Italian Gypsies

Originally we had planned a day trip from Sorrento to Naples but then we realized we are taking the night train tomorrow so we will explore the city then. That left today open, we had a lazy morning and made our second attempt at getting to Positano. The first worker said yes the bus would go there, the second said no we would have to change in Amalfi, we boarded the bus anyway. With the detour it's an hour and 45 minutes of twists and turns and by the time we arrived Michael was twins with Kermit so we decide to not attempt another 45 minute bus ride. We walked the streets of Alamfi and decided to check out a cotton paper mill from the 1200s. They built the mill in the mountain under a river so they could use water to power all the machines. Crazy that this place could stay in business so long, in the beginning not many people could write so they mainly sold to churches and the rich, then it was in high demand, then paper made from wood became available so people used that and now it's "fancy" paper used for wedding invitations and such. The tour guide also explained that it rained 28 days in April and that is what caused the bus re-routes, the rain caused large rocks to fall and block the road.
From there we did a "have you seen my camera?" tour and came up empty handed. Tomorrow when we go to Naples we're going to look for a new one.
On the bus ride back we wondered to each other why we just didn't go to Naples for the day; so what if we are going tomorrow, it's a big city. Oh there's a train leaving at 1756 and our bus gets back at 1745, sure let's go to Naples and off we went. We'd have 3 hours before we had to catch the last train of the night. It was a semi productive trip. We had some train tickets to buy, did a recon for tomorrow, had dinner and looked for a place to get a camera but it was closed. As soon as we stepped out of the train station I understood why the guide book recommended making Naples a day trip: trash, construction, seedy people, prostitutes. Funny because Naples Florida is the ritzy area and apparently Naples Italy is the mafia filled ghetto.

Someone asked why we only talk about eating pizza and here's why: Italians charge a service fee and sometimes a table fee to sit and eat at a restaurant, sometimes its a percentage ie 20% or just a flat fee, we were charged 4 euro in Amalfi to eat a 7 euro meal. To buy a coffee and sit is 4-5 euro but to stand at the bar with it is 1 euro so we do a lot of eating standing up and pizza is easy to do that way. We've had a few sits down meals but none of them seemed that good for the price we paid. We had a sit down dinner in Rome and we each had more then half our meal left but they wouldn't give us a to-go box so it was wasted. In some up coming towns we'll be staying off the beaten path and hope to find some good eats there.

Pics:
- Good morning!
- Michael realizing that Italian men like there shirts tttight! This is a large!
- view from Amalfi, gorgeous
- I guess it's not considered old school if they are still doing it :)