Today was sadly our last day here in Nocelle, we went down for breakfast and took in the views one last time. We could just see the horizon this early on the morning but normally you can’t tell where the ocean ends and the sky starts, just one big mesmerising blue gradient.
After breakfast we paid our bill and packed the last few things. To get pack to the car pack there are quite a few steps to climb up with our luggage but after all the walking we’ve done here we were ready! 💪 My knee was feeling good and Bec’s calf muscles and my quad has recovered some since yesterday, although we did consider hiring Salvatore the Mule Man to carry our bags up just for the experience!
The bus arrived and thankfully it was pretty empty because we are at the end of the route, this bus just travels between Positano and Nocelle. We found a spot to sit our luggage and I stayed with them to stop them sliding around the winding mountain roads.
We eventually arrived at Bar International, the stop we missed on the way up! Bec ran in and organised tickets and before long we loaded up on to a bigger, more comfortable coach bus to Sorrento.
We arrived at Sorrento station, got tickets and boarded a train but it didn’t depart for another 15 minutes or so, it was pretty warm on the train!
It finally took off and about an hour later we were in Naples. We were looking for a station called Napoli Centrale but we didn’t realise to get there we needed to get off at Napoli Garibaldi so we missed that stop but once we realised we got off at the next stop (which was the end of the line anyway) and boarded another train to go back.
From there we bought tickets for the local Metro and traveled another 3 stops to Toledo station which was only a 5 minute walk to our hotel. That station was fancy looking, it looked like an aquarium and had a big tunnel leading up to the surface to let light in, looked pretty cool.
We arrived at our hotel, The Renaissance, and checked in, we are pretty lucky to be staying at this fancy place tonight! Rachael, Bec’s sister, graciously bought us a night here with the points she earns from all her travels for work, we’re very grateful! After carrying our luggage up and down stairs all day and all the walking we’ve done, it was nice to have a hotel porter take care of our bags when we arrived, he even did the stairs for us!
We were given a voucher for complimentary wine and snacks so we dropped our stuff in the room, then had a quick look at the rooftop jacuzzi and headed to the bar downstairs to redeem our gift.
After eating way too many peanuts we got the hotel staff to recommend and book a good pizza place for dinner and headed back to the room to get changed for the jacuzzi!
The rooftop facilities were pretty good! They had two jacuzzis, a shallow one and a deep one, a sauna, fresh towels and a bar. We relaxed in the jacuzzi for a bit which was so good after all the walking, the water jets were really strong which was like having a deep tissue massage on my back! We hopped in the sauna for a bit and then had a lie down in the afternoon sun until a little after 7pm.
After a quick shower and change we headed to the restaurant for our 8pm booking. The place was called Brandi and the restaurant that created the first margherita pizza. In the 19th century the co-owner of Brandi at the time was invited to the palace to cook pizza for Queen Margherita and her husband. She enjoyed the pizza so much she sent a letter to the restaurant and co-owner expressing her gratitude. The co-owner was so touched he named the pizza margherita, which is how margherita pizza got its name! The original letter from the queen is framed in this pizzeria.
We were lucky enough to have this place booked for us by the hotel as there seemed to be people getting turned away. Although the wait staff weren’t the happiest the pizza chefs were very friendly and encouraged us to take photos with them, which was a nice end to our meal!
I wanted to have gelato for our last night in Italy. We walked by one gelato shop with a line as they also do frozen yoghurt that is organic. We decided to share a small cup and I couldn’t decide on a flavour so got a recommendation from the lady serving us. We ended up getting cookies and cream (it was too sweet) and strawberry. I think i didn’t feel quite satisfied with the cookies and cream flavour so when we passed another gelato shop with a big line and lots of flavours I gave in and we decided to share another small cup. This time we got hazelnut and almond/pistachio which was strong but nice!