Almalfi Coast, Italy

Time to wrap up our trip to Italy.  This was the final part of our journey...meeting up with family in beautiful Positano.

upper right and lower middle are the views from the house.

The hubby, girls and I were still in Mennagio, so we needed to catch a couple of trains from northern Italy to the south.  The day started off fine...we got a ride to the train station and then...waited.  The train was late.  Really late.  Once we finally got loaded and moving Matt and I realized we were barely going to make our connecting train...if we made it at all.
So here we were, pulling up to the train station...we have three large suitcases, a couple of carry on's, a back pack, two kids, and their little rolling luggage.  We stood at the ready and bolted as soon as the doors opened...
And when I say bolted, I mean we flat out ran!  I had a death grip on Lily basically dragging her along the station and yelling at Sara to keep up.  Sara is crying as she's running.  Matt is behind us...pulling a crap load of luggage...which at the moment one bag decided to lose both of its wheels.  We keep running, keep dragging...and we actually make it.  By all of 2 minutes.  Now, we weren't the only idiots running through the station to catch this train, but I'm sure we made the most commotion.  Could we have caught another train?  Sure...at some point, but we wanted to get to Positano before it was the middle of the night.  We still had to get our taxi to drive us to the house.

All said and done, we made it all the way to the house in Positano.  My mom and stepdad and Aunt and Uncle were waiting for us.  The house we had rented was incredible with a killer view.  The only downside is that Positano is very, very hilly...so lots of hiking up and down stairs.  Ah well, it worked off the pasta and wine!  :)  

a few of the rooms and the two patios of the house.

The rest of our trip was spent touring the Almalfi Coast.  The highlight of the week was taking a private boat out for the day.  It was our baby girl's birthday (already 4!) and we wanted to make it special.  (seeing as how her sister got to spend her 5th birthday at the top of the Eifel Tower).  The boat ride was amazing.  We all felt like superstars relaxing on the nose of the boat as we skipped across the water to the Isle of Capri.  We toured around there a bit and then spent more time just jetting around the coast line.

upper middle and lower left are in Capri.  Other shots from Positano.

We stopped to do a bit of swimming, but found that the water was already occupied...by jelly fish.  My poor mother got stung but good right on her wrist.  That put a little damper on things...but not too much.  We sang happy birthday to Lily while anchored in the Mediterranean Sea.  That was pretty awesome.
Another highlight of the trip was this amazing amazing restaurant we found.  This place has been owned by the same family for over 30 years.  They send a car to pick you up and bring you to the restaurant.  It's a fixed menu, so you get what you get.  But, oh my, what a feast!  Everything was so good.  It was a three course meal with wine included.  Each course included anywhere from 6-10 plates of different dishes.  They grow their own veggies right outside the restaurant.  It was so good we went there twice in one week!

We spent time shopping, went to Ravello, and chilled on the gorgeous beach.  Even rented a stand up paddle board and took the girls out on the water.  Positano is just so beautiful and we enjoyed every day.  It was a wonderful way to end an incredible 5 week trip to Italy!  Can't wait to go back next year! :)       

all of these photos were taken in Ravello.