Day 10 - 3:30AM Wake Up, Flight to Napoli and Driving Like a Video Game.

3:30AM. Let me reiterate that; 3:30AM. What an ungodly hour to be getting up. Our driver, Chafi, had called some buddy that he had in Venezia to arrange a water taxi to pick us up at Daniella's apartment for the ride to the airport. I have to admit that it was pretty cool to be on the water in Venezia when it was so quiet and dark. Our driver took us through a little canal to the other side of the island then out into the channel for the run to the airport. Normally, that little canal would have been filled with gondolas and we wouldn't have been able to go through there.

Video of Water Taxi Ride at 4:30AM Through Venice

Hurry up and wait. Isn't that always the way it is at the airport. EasyJet was a great airline - quite affordable and definitely a great way to get down to Napoli in the shortest amount of time possible. Our flight was on time and, about an hour later, we were standing at the car rental desk picking up our car. We decided to splurge a little and "upgrade" to a Fiat 500 because, after all, it's important to drive an Italian car when in Italy. Right?

What a great little car. Little is the key word here. The thing is gutless as hell but it gets amazing gas mileage. We hopped on the autostrada and made our way towards Sorrento then on to our hotel a little ways past Massa Lubrense. Sorrento was where I got my first real taste of Italian driving. Driving from Firenze to Venezia was no big deal but driving on small city streets filled with scooters - yeah, that was fun!  I'm serious, it was a lot of fun. People here, there and everywhere, scooters on the left and the right, busses squishing all of us, people turning left right in front of us, passing on the right, on the left, in the middle - it was a free-for-all and I was driving like I freaking owned the place!!!

We made our way through Sorrento without incident and started climbing towards Massa Lubrense. Amazing views everywhere!! Hairpin turns back and forth with water on the left of us, then we would crest a hill and there would be different water on the right. It was amazing. The hotel was a little bit past the village of Massa Lubrense and our GPS took us right there. It looked exactly as it did on Google Earth a month ago. We pulled in, walked into the lobby and our jaws dropped! What a beautiful place! Very modern Italian feel to everything with white everywhere. We entered our room and right there in front of us through the huge window was the island of Capri.

All of our stuff was situated in our room so we decided that we needed to make a run to the nearest store to pick up some beer and Apperol and Prosecco for spritzes. The staff was able to give us directions to the one-horse town of Tremini up the hill a ways but, as they said, we had to get there before 1pm because they shut down for "lunch". Mission accomplished and within a couple minutes, we were enjoying a few beers and some munchies in our room. We were so tired and buzzed and the bed looked so comfortable that a nap was to be had. Correction, I had a nap - Sandra listened to me snore. Oh well, I was tired. Anyway, we got up, got dressed, had a spritz or two and made our way to dinner.

Let me tell you a bit about this dinner. The restaurant at the hotel is a Michelin starred restaurant run by a chef who was voted Italy's Best Emerging Chef a few years ago. This is true fine dining. (It's funny because, as I type this, I'm eating Ritz crackers out of a box on the terrace of a business hotel near the Rome airport. Oh well...) Fine dining is all about itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny, scrumptious, little morsels of food. It was unbelievably fresh with a litany of different flavors that could be discerned from every bite. Amazing food, great wine, excellent service, a beautiful woman sitting across from me.....pure heaven!!

We had some amazing dessert and discussed what the next day had in store for us - driving the Amalfi Coast!