Italy Trip — 10 Year Wedding Anniversary Celebration to Amalfi Coast & Rome PART 1: Positano
You guys!!!! I just don’t even know how to adequately express how amazing Italy is! (or how amazing it is that Cole and I got to celebrate 10 years of marriage together in my favorite travel destination!!!!). I am still on high from the wonderful time we had in the Amalfi Coast and Rome — and honestly still tired as we did all the things!!!
As promised, I am giving you all the deets on all the things with did, ate and stayed. But before we dive into this, I do want to remind you all that we went for a big celebration so we went big and there are plenty of ways to visit these areas on more of a budget than we had (I will do my best to point that out as I go along too!).
First up, here is the schedule of our trip. If I could change 1 thing, I wish we had stayed 1 more night in Capri so if you are going to do our trip add a day more before heading to Rome.
Now let’s dive into each day. I will try to give you as many tips, explanations of what to do/not to do as well as why we chose to do what so you can get an idea of how we wanted our trip to flow. Remember this trip was completely based 100% around what Cole and I wanted to do, how much relaxation time we wanted as well as a heavy focus on delicious food (we literally base all of our trips off foodie places we have heard ever!). REMEMBER, this blog post is showcasing Positano and the things we did there and is only PART 1 of the 3 part series of our trip….so stay tuned!
Day 1 – Traveling
Alright so this is actually more exciting than it sounds (especially if you are going without kiddos like we did!) as you will be all jazzed up about finally getting to Italy. A few helpful hints to make your travel day easier:
- Make sure you have TSA pre-check (I also highly suggest looking into getting CLEAR as well and Global Re-Entry). With the chaos around flights lately and the general craziness of the airport it is so nice to float right on through.
- Check in for your flight ahead of time this way you can make the part of the airport faster and easier. During check in online you will need to take a photo of your passport so make sure you have it with you when checking in ahead of time.
- Wear comfortable clothes and shoes. I know this may seem silly but if you are traveling to Europe you most likely will be on an overnight flight and sleeping in what you are wearing so wear something that feel more like loungewear.
- Pack a toothbrush, toothpaste and hair brush in your carry on as once you land you are going to want to refresh as we are going to start exploring asap!
- Have a refillable water bottle on you and utilize the free clean water refill stations in the airport. I honestly am always so thirsty on flights and I feel like no matter what (even when in first class) the service is never fast or plentiful enough when it comes to water so pack your own!
Day 2 – Mt Vesuvius, Pompeii & Head to Positano
My biggest suggestion for your 1st day in Italy is to keep as busy as possible so you can make it to bed time without napping (napping will mess you all up due to the crazy time change!! Just don’t do it!!). We love history so when I started planning this trip I knew I had to figure out how to fit a visit to Pompeii into the mix. It is on the way from Naples to Positano so it made sense to do this as soon as we landed BUT we would have our luggage so taking a train or renting car didn’t seem like the best idea. Thankfully, I found the incredible Gianni from Amalfi Coast Dream Tours and he arranged the perfect day for us! I honestly cannot recommend him enough. Here is what we did…
Activities: Mt Vesuvius, Pompeii, Wine Tasting Lunch
8am: Gianni picked us up from the airport
9:30am: went to Mt Vesuvius and we were suppose to explore for 1 hour or so but unfortunately it was raining so we drove up then back down
11am-1pm: 2 hour private tour with an archeologist of Pompeii (Gianni arranged all of this for us and our guide was extremely knowledgeable and made our 2 hours fly by!)
2pm: Had a wine tasting lunch and tour of Bosco De Medici (again Gianni arranged this all for us). We absolutely loved the wine and are having both of the reds we tasted shipped home. To be honest, the food was good but not knock your socks off but we are harsh critics (still 100% worth going just wanted to let you know for my foodies out there.)
After the wine tasting, Gianni took us to our hotel in Positano pointing out certain areas and historical facts along the way. After arriving at Hotel Marincanto, we actually rushed to get ready as we found out we had family in the same town for the same night as us and wanted to meet up for a glass of wine before dinner. I’ll go more into detail about the HOTELS I talk about in another blog post but for the next 4 nights we stayed at the same hotel for our home base on the Amalfi Coast.
Dining: We ended up snagging a last minute reservation at Chez Black from a couple we met that were double booked for dinner that night. The venue was perfectly situated on overlooking the beach but we felt rushed (which should never happen to you in Italy) and the food was just okay. I would honestly only suggest going here for due to the great location. But I do have to tell you about a wine bar we ventured to a few times during our stay as the staff was wonderful, its a tasting bar and we kept meeting so many new friends on each visit. Definitely stop by for a glass of wine at Le Tre Sorelle Wine Room!
Day 3 – Ravello
Accommodations: We stayed at the amazing Hotel Marincanto for our entire time along the the Amalfi Coast and made this our home base before heading off to the island of Capri.
Transportation: Gianni arranged for our transport to and from Ravello and suggested for us to spend 2 hours after the cooking school to explore Ravello (he was sooo right that we should!!).
Activities: Mamma Agata’s Cooking School, Touring Ravello. Okay, so I just decided as I was about to write about Mamma Agata’s that I am probably going to end up doing a much longer separate blog post on this experience because it was just too amazing for a quick little recap (seriously!!)! Let me start off by saying that I LOVE to cook and Cole HATES to cook but we BOTH LOVED this experience — all 6 hours of it! Honestly, we have been super fortunate to travel to so many places and take part of some incredible experiences but this one may just be our NUMBER 1! Chiara runs this cooking school and is beyond charismatic plus she makes you feel instantly part of the family. Through tons of laughs she will educate even the most skilled cooks and also make the most ill-equipped “cook” feel like they can replicate her recipes. The day was magical to say the least.
After Mamma Agata’s we were told to visit 2 gardens in Ravello–we ended up just visiting Villa Rufolo which was beautiful! I do suggest doing a quick 30 minute walk through of this venue then head to the infinity terrace at Villa Cimbrone!
Exploring the Gardens at Mamma Agata’s 
View from Villa Rufolo 
Tasting Area for Cooking School 
Day 4 – Positano
Activities: Hike the Path of the Gods which is a 2-4 hour hike to from Bomerano to Positano. This is a great way to get moving while on vacation and a wonderful way to see tons of the coastline from a great viewpoint (plus you get to travel through a few towns). Now, do what I say not what I do as we did the hike from Positano up to Bomerano through Nocelle and its an extremely strenuous uphill hike the entire way. Instead, take a transport or taxi to Bomerano and then hike down to Positano. You will still get some great exercise, you just won’t feel like you are dying the whole way like we did! Ha!
After our hike we grab a quick bite on the amazing terrace at our hotel then headed down to the beach (yes, Hotel Marincanto has their own direct beach access). It was the perfect way to relax after the long hike before getting ready for dinner.
Dining: This night we had the most magical dinner experience at La Sponda at Le Sirenuse. This restaurant not only offers amazing views of Positano but the food is delicious. Some of our favorites were Caesar salad, Veal Saltimbocca and this amazing Chocolate Dessert that was on special. And the most amazing part was their 2 musicians serenading you while you eat! It was beyond romantic!
Day 5 – Positano
Activities: Day 5 was all about exploring Positano before we pack up to head for Capri on Day 6. We started our day with going on a long uphill walk heading to the northern part of the city. Here we stopped to do a little shopping and picked up some of the cutest gifts. Positano has tons of shops from pottery, handmade custom sandals, unique boutiques and so much more. Once we walked up (and shopped up) the morning away we headed back down to the main beach area to snag some lunch before relaxing at our hotel pool and terrace until dinner time.
Dining: This was a day of delicious food! We had lunch at Restaurante Buca di Bacco which may seem as a tourist trap due to its on the beach location BUT we had heard they have some of the best mussels in town so we took our chances. And boy we were glad we did! The mussels were perfect in a beautiful red sauce broth and Cole order the lobster pasta which he consumed in a matter of moments!
We had also been searching for an out of the hustle and bustle authentic Italian dinner and we found the most perfect spot up north in Montepertuso (just take a 20 minute transport) called Donna Rosa. Every single dish was moth watering and the best part is the restaurant is run by a family with 2 daughters. The dad is your server along with one of the daughters while mom and the other daughter cook together in the open kitchen. It was so fun to see this family living out their culinary dreams! Favorite dish was the Tagliolini in a truffle sauce – seriously I have been dreaming of recreating this!
Tips: When staying at a hotel, ask your concierge to book you transport when traveling to neighboring cities. They easily just make a call and your driver will arrive. We did this for our drive up to Montepertuso for dinner. For longer day trips, contact Gianni at Amalfi Dream Coast Tours.
Alright, that’s the run down for Positano….headed to write PART 2 Capri now! Ciao!