OUR PRIVATE YACHT DAY

OUR PRIVATE YACHT DAY

At the Social Travellers gathering last night (we were the only two there), the Captain announced that due to inclement weather and the improbability of getting us to shore by tender that instead of going to Sorrento, we were docking in Naples. Our hostess, Marla made a face. She said that this would mean that our shore excursions would have an extra hours's drive to get to the port where the shore excursions were supposed to start from. And, of course, an extra hour to get back to the ship. Our excursion was a drive along the Amalfi coast and was already 6 hours in length. At dinner, we met a woman who taught at the college in Cazenovia where Warren and I have friends. She did not attend the social travellers but met us for dinner.
Our shore excursion didn't start until noon so we didn't set an alarm but both of us were wide awake at 6 a.m. so decided to get up. We went for a leisurely breakfast at Compass Rose of those wonderful lingonberry crepes and maple syrup and I googled the weather for Naples and Amalfi. Both reported a 100% chance of rain. We decided to turn in our tickets. Than meant that we could go back to our room for a mid-morning nap. We were up by the time the ship docked at noon and decided to go to the destinations desk and wait for the Naples tourism representative to come aboard with maps and information about Naples. I waited in line to pick up maps and information about Naples while Norma googled the city. I explained to the tourism representative that we were two old ladies on our own and she gave me the same information that she was giving everyone - take off all your jewelry, only go to these three squares, only shop on this street, and never venture into the historic part of the city. I took a map and went to join Norma. She was quite emphatic that we not explore the city. Her google search found that the city was owned by the Mafia, that corruption was rampant, and that it is so polluted as the Mafia is allowing (for money) the world to dump its toxic waste into landfills around the city. Consequently, the incidence of cancer here is astronomically higher than elsewhere.
Hence, our private yacht day. Very few passengers remained on the ship. We had a delightful lunch followed by another 2-hour nap. When we got back, we packed, ate the hors d'ouevres our butler brought us, and are now awaiting our room-service dinner. Sometimes, things work out for the best - we both needed this "sea day" as we were more exhausted than we realized and we have a long travelling day to look forward to.
Tomorrow, Rome and Home!