Italy Part 2: Pompeii and Positano

Be sure to check out the rest of our trip to Italy
Part 1 – Rome

We said goodbye to Rome with buttered croissants, great coffee and headed off in our rental car. We rented from Eurpocar, making it easy to pick up our car in Rome and dropping it off in Venice. We got pretty use to driving in Italy on the way out of Rome. We learned pretty fast to just let people over and pull out in front if you need to turn (no one is going to stop for you if you just sit there). Overall, driving seemed pretty easy.

Our third day in Italy we planned to visit Herculaneum and Pompeii on our way to Positano. However, the rental place didn’t open until 8am and put us back a few hours. We decided to skip Herculaneum and head straight to Pompeii, because I knew I would spend hours there. When I was a kid my mother gave me books on Pompeii and it was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Italy. Before we arrived at Pompeii, I did a ton of research on where to park our car and no one had any good advice. Every forum I visited said, to just take the train because driving your own car will be awful. I disagree x100!! Driving there was the best idea we had and they have their own parking lot just a short walk from the entrance. If you plan to visit Pompeii with a rental, Eurpocar will pay for your parking and they tell you where to go.

A little about

Pompeii

“Once a thriving and sophisticated Roman city, Pompeii was buried under meters of ash and pumice after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The preserved site features excavated ruins of streets and houses that visitors can freely explore.”

We spent hours walking around Pompeii with an audio tour we downloaded. If I could go back, I would hire a private guide. Our audio tour was not up to date and there were multiple people confused in the park trying to figure out what way to go.

After Pompeii, we hoped in our car and headed the 1.5 hours to our hotel on the Amalfi Coast. The drive was amazing and I wish it was longer. We arrived in Sorrento as the sun was setting and stopped to take in the views and take a few quick snaps. We ended up staying in Praiano, outside Positano, because the prices were so much cheaper and the views were better. Parking was super easy and after settling in, we headed to dinner. Our hotel was 200 steps from the main street, which doesn’t sound like much, but it is! We worked off our dinner every night and went to bed hungry again, haha.

The next day, Colin and I woke up early and headed to the secret beach. I will write about that in another post because this is were Colin proposed! But see some photos below!

We ate breakfast with the most amazing view and caught a short bus ride to Positano. Positano was PACKED with people! The moment we got off the bus, we were walking shoulder to shoulder with people down the street. When we asked the locals if it was always like this, they said 2 cruises have been shuttling people into town all morning. We walked down to the beach and window shopped for a couple hours. The town was a lot smaller than I imagined, we walked up and down the hill in an hour and saw almost everything.

Before our trip, I set up to have a private sunset cruise with a family company called BlueStar. They were amazing to work with and offered a big discount if you paid in cash. We boarded our boat and were provided snacks and drinks. This was definitely one of the highlights from our trip. After the boat ride we headed back to Praiano to grab dinner in a more quiet place. Our waitress was amazing and we celebrated our engagement with a few Limoncello shots!