In this area around Naples, there is so much to see! So this is the third part of our sail in the bay, I’ve written about visiting the cities around The Bay of Naples and visiting Pompei and Herculaneum.
We sailed further along the coastline, and went to the island of Capri and the Amalfi coast.
Capri
We make the crossing from the mainland of the region Campania in the South of Italy and sailed to Capri. Since we arrived in the bay of Naples a few weeks ago, we could already see the island. Because it is mountainous with steep cliffs, it really stands out along the coast line. The sail was also not that long, about 1 hour. The weather was great, in December 20 degrees still is amazing to us!
Capri measures 10 km², the highest point is Monte Solaro (589 meters) and there are two villages: Capri and Anacapri. We decided to go to the north part of the island to go the harbor and visit the village Capri and then cycled to the other site to Anacapri.
The harbor was very quite but beautiful with the mountains in the background. Most sailors ‘hibernate’ and stop sailing from Oktober to April, but we like wintersailing, the weather often is good, ofcourse sometimes rain and strong winds, but you just have to plan and pick your days of sailing and of sightseeing.
Cycling around in the city was really nice, beautiful views around and so abundant greenery everywhere, with many different types of trees. We are surprised everytime to see that on the mountainhills, because during the summertime is can get very hot (up to 40-50 degrees), but nature blooms here wonderfully.
Capril is a frequently visited tourist destination, so we actually saw quite a few terraces along the waterline filled with people eating and drinking.
We were outside the whole day on the island, cycled and walked around.
At 16.30h the twilight started, which was also beautiful to see. We returned to the boat and toasted to the wonderful island of Capri!
Amalfi Coast
Sailing back to the mainland of South Italy, we got another treat: the Amalfi Coast (or in Italian: Costiera amalfitana). The area runs from Positano in the west to Salerno in the east. The Amalfi Coast is considered one of the most beautiful coasts in the world because of its natural beauty and cultural history. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
When you sail along the Amalfi Coast, it really is breathtakingly beautiful! You keep looking up and be amazed about the steep hills with all the colorful houses.
Due to the relatively sheltered location of the villages, they have managed to retain their own character over the centuries and the villages have hardly changed. And many of the vineyards and orchards are built on terraces and other crops grow on the extremely sloping slopes.
We sailed into the harbor of Amalfi, the center of this coastline. We were surprised to see the old city center, with a very small square, but beautiful buildings surrounding it like this Cattedrale di Sant’Andrea.
Walking around in this city, you really feel the Southern Italian atmosphere.
We went back to the duomo, sat on the terrace and enjoyed the limoncello sorbet, which is famous in this area around Sorrento because of the many citrus fruit orchards. Lovely to see the Christmas decorations on the table 😉.
We went back to the harbor of Amalfi and enjoyed the sunset and the nice views of the lights in the city shining upon the building on the hills.
The next day we sailed further to Cetara, which is already close to the end of the Amalfi coast. We saw the old cities of Maiori and Minori, which looked beautiful from the seaside.
The weather was again great this day, so we decided to take the bus and do a sightseeing around the small villages. Because even with the e-bike and e-step it would be too much for the engines to climb up those steep hills 😊
The bus was € 2 per person for 1 hour ride along the little villages, we used it as a hop-on-hop off bus. There were actually a lot of tourists even in December who did this. We enjoyed the small villages a lot, for instance this beautiful small harbor with the view on the castle.
Italians, especially here in the South, love sweets. And a famous pastry chef is the family Pansa, so we went there and bought some sweets, and the cannelloni really is recommendable!
I enjoyed the afternoon of walking around, taking the bus, sitting on the terraces and looking over the sea. This area is amazing, the beaches that you see from the cliffs are beautiful as well. We took the bus back to Cetara around 16.00h when the dusk started.
Back in Cetara, close to Salerno, walking back from the hill to our boat, we looked at the sunset and realized again that we are very lucky to have this lifestyle. We are grateful to have enjoyed the beauties of mother Earth from our catamaran for 2,5 years now since 1 May 2021.
