Okay, last full day, October 12! We decided to spend this just in Positano, relaxing. For Bob and Mom, that meant a leisurely morning at home. For me it meant fortifying myself with a cool European yogurt:
Then taking an early bus to Nocelle and hiking part of the Path of the Gods.
This ended up being one of the highlights of my entire trip! It was so stunning, so peaceful, so awe-inspiring! I really wish I'd been able to do the entire thing! But alas, my schedule only allowed me to go out about a mile or two, then back again.
I saw some of the local pack mules right after arriving in Nocelle.
Then I followed the very clear signs to the trail itself, passing through the odd, narrow, "streets" of Nocelle. It was about 7:45 when I started and I saw practically no one.
One of the nice things about the path was that it wasn't ALL UP ALL THE TIME, but rather would go up to a nice lookout, then down into a darker gully, then up again. At least for the part I was on! So it gave my legs a break from all one sort of movement.
I was really intrigued by this small stone hut I found partway along the hike-- an old shepherd's house? I took a photo out the window.
I could smell these wild cyclamen on and off as I went, especially in the darker, leafy passages. It mixed with the hint of smoke from fires burning below (farmers burning brush maybe?)
The only "friend" I met on my hike, until I was almost back to Nocelle:
I wish I had gone further! Because in the end I got back to Nocelle 45 min early for the next bus, and made the (foolish) decision to take the stairs down to Positano. Thinking that downhill would be "easy." Heh. By the time I got to the bottom my legs were jelly and THEN I had to walk all the way along the road back to the center of town to catch the bus there. Oops. I did see some nice flowers in Nocelle!
After I finally made it home, we all headed back down to the beach for lunch with a view. We got pizzas from the informal cafe associated with the Hotel Covo dei Saraceni, which was tasty.
Then we headed off along the walkway to the smaller second beach so I could go swimming and Mom could put her feet in the water while Bob relaxed at the Hotel Pupetto beachside restaurant.
The water was glorious! Like blue-green glass, and plenty warm for me (I am from Maine where the ocean is considerably colder). I didn't buy a chair or umbrella, just claimed a spot on the pebbles to leave my towel while I went in. The hardest part of swimming was actually getting back up to the shore-- the pebbles were REALLY hard to walk on and I practically had to crawl up from the water's edge! But it was worth it!
We rejoined Bob and enjoyed some delicious lemon-granita-iced-tea drinks that I am still dreaming of. Once we'd had enough, we ambled back home to have dinner at home and an early night.
I set my alarm for 4AM, as we were expecting a driver to pick us up at 5AM. Unfortunately I woke at 3 and couldn't fall back asleep so I just got up! It was a looooong day. Our same driver Guiseppe from Monday returned to collect us and take us to the Naples Airport. It was a smooth easy drive, and I would use Astarita Car Service again!
We found that we probably could have arrived a bit later though. We were at the airport at 6:15 and the checkin did not even open until 7! We had some baked goods and tea and waited with the other Americans who had also gotten there three hours early for the flight...!
Eventually we checked in, and all was well (unlike our flight out which ended up changed at the last minute due to a cancellation). We had one last view of Vesuvius to send us on our way!