Napoli and the coast

From Rome we caught a short two hour train to Naples.  There we met a friend of mine who I haven't seen since high school, Amanda and stayed with her and her family for two nights.  There might have been squealing in the train station when we saw each other, I can't remember.

Not the night we met, but a good example of Napoli pizza

We stopped at a pizza place that Amanda loves on the way home to get good Napoli thin crust pizza, chicken, and several amazing caprese salads.  We didn't get home until well after 11pm and it was well past bedtime for us.

In the morning we met Amanda's two sons, Caden, age 6 and Jack, age 4 (they are adorable but sadly I didn't get any pictures of them). They are very vibrant, talkative kids full of energy and not afraid of strangers.  I was immediately set to playing dinosaurs with Jack while Caden was avoiding his homework by pointing out every picture to me within arms reach.  Amanda left to drop them off at school while Andy and I did a much needed load of laundry.

When Amanda came back we headed to the ferry station to catch a boat to Ischia.  We barely missed the 2:30 ferry so we had time to eat more Napoli pizza across the road from the ferry station while we waited.  Once on the island, Amanda had to immediately turn around and catch the next ferry to pick up her boys from school (she would have had more time if the ferry hadn't been running late).  Andy and I walked to a castle that is on an island off of Ischia, which was a gorgeous hike through this mountainous island.  After getting gelato we did a small harbor walk around the ferry station before catching the last ferry back to Naples.

Amanda picked us up from the ferry station with her two sons and we stopped at the same pizza place close to her house as the night before to pick up dinner to bring home and eat.

The next morning we met Sean, Amanda's husband.  We all spent the morning swapping stories and hanging out until Amanda, Andy and I left to drive the Amalfi Coast (the boys had a play date and we couldn't fit everyone into one car anyways).  The drive is an amazing coastal road along the mountainous edge of Italy overlooking the Mediterranean coast.

We made many stops along the way, including lunch in Positano.

The drive from the end of the Amalfi coast to Naples passed by Mount Vesuvius and if we had more time we could have driven to the top to do a little hike around.  Sadly my reunion with my high school friend was short and sweet and soon we were whisked away on a train back to Rome to catch a plane to Budapest.