyle bought this table from the NEX (the Navy Exchange on base) because the table he had barely fit the two of us, let alone a crowd if he ever had one. Plus his kitchen is big enough and he had gift cards so might as well! They delivered it around 9am and just put it in the kitchen then left. So it was up to us to build it. Well that was a bigger task than I expected when I started opening up the box.

Wine Tasting in Avellino

Today we went wine tasting with Aldo today in Avellino! The tour started at base and headed up the mountains towards Avellino. They made a stop at a rest area for café! My favorite! It didn't take too long to get up to the winery. The name was Colli Di Castelfranci. Castlefranci is a small village in the heart of Irpinia which is in the Province of Avellino. This logo on the wall their son created. He seemed pretty young and was the one who has started to take over production of the place. Grandpa and dad still lived there and worked but the son did most of it. The winery is very organic and they try to use all natural everything when they can. They even reuse willow tree branches and things like that for ways to hold up the vines or to tie things together instead of using plastic or metal objects. Aldo is holding some dried branches that when you soak in water they become soft enough to tie into a knot. Inside is where they store the wine in huge

Capri

It was such an early morning this morning! I'm used to waking up early every day but usually I get to go back to sleep after Kyle leaves for work. This time we both had to get up and leave because we were going to Capri! The second we saw who our tour guide was I got so excited because it was Aldo from Pompeii!! We knew then that it would be a good trip and well worth it! First we took a bus down to the docks where Aldo worked it out for us to board an hour early so we got an extra hour on the island. Nice! We got on a catamaran called SNAV that reminded me of the Catalina Flyer. The boat ride to Capri from the bay of Naples is about 50 minutes, I think. I actually wouldn't know because I slept the whole ride over. Capri seriously is the Catalina of Italy. It's really pretty and they have a main tourist harbor where everything is then residential on the back side. We went on this tour once we got there that took us to the Blue Grotto. You took this motorboat o

Mae Abroad

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