Day 3 – Italy – Amalfi Coast, Politano & Pompei

4^th October 2025 is the day I take a full day bus tour South to Politano & Pompei to see parts of the Amalfi Coast trying to fit in a bit of regional Italy. I booked the Politano bus trip (some 13hrs) with a prescribed exact 7.15am departure. I arrived at the mtg point at 6.40am of Piazza Popolo (some 2.2klms from my hotel, so nothing like a brisk walk at dawn) & there was mass confusion with a lot of passengers that are taking about 6 different transport tours. Only 3 guides were there & it took some guests 2 or 3 goes to get a clear direction from them. I was one of them where I was told ‘stand over there‘ until 7am (3m away). To simplify .. I ongoingly approached 2 men & 1 lady & each time, receiving the same statement. When 7.20am came, I approached the woman again who said “your group has left” & indicated it was my fault. I was no more than 3metres from all the guides. With my following stern comment, she quickly contacted the bus where they waited the extra 5mins for me to walk there. Lavinia (our guide) was amazing & the only one who genuinely welcomed me. The front passengers just pointed their eye daggers at me. Very unpleasant. We had a full bus of about 40 people. My younger passenger next to me didn’t say a word until our break, some 1.5hrs later. People are so judgmental when they clearly don’t know the facts.

At this break, a Limoncello factory (quite expensive to buy this liquid beverage here) was not in operation (still took photos), so it only left for us to scoot through the expensive shop & wait for our departure after the toilet break. Limoncello is a sweet and refreshing liqueur made from finely grated lemon peels, sugar, and alcohol. It originated in Southern Italy, where lemons grow abundantly & is used mainly as a refresher after a meal to cleanse the palate. It also has a 30-40% alcohol content. I caught up with Lavinia who understood the mtg point dilemma & insisted I send her my feedback directly to her & the process to follow for City Wonders company. Finally, my seating companion (from America) returned my conversation & became ‘human’ .. LOL!!

Lavinia gave wonderful commentary & had a great sense of humour & we connected well. The scenery was truly amazing, but I couldn’t get photos through the bus window due to my fellow passenger & as we became closer to Positano the bus decreased speed & started to do the tight bends matching the high terrain of the coastline cliffs & then we went to the next level of very tight bends & forcing cars to stop until the bus took the bend (the bigger bully wins over the cars). From about 10mins out (heavy tourist traffic) it gets to the point where the bus stops on the slightly wider, yet short section of road. Here we are to take extreme care in alighting from the bus & walking downwards to a fleet of 3 smaller bus vehicles to take us into Positano. These drivers are very skilled & know how to force their way through the crowds. Lavinia had to book our arrival time on the way to ensure the fleet of vans required will be available as there are other tour buses heading to Positano. There is quite a bit of punctuality enforced on this, such is the volume of buses arriving.

Once the 10seater vans drop us off Lavinia instructed us to meet up again at the yellow church (most small churches are yellow in Italy) leading towards the beach, some 300m below us. I was one of the first there but not confident, for the building here was extremely pale yellow in need of repainting. I looked up & saw the tiny cross with more confidence. LOL! Not long until Lavinia & all the passengers arrived taking up almost the entire street junction. She hurriedly gave us instructions in whether we wanted to shop or walk down to the beach making sure those doing that are health capable of doing the downwards & upwards journey. She had an old person suddenly die of a heart attack recently where help was not immediately forthcoming. This is now our free time to shop, wander or walk. The majority walked down the steep street lanes between the shops to reach the fine gravel beach of grey sand. Lavinia was standing alone with everyone heading out for their adventure. I offered her a beverage (beer or wine) as that’s what I do & she was quite surprised & in doing so had a great chat with our beers (cin cin is Italian for cheers) until she was summoned away by others. She couldn’t believe such kindness still existed. Cheers!!!

The ferry terminal is quite full of scrambling passengers & ferries go back to coastal areas, like Naples & other locations & it seems to be the smarter way of visiting Positano for the day than the insane road issues & on road parking. The ‘beach’ compared to our Australian beaches is far less in comparison but appreciate the Italians love any coastline access. Basically, there are no waves either. Certain elite hotels set into the hills have predetermined space setup on the beach with lounges, umbrellas, etc so the remaining public requires a bit of organising & scouting around for water access. The beachfront has shops, bars & cafes, etc taking every available space, so it is a relaxing but entertaining area.

After our designated 1.5hrs of free time we head back to meet up with the smaller vans for a faster exit to our bus higher up the cliff face. Due to the on-road parking, we are off the vans & walking along the road believing our bus is slightly downwards however, after reaching that bus our driver is madly waving at his bus, some hundred+ metres up the road making that journey involving more traffic risks, so be alert.

Pompei – Lavinia, when last arriving at the bus gladly pronounces, we have lost no-one & we are ready to make up time going to Pompei (closer back to Rome). Despite only 35klms away it will take us an 1hr in the bus with this terrain. With a little more open road you can see Mt Vesuvius in the background awaiting our arrival. Pompei is still an archaeological site & controlled by UNESCO World Heritage site funding. Pompei was home to around 10-20,000 people. Lavinia consulted the on-site guide personnel to obtain our access & headsets for the tour. Lavinia has her break now while we are escorted through the ruins. There is so much to see & to image life previously, for much of the ruins have been removed for other locations buildings, vandalism & earthquakes over the centuries. The township had its clean water supply & was heavily planned with aqueducts, although when inspecting closer to the buildings they had used lead piping (still present) which unknown to them was a poisonous material, especially in drinking water. Mt Vesuvius, close by Pompei violently erupted in 79AD. A severe earthquake happened in 62AD.

Obviously, I cannot write everything of today in Pompei, so I recommend seeking out https://pompeiisites.org as a wonderful resource to see how the 9 regions/ neighbourhoods were comprised of. Click on a region & several houses/ sites can be sourced. Pompei still has many areas to be uncovered to this day & well into the future. Pompei was covered in 7m deep of volcanic ash, but all that came well after the blast. Mt Vesuvius in my photo shows only 1/3^rd of its original size to further explain the force of the blast & the flattened top, depending on what elevation you can view. The volcanic dust reached the stratosphere & hung over the ocean in a huge dark grey cloud & then the coastal breeze sent it directly over Pompei to settle over the entire region. The subsequent lava flows did not come near Pompei. Can you imagine 7m of ash to remove, but I couldn’t find out where they relocated that ash to.

Upon years of excavations, human remains were found in various stages of preservation & when bodies were found it took a scientist to discover how to excavate the found shape without destroying them. Air pockets were found in various areas in their underbodies when the people mostly fell onto their faces trying to breathe below the ash. Most findings only showed skeletons.

The excavators over the years provided a real skill in exposing the various structures, columns, roofs, staircases & such purposes these structures provided like saunas, hot baths, bakeries, shops, religious fonts & the list goes on. At some locations you can see a lot of exposed areas, but they are still far short of full Pompei exposure. After seeing lots of general building walls, roadways built for roman chariots & wagons with wheel grooves still showing, you come across certain large piazzas or courtyards & at last, the Amphitheatre where it is amongst the oldest of Roman times built in 70BC & hold up to 20,000people. Pompei was such a huge trading city being so close to the ocean & road networks, so it was very diverse & a real ancient metropolis.

With our 2hr tour over we were back onto the bus & stopping for the toilet break at our previous Limoncello factory an hour away. Everyone after that was becoming quite tired & with the bus lighting lowered many were sleeping solidly until Lavinia hit the Rooster call tone (very funny), for we have arrived back in Rome at our original meeting point. I had a great good-bye from Lavinia & proceeded to my hotel via Piazza di Spagna (last photo) after a quick Pizza at a nearby restaurant & when I reached my hotel (25mins walk) I sent her a msg, again thanking her for a great day & to show her my formal review of the day to City Wonders, Viator & separately my overview of the ridiculous drama of that morning when almost missing my tour that she will follow up occasionally to see what will become of it. She was over the moon with my responses & confirmed this to me the next morning. She was on another tour by then. Arriving at my hotel at 9.35pm showed what a HUGE day it was. Shower & bed obviously.

I’ll end my 4^th Blog here & many thanks for reading them. My next blog will have more pictures of major significance of the walking tour sights of Rome city. Please stay safe, happy & healthy.