Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay

Today was supposed to be a relaxing cruise along the Amalfi Coast, with stops in Positano and Amalfi, before returning to Sorrento. We left port on time, but it became obvious as soon as we reached the open sea that last night’s storm had left a legacy, in the form of a heavy swell.
Not only did this slow us on the voyage to Positano - we arrived an hour late - it also made disembarking a feat of agility as you had to run across the gangplank as the boat dipped in the swell. We should have had two hours in Positano to explore but, with all the delays, we only had about 30 minutes before we had to queue up again for the ferry to Amalfi. Though that was, in my opinion, 29 minutes too long anyway. Think Portmeirion crossed with Blackpool on August Bank Holiday Monday and you get the idea. We were over an hour late leaving Positano, which meant standing in the blazing sun whilst various ferries attempted - with varying degrees of success - to embark and disembark passengers. In the end, a much larger ferry turned up and embarked not just our passengers but another company’s as well. All this meant that we now only had 2 hours in Amalfi (instead of 3) and we also needed to find something to eat!
However, we found a lovely little restaurant and Amalfi itself was far nicer than Positano. Due to lack of time we could only skim the surface of what the town had to offer, but decided it would definitely be worth coming back to in the future. Though possibly by bus rather than boat!
The queue for the ferry back to Sorrento was typical Italian chaos, but we managed to get in the right line eventually and were pleasantly surprised that it left almost on time.
Confession time here - I actually booked the wrong tour by mistake, as we should have been returning on the 15.45 ferry not the 17.02. But it turns out that was totally academic as the 15.45 was cancelled due to the bad sea conditions, so we’d have ended up on the 17.02 whatever!
The good news is that because Positano was still a no-no on the return journey, we got back to Sorrento earlier than planned so managed to get back to the hotel in time for dinner. A day that started well, ended well but was total chaos in the middle. Typically Italian, if you like…