We woke up on our 3rd day in Praiano and made breakfast again. This has been a good routine while living in this place. The food is as good as what we'd get at a restaurant and saves us money. We eat out the rest of the time usually so it was a nice change of pace. We had caprese salads again, this time with arugula added to the mix along with avocado and for me some onions.
The day before I made a reservation to take a private boat on a half day cruise up and down the Amalfi Coast. I spent a lot of time going over options such as full day tours, group shared tours, renting out our own boat to drive ourselves and so on. We finally settled on this half day cruise on a pretty swank boat called "Tornado Eleven". The package sounded just right and it worked with our schedule, so we pulled the trigger. The company we booked with is called La Bellavita Charter and cost €532.12 for a 4 hour trip. Our boat was set to meet us at the dock down at Marina di Praia at 2pm.
We spent the day at home relaxing and getting our stuff ready for the tour. For lunch we boiled up some tortellini that we bought at the market. I also infused some garlic with some olive oil and we drizzled that on top. It was delicious.
At 1:15pm we started walking down to the marina. We showed up around 1:45pm and waited for our boat. There was a lot of traffic at the dock this day. What we thought was our boat was waiting off in the distance for an opening to come in and get us. A little after 2pm our boat pulled up to the dock and we quickly got on. Our captain for the day was Rafaelle. He was very nice and hospitable.
When we got on board we went over the tour plan and began heading North toward Positano first. The boat was going very slowly so we really got to take in all the sights while we cruised by. When we got Positano we did some posing on the bow of the boat and took lots of photos of the town from the water. Viewing things from the water is really the best way to experience it when you come to the Amalfi Coast. After Positano we kept going North. At one point we stopped and he asked if we wanted to jump out and swim through this little cave tunnel, but we both got a bit spooked by the distance from the boat to the cave. We continued on and saw some neat shaped rocks, one called "face rock" and then went through a little passageway between two rocks.
We pulled up to a clear blue swimming area North of Spiaggia di Tordigliano. Our captain asked if we wanted to swim. We finally decided we would give it a shot. It's always scary to us both swimming in deep water, no matter where we are. Even in a lake it's spooky. Well we both jumped in and swam out in the ocean for awhile. The captain threw out some floaty noodles for us to use as we floated around. While we were in the water he threw in some small bread pieces which triggered all these little baitfish to swim up around us. It was pretty awesome. I have a video of us in the water that I will share at some point when I download it from my GoPro.
After our swim we got back in the boat and headed South. We went down and passed by the Fjord of Furore. We stopped inside of a cave for a quick photoshoot which was pretty amazing. We saw some giant yachts. We drove down to Amalfi, Ravello, Minori, Maiori and all the way as far South as Vietri sul Mare. We saw all the many lookout towers that were built along the coastline to warn against incoming pirate invaders. We saw the mountains and hills full of agriculture and produce being grown all over them. It was a trip that was worth it for sure.
During the trip our captain made us aperol spritz cocktails and also gave us a fruit bowl to snack on. We brought our own bottle of white wine as well and enjoyed that along the way too. After the tour, Rafaelle dropped us back at the dock and we waved goodbye as he backed away in the boat.
We decided we would try going directly to dinner at this other restaurant that is on the path up the hill. It's called Ristorante Franchino. We walked past Il Pirata and up the path a bit and were seated almost immediately. The view from this restaurant was even better than Il Pirata. We were seated along the edge of the walkway overlooking the other restaurant below and had a cool breeze blowing up to greet us. It was perfect! We ordered a bottle of wine, the Jermann 2018 Chardonnay. Then for our food we had: Grilled cheese in lemon leaf and mixed vegetables, grilled octopus and potato puree, homemade pasta with garlic and chili, pasta with bolognese, and sea bass.
After our nearly perfect day, we took another gigantic walk up the hill again for the last time.
That is the end of Day 11.
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