by Bob Sparrow<\/p>\n
(Editor’s note: Beautiful photos would not up-load due to limited bandwidth on board, so just use your imagination)<\/em><\/p>\n Positano and Pompeii <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n We anchored off the city of Sorrento<\/strong> and took a tender to shore where we were met by our guide for the day, affable Alfonzo Sorrentino<\/strong>. From that first smile we knew our day was going to be fun \u2013 the guide so makes or breaks the tour and he made it in spades! We hiked the steep road away from the dock to our private, 8-passenger van and wound our way through the town of Sorrento heading for picturesque Positano<\/strong>, which literally hangs off the cliffs on the shores of the Mediterranean<\/strong>. We walked the winding path down to the beach that passed by store after store \u2013 it was such an exhausting trip that we had to have a beer when we got to the bottom even though it was only 10:00 a.m. Back in the van, Alfonzo had selected a special stop for us at a \u2018lemon factory\u2019<\/strong>, where they made everything lemon, from lemon candy to Italy\u2019s famous liqueur, limoncello<\/strong>. Alfonzo gave me a piece of the lemon rind and told me to eat it – surprisingly it was very sweet! We were then taken to a winery at the foothills of\u00a0Mt. Vesuvius<\/strong> were we had lunch at the winery restaurant, Cantina Del Vesuvio<\/strong>, which was set in the middle of the vineyard \u2013 and what a lunch! First bread and olive oil, then bruschetta, then spaghetti with red sauce and then a lemon cake desert, all while tasting 5 different wine selections.\u00a0 I think all those things were on my diet.<\/p>\n Due to a landslide next to a tunnel on our way to Pompeii,<\/strong> we got stuck in traffic, which caused about an hour delay in our schedule, but Alfonzo knew we were from southern California, so I\u2019m sure he went that way just trying to make us feel at home. Once at Pompeii we hired a guide who promised to show us the whole place in an hour; which she did! I had no idea how big this city was or how many prostitutes worked there . . . not now, but back in the day prior to Mt. Vesuvius<\/strong> burying the city, along with the prostitutes, in ash and pumice in 79 AD. On our way back to Sorrento, Alfonzo asks if we like Frank Sinatra, we asured him we did, so he turned on his music and we all sang along.\u00a0 We come to find out that Alfonzo’s other job is as an entertainer, where he sings and plays piano in a night club.\u00a0 So all the way back to the ship he got us all singing Sinatra and Buble songs. A great time provided by a great guide<\/p>\n Catania, Sicily <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n With that great experience behind us, we were looking forward to our next day’s tour on the island of Sicily – The Godfather Tour<\/strong>.\u00a0 But we found out that ife has a way of balancing out things, thus our amazing experience with Alfonzo was balanced out by our not so amazing experience with our next guide, Cammie, a young French woman who told us that she normally worked on her computer in the office of Viatour<\/strong>, but was now being asked to lead our tour. We were open to giving her chance, but her low voice with a bad French\/English accent couldn\u2019t be heard over the sound of the air conditioning fan, which the van driver, seemingly another neophyte, couldn\u2019t figure out how to control. When she was talking at all, Cammie was basically reading something about the Godfather on her phone and then passing that information along to us. Otherwise it was a ride in the van with long periods of awkward silence followed by more long period of awkward silence. We walked around the beautiful setting in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean\u00a0in the town of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Slovoca<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>where they filmed the movie The Godfather<\/em><\/span>, had lunch in the town of Toarmia<\/strong> and then she made us an offer we couldn’t refuse when she asked if we wanted to go back to the ship early.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Travel tip<\/strong>: if you want to revisit The Godfather . . . rent the movie.<\/p>\n Meanwhile back on the boat:\u00a0<\/strong>We enjoyed the fantastic music of the Smile String Quartet,<\/strong> four beautiful Ukrainian women, who were amazing musicians!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow (Editor’s note: Beautiful photos would not up-load due to limited bandwidth on board, so just use your imagination) Positano and Pompeii We anchored off the city of Sorrento and took a tender to shore where we were … read more