After another frustrating sail, where we had to mostly motor due to lack of wind, we arrived in Amalfi on the Amalfi Coast. It's quite a handsome place with pastel colored buildings jammed into the small valleys and hanging precariously off the high cliffs. The mountains actually rise upto 1400m above see level and over the days we visited, the tops of the mountains were often in the clouds. From the water you can also see Amalfi Drive, a Roman road carved for 50 miles along the coast from Sorrento to Salerno. It's amazing to look at, cars and buses whizz in and out of tunnels through mountains, sometimes across vast bridges and cut into sheer cliff faces, impressive engineering!

We had a little explore up the coast a bit to a nice beach for lunch then headed back to the town where we anchored off the east beach and headed ashore. The town is typically touristy and we had a disappointing dinner but the setting was wonderful.

The next day we motored up to Positano, another beautiful seaside resort town built into towering cliffs. We anchored off the main beach then headed in where we had some great pizza and bought some fantastic cheese and bread. It's wonderful to be able to find some quality groceries again!!!

Our next stop was to be Capri and amazingly along the way we drove past Aussies Ian and Andrea Treleaven aboard their Oceanis 50 Cape Finisterre. The Treleaven's have been sailing the Med for many years now and have written a book "Letters from the Med" which we've read. Back in Sydney before Christmas we spoke with Ian about our trip and he gave us much helpful advice so it was nice to give them a wave and say G'day.

Continuing on the way to Capri I was also thrilled to see a Riva Aquarama (classic timber speedboat of which I have a model in the apartment). The Amalfi coast is full of mad Italians running around at great speed in their sports boats and massive cruisers, it's quite fun to see all the drama.

In Capri we stopped in a stunning bay called Marina Piccola (we don't know why it has Marina in the name because there is no actual marina) full of super yachts, italian cruisers, muscular sports boats and a small handful of yachts. Again the comings and goings are fun to watch but surprisingly every one is very well behaved and keeps an appropriate distance... so far. We're anchored just below the Via Krupp which is a famous footpath that leads from Capri town at the top down to the beaches below, you can see from the photo all the switch backs as it weaves it's way up the cliffs.

From here we'll be traveling across to Sorento and Naples before heading up to Rome.