Lee

Good Grief, spare us this depressing report. If you aren't deep enough to appreciate Rome, then you should have just gone to the country and tasted wine. <BR>I feel sorry for your long suffering husband.

Flora

Reads like last week's Curb Your Enthusiam on HBO. I mean with the hair and all.

Mina

Jade, I for one, appreciate the honest opinions. If everyone on this board only posted, &quot;fantastic!&quot; &quot;stupendous!&quot; etc., then it would be hard to know what to research. If I read a bunch of negatives impressions on a place, then after more research, I may opt to go somewhere else instead. Life is short, and there are choices to make. <BR><BR>Plus I still think you had a good attitude overall!<BR><BR>

Jade

Positano<BR><BR>Next and last on our trip was Positano. This was probably our favourite part of our trip. What a special place. We caught a Eurostar train down to Naples. It didn’t take much longer than an hour and a bit. I’m glad we got the first class tickets, because it was a really nice train carriage. It was quite new. <BR><BR>Our travel agent had arranged for a driver to pick us up from the station to drive us to Positano. We were delighted with this, as we definitely weren’t in the mood to start haggling prices with taxi drivers. The set price for this trip was 85 euros. The driver was there on time and spoke almost no English. Luckily I was able to understand most of what he said, though I guess it didn’t really matter much, as he knew where to take us.<BR>I asked him how long the ride would take and he answered that about an hour. I needed to use the loo but rationalised that I could wait an hour and so we went directly to the car (a nice/if old Mercedes). Now, here is where our little drama began. <BR><BR>It was about 12.30pm. We exited the parking station and entered the traffic. We appeared to move a few meters, but the area seemed really congested, and so we would then spend 10 mins where we had moved forward maybe 10 cm. <BR><BR>I am not exaggerating to make a point here. We were stuck in the most horrible traffic I have ever experienced anywhere in the world. I asked the driver what could possibly be happening, and he told me that Naples had a tendency to be like this. That there was no order here, and so traffic was often chaotic. Well, that was an understatement. We moved 400 meters in 2 hours. Jordan was acting a bit like a caged animal. He was just so agitated from sitting in this traffic for so long. <BR><BR>When we eventually moved into the highway, we started moving at a decent speed. Well, this brought with it a different set of problems. The driver was obviously now trying to make up for lost time. He picked up some serious speed, and was catapulting us towards Positano. We feared for our lives many times. He overtook cars on blind corners, and basically did some overtaking manoeuvres that were so dangerous I can’t even explain them. Let’s just say that the term ‘possible head on collision’ took on a whole new meaning. <BR><BR>Then we got to the winding part of the trip. After being in the car for 1 hour and 40 mins, these curves more than lived up to their infamous reputation. Yes, there were stunning views to take in, but Jordan and I were more focused on staring in horror at the oncoming traffic whose lane we were in, me not peeing myself, and the nausea that was engulfing us. These were some serious curving roads. <BR><BR>So our trip ended up taking us three hours instead of 1. We vowed to each other that we would not get back on these winding roads until we had to use them to get back to Rome. In retrospect, we wish that we had stopped off at Pompeii on the way to Positano. It would have broken up the disastrous trip we had, and it was a place that I really wanted to see. So we didn’t go to Pompeii on our stay. One for next time.<BR><BR>When we finally arrived in Positano, we were both in a really foul mood. We were told that there was no car access to where our hotel was actually located, so we then had to either schlep our luggage down the rest of the way, or hire porters. We were reluctant to get fleeced by the porters, due to the state we were in (we would have handed over a 50 euro note in our moment of vulnerability) and so chose the schlep option.<BR><BR>TBC...

Lee

Mina, I am surprised you find this trip report informing, your thread had humor, this one is like a child complaining. If you have read this forum even one day, you would know that there is traffic in Naples, and that there is a winding road to Positano. <BR>If she and he husband had sense enough to learn to speak up instead of complaining later, alot of her trip would have been more pleasant. <BR>I would not allow myself to be a victim, and not even research how many steps to the hotel in Positano.<BR>

Carol

Hi Jade,<BR>Nice to have you back. I was waiting for the rest. <BR><BR>Ignore the silly people who suggest that your report is depressing, it merely highlights how several aspects of a city can bit a bit off-putting, and yet this does not necessarily mean that you will not enjoy the experience of the city.<BR><BR>Keep it coming,<BR>Regards,<BR>Carol

Mina

Lee, first of all, thank for the compliment. But my report was more of a story than a report. It was not meant to be informative...one certainly couldn't plan a trip from it!<BR><BR>I do find Jade's report informative in the sense that it gives me an idea of what a traveler traveling on short notice, or on the fly, faces. I'll be doing something similar, and it's good to know certain things she has mentioned. I gather from her report that she wasn't altogether happy with Rome. I've read lot of threads where many people have given various reasons for not liking it (some reasons a bit much, IMO). Since Rome is out of my way for my planned tentative itinerary, it gives me food for thought on whether I should skip it and see something else instead. I weigh all kinds of facts and feelings before I make a choice. The more impressions I read about, the better chance I have at making a good decision for myself.<BR><BR>A lot of people aren't addicted to this board like I am, so maybe they DIDN'T know some of the basics, and want to alert travelers to things that many fodorites already know. Even though I read this forum everyday, I read only 10% of the threads. Not nearly enough to know everything about a most destinations. <BR><BR>And I think she had a good attitude, overall, like I said earlier. She joked about a few bad experiences early in her report. <BR><BR>There are lots of reports I don't find particularly helpful for my current fact finding missions. I start reading the trip report and think &quot;bah...don't want to read this.&quot; But I don't ask the person not to post. What sinks some people's boats, float others. C'est la vie.

Mark

Hi Jade. I for one couldn't agree with you more about the state of Rome. It was a bit sad to see how dilapidated a lot of historical monuments/streets were. T<BR>hese were buildings and things that have withstood centuries, and then in the span of about 80 years, industrialisation and humans have polluted the place and eroded it to a sad present state.<BR>I am enjoying your report and also appreciate your points of view and shared experiences.<BR><BR>Mark.<BR>

Ted

Mina, I am surprised, you would let this woman's report influence you on not seeing Rome? You and she in my opinion are in two different spectrums, you roll with the flow and she complains and doesn't even research what she is doing. You are already researching what you are going to see months ahead.<BR>Don't compare yourself to her or identify with her either. She and her husband sound like whimpering losers to me and you, my dear, are a winner.<BR>I am not saying she shouldn't write her feelings, but that they should be read with a grain or a shaker of salt.

Ian

Jade<BR><BR>Just ignor the critics. My wife &amp; I were in stiches reading your Rome experiences (and remembering our own similar ones - our dumpy 180 euro 3 star hotel that needed sand-blasting - the Rose men at the Trevi that sucked me in for a Euro!) etc etc.<BR><BR>Please keep posting . . .

Jade

Geez, it’s amazing what one can come back to after a lunch break! <BR>Lee, we actually really enjoyed Rome, and everywhere else that we visited. I will try to ignore your insulting and stupidly superior tone of writing, to quote you, ‘if you aren’t deep enough to appreciate Rome’, listen to yourself! You try to sound like you are so educated, and yet you are ignorant enough to address someone you have never met with petty insults. <BR><BR>We actually do quite a bit of researching before our trips. I visited this forum many times before the trip. I mentioned the windy road in Positano or a traffic jam in Naples as a mere retelling of my personal experience. It doesn’t make me a whining child to recount it, fool. Who the hell researches ‘how many steps to the hotel in Positano?’ Where exactly do I find this out? I didn’t read any guide or fodors thread that answered this question. Please don’t come back to this thread if it bothers you, amazing…<BR>

Mark

Here, here Jade.

Jade

Back to Villa La Tartana… I highly recommend this hotel. Do make sure to ask for a room with a sea view. It is imperative. It is in a great location if you want to base yourself in Positano and not move around much. <BR><BR>After all of the walking we did during our trip, it was such a pleasure to focus pretty much on having a siesta, eating and lazing on the beach. We were quite lucky with the weather, so for the many posts about how the weather is in Positano in September, in our experience it was really great. It was still relatively balmy at night, and certainly beach weather.<BR><BR>Not to be missed in Positano is a little deli about 4 minutes up the hill from Villa La Tartana. It was wonderful to be able to grab some snacks, cereal, water bottles, prosciutto et cetera from this little shop. There wasn’t much in the way of supermarkets or grocery shops that we actually came across in Positano. We were a bit tired of the complimentary breakfast in the hotel. Although it was nice to receive the glass of orange juice that came with it, the pastries that they give you are not the most interesting or healthy things. You will do much better if you buy some fresh fruit, cereal, milk (there is a fridge in each room) and have something like that for breakfast. <BR><BR>The view of Positano from our room/balcony was stunning! We both agreed that there was no way we would ever come back to Positano to stay in a room without a sea view. We spent countless hours reading on our balcony and gazing at what was happening in that gorgeous little town. We decided to try one of the restaurants on the promenade that were recommended on this forum, Chez Black. We found it to have a wonderful atmosphere, and although the food wasn’t brilliant, it was quite nice.<BR>We in fact went back there a few nights later. <BR><BR>We saw the restaurant featured in the movie,‘Only You’, called the ‘Covo di Saraceni’. It looked really romantic, with tables outside and a nice menu. We booked ourselves in for dinner that night. It was a lovely meal. Not cheap by any means, but nothing was in Positano. Jordan ordered a Red Emperor fish from a tray of fish that was wheeled out to the table, and I must say that it was exquisite. I highly recommend it. They ask you how you would like it prepared, steamed, baked, fried. We ordered it baked. Mmmm. It was very romantic. It was a balmy night and the stars were clearly visible, the sound of the lapping waves enchanting. We would go back there, it did not feel as touristy as Chez Black for example.<BR><BR>tbc…<BR>

Mish

Thanks for your report Jade. I am going to be in Positano next week and I wanted to know if the restaurant in 'Only You' would be worth going to. I am definitely going now!<BR><BR>Michelle

Jade

Thanks for your feedback guys.<BR><BR>Capri/Positano<BR><BR>We decided to book tickets to Capri for the second day of our stay. It was decided that we should only day-trip. It was beautiful weather and we didn’t want to fall into the trap of leaving it for the last day and perhaps running into ferry/weather problems. We turned up the following morning for the10am ferry, only a minutes’ stroll from La Tartana. We surprisingly bumped into one of my partners’ co-workers from Sydney, with her boyfriend. It was very funny. In fact, there were so many Aussies in Positano that it was really amazing. It’s not as if our dollar is particularly strong at the moment.<BR><BR>We boarded the ferry together, and they showed us video footage that they had taken of Gwyneth Paltrow in Sienna with her father only the day before. I jokingly remarked to them that they could sell the footage to ‘Entertainment Tonight’ or one of those shows for a profit. It was only a few days later that Gwyneth Paltrow’s father died in Rome, and I cringed my old remark. I hoped that they wouldn’t take up my suggestion!<BR><BR>tbc...

Jade

The ferry ride was not half as rough as I thought it would be, I don’t know – maybe we were just lucky! When we got to the Grande Marina at Capri I was not sure if I liked what we saw. It was jam packed with day-trippers like us, and it was not as I had imagined it. We decided to try and go directly to the Blue Grotto. After much discussion back home, we had decided that we wanted to see what it was all about, as we didn’t want to regret not having seen it.<BR><BR>After looking at our options of either getting a tiny, crowded bus to the grotto pick up point or a cab, we decided to take the little boats out, at the Marina. From start to finish the whole experience felt like a major scam. As many posters had written on this forum, money seemed to change hands many times from the first to the last step of this ‘experience’. We bought 2 tickets for the boat out to the Grotto entrance. This cost us I think 6 euros each. When we arrived at the entrance to the Grotto, we were left bobbing in the water for a good 15 minutes. There were many groups of tourists that had arrived before us, and they were obviously going first. <BR><BR>When it was our turn, we were transferred into a smaller rowboat, and this boatman asked us to pay him another 8 euros each. Then we were being pulled through the hole, me almost dislocating a hip in order to get into the ‘required’ position on the bottom of the boat. Then we were in. The water at the entrance to the cave was indeed a beautiful blue. Glowing. However, we were quickly ushered through to the back of the cave. I decided that I wanted to take a few photos, so with camera ready, I took a few shots, then the next thing I knew, we were being pulled back out of the cave. <BR><BR>Now I am not exaggerating when I say that we were not given more than 2 minutes by this boatman inside the cave. I was so disappointed. I had been told by the first boatman that it would be more like 5 minutes. I feel like I didn’t get to see it properly because I spent 45 seconds taking a few shots, and then it was over! When we were back outside, the boatman harassed us for a ‘tip for me’ until we had no choice but to hand over another note. We felt like we would have given him anything just to get away from him at that point. These boatmen at the Blue Grotto are definitely cousins of the gondoliers in Venice.<BR><BR>Still, only in hindsight could we say that it was not something worth it for us. Had we not done it, we would still be wondering if we had missed out on something amazing. My partners brothers actually stayed in Capri recently. They made their own way on scooters to the entrance, paid a boatman to go inside, and the boatman let them swim in the grotto for a few minutes. So obviously they had a very positive experience, and they loved the grotto. <BR><BR>tbc

Jade

We bumped into our Sydney friends when we got back to Marina Grande. They recounted an almost carbon copy of their Blue Grotto experience. We chuckled and grumbled a bit over it, and then we decided to go up to the top of Capri. <BR><BR>The map we had wasn’t very helpful, and Jordan’s brothers had told us that we should go to the top anyway. <BR><BR>So we saw a sign that showed a path up to the top, and we started climbing. Now, it was ¼ into the hike up that we asked ourselves why we didn’t take the funicular up? We had all read that this way we would see a lot more, and I guess that we did, but it almost killed us too! <BR><BR>It was quite a hot day, and we were seriously panting, sweating and struggling by the time we got to the top. We bumped into many people on the way up that assured us that it was worth it. It certainly built up our appetites and burned off any calories we had left in our bodies! <BR><BR>When we got to the top we were rewarded with really gorgeous views and a cute little town. The first shops we saw when we rounded the corner were Prada, Tods et cetera. We knew that the prices would be way over our league and didn’t bother going into any of these.<BR><BR>We strolled through the tiny streets and eventually came upon a little restaurant that had views down as far as Marina Grande. We ordered some pastas, which were nothing special and then did a bit more sight-seeing. <BR><BR>We decided that we should head back down and maybe lie on a little beach area to rest a bit before the ferry was due to pick us up, so this time we took the funicular down. We should have done it the other way around, but oh well! Live and learn. We had a swim at the little beach area and then caught our ferry back. <BR><BR>From a day-tripping point of view and what we saw, we preferred Positano, but we were sure that the experience would have been completely different if we had stayed on Capri.<BR><BR>

Jade

<BR>Another beautiful experience that we had in Positano involved hiring a boat. We hired a boat from the beach one afternoon at about 2pm. We ordered a take-away pizza from one of the beach restaurants and hopped on. Jordan has a boat licence, otherwise I might have felt a bit too vulnerable out there. It was rented on a per hour basis, so they told us to bring it back when we were ready and they would then bill us. I liked this arrangement, as I didn’t know how long I would want to be out there for.<BR><BR>We drove it about three quarters of the way to Amalfi. It was further away by our little boat than we imagined. We periodically cut out the engine and just bobbed around, taking in the amazing water and beautiful sights. Then we would head closer to Positano and do the same, getting a wonderful perspective of Positano that you cannot get from the land.<BR><BR>I highly recommend doing this if you are not afraid to take the boat out yourselves and can afford it. It cost us 50 euros for the hour. There are different ranges of boat that you can hire, some much cheaper than this one, but Jordan really liked the look of this boat, and was happy to part with the money for the experience.<BR><BR>tbc

Jade

Another must see/do in Positano is to go to the nightclub/restaurant ‘Music on the Rocks/La Terraze’. <BR><BR>It is right at the bottom of the promenade, on the far left as you are looking at the sea. It looks like a little castle, as it is made of stone blocks. <BR><BR>We went upstairs to the restaurant and had a look at the interior and at the menu. It sounded and looked great and so we sat down for dinner. It is more formal than some of the other restaurants, but really worth it. <BR>It is one of the most charming restaurants that I have ever seen. The staff were amazingly polished (and gorgeous to boot), and we had a beautiful meal. It wasn’t cheap, quite on the expensive side, even for Positano, but if and when we go back to Positano, we will go back there. We met up with our Sydney friends on our last night at the nightclub downstairs, ‘Music on the Rocks’. There were very few people in it. Apparently it was the off-season. <BR><BR>It was the most beautiful nightclub I have ever seen. Entry was free, but the drinks were exorbitant, as with everywhere else in Italy. Jordan ordered a cocktail from the menu for 10 euros, and the others followed suite. I was quite dehydrated from the day’s sun and only wanted some still water, so I asked for a glass of water. I did not bother looking at the menu as I really just needed this water. <BR><BR>Well, come paying the bill time, we laughed in a shocked sort of way when we found out that they charged me 10 euros for a glass of water too! We enquired about this and were told that this was correct. It almost beat the hot chocolate prices in Florian, Venice. We still laugh about this today, as we assume it was most probably tap water, it’s not like they gave me a bottle or anything. <BR>

Mina

Ted, with all due respect, I think you misunderstood my post.<BR><BR>I appreciate reports like Jade's because her report is one among MANY that I read. If the bulk of them are disappointed in Rome, I ask why, and perhaps go to the bookstore to see what the &quot;professionals&quot; say. If Rome were on my way to something, nothing would sway me from going. But for my next excursion, I would have to go out of my way to see it. I always travel with intentions of going back, so rest assured, I WILL see Rome...I'm just trying to determine if it will work for me this time. Reports like Jade's help me decide, but I would certainly not be swayed by just her experiences, or anyone else's experiences on this board alone. I simply like to hear about people's adventures...good or bad. At the very least it is usually entertaining. (I admit, I find it fascinating to see what some people are disturbed by.)<BR><BR>Jade, I am sorry that I am keep hijacking your thread. I will say no more on this matter. And I am still reading your report with interest.