"No really he lives in a cave and his car is like the flinstones." -Alberto, Positano

So like I said, we grabbed our stuff and quite literally RAN away. Oh but don't worry we took a picture of the what would probably become one of the most infamous spots for our entire trip. Duh! In fact, for all your eye candy pleasure...here are some pics...


how quaint.

Anyway, so like I said, we ran. The thing was pretty much only knew how to get to the market and to the bus stop, but the those were both likely places that we could run into Jess and Dave so the night before I had seen Dave run down some stairs by the market when he tried to chase down that stupid high dude that stole my pack. So we headed that way. And yes, we were still basically running. What? We were seriously like so paranoid about running into them but also super hungry and had NO CLUE what time the next bus was coming through so I figured as long as the stairs kept going down the mountain we would eventually end up at the beach. hmmm, the beach. I love the beach. It's. Like. Heaven.

We made it. And in good time too. Unfortunately, remember how I said it was like 7am or whatever, yeah...nothing was open. We put our stuff down...IN A REALLY GOOD VISIBLE PLACE :) And I walked around looking at the menus at the couple of nice restaurants right there on the beach. Oh and by the way...don't even get me started...it was absolutely gorgeous. It was breath taking...or giving...something about clean, fresh, crisp ocean breeze seems to just make everything seem brighter and peaceful. Hmmm...I need to go to the beach...Anyway, we ended up at a bar for some classic Italian hot cocoa and a pastry. mmm, mmm, good.

By this point we'd already walked by these guys a couple times and by the time we were done with our breakfast, maybe they joined us at the bar. Convenient. They were definitely locals and definitely speaking Napoletano and giggling an awful lot. I had to pee so I made eye contact with one of them a couple times and then I started chatting with them. They actually had great English. So, after some other girls squeezed onto the bar as well, I asked them to watch our bags so we could run to the restroom. The one that we would come to know as Alberto just rose his brow, cracked a mischievous smile and said, "Oh of course and don't worry we'll take everything."

"Perfect!" I exclaimed and ran off.

I know you're all really starting to think, "ok, who let this girl backpack around the world basically alone??" or probably, "Didn't she learn her lesson last night??" hahaha, I getcha but, I just knew they were fine...I could feel it. And really really, it was probably one of the best decisions of the entire trip :)

We came back, thanked them, and were off to enjoy an absolutely fabulously relaxing day on the beaches of Positano. It was ahhh, so wonderful. So needed. So perfect. There was hardly anyone along the coast and the sky was beyond big, bright, and beautiful. I honestly don't know what was more clear, the water or the sky. And the forecast for today was a huge storm. Ha! (this happened almost everywhere we went our entire trip actually...we bring and take the sun everywhere we went in Italia)

I found a great place to stash our stuff, when I walked down along the southern end of the beach I found an old rusted stairwell that lead up to a rod iron door to who knows where. It was lightly chained off and well hidden from view by a serious amount of over grown trees and budding bushes. It was pretty easy for me to climb over and under and park our stuff up there. Shoes included of course.

We spent the next few hours mostly separate doing as we pleased. Janise playing travel photographer and me...I just did the beach thing. There were some cliffs off to the north and though there were some pretty huge waves crashing into them I was pretty sure there had to be a way up the cliff so I watched the sets rolling in for a little and picked up on the pattern and then just went for it. I'm starting to sense a pattern with this day. Yes, I ran.

and...just as I assumed...A dug out staired path leading to the seemingly ever elusive UP. Ooh, I love up. I climbed up, mostly with ease. There were only a couple spots that I had to make it up as I went. What I didn't know to be the halfway point at the time was a white stained by time and the spirit of adventure peace sign spray painted on the rocks. Love it. A man after my own heart...and I say man because I've never seen a chick walking around with a spray bottle tagging...yes, I'm totally stereotyping...although, now that I think about it...I've totally done that. ha! funny.

The staired path ended a little abruptly but there was a path a hop over a fence away. So I hopped. Left or right? Right would most likely send me back down and into the town center. And left, well I had no clue where left went and the path quickly disappear around a bend and behind more over reaching trees.

Left it is.

I was passed by a family at one point and judging by the looks on their faces you'd think they'd never seen a girl barefoot in a little white dress walking with a light bounce in her step humming some song as she went. Weird. Maybe it was the bright scarf tied in my hair or my best retro big sunglasses. Who knows. Who cares.

My journey lead me to a couple remarkable views and then...the pearl...a solitary little cover with nothing but the soothing sound of the water washing up and down the shore and splashing along the rocks. hmmm, perfect.

I skipped back to my stuff, grabbed my book of choice for this part of the trip having read nearly all the other, found Janise and beckoned to her to join me. She was a little sketched out by the initial race to beat the crashing walls of water to get to the first few steps of the climb up, but from there it was great. She went through this little open ended cave that lead to another long stretch of beach and disappeared with her camera. I stuffed my Book of Mormon down the front of my dressed and starting climbing the face of the rocks on the north side of my magical little cove. I found the perfect perch just high enough that only my feet would get wet by some of the big waves and where the constant ocean spray was enough to refresh but not too much to saturate my book or blur my vision.

and, I said a little prayer and just opened and read. I don't know why I was surprised but I opened to the same chapter that I'd been opening to for the entire trip. And it wasn't because I've been using the same BOM every time. Interesting.

I could have sat up there, basking in the sun, reading, pondering, and just experiencing every moment forever. Unfortunately, we had a date to keep. You see, on my way back to find Janise I passed those guys again and Janise and I were hungry and not really wanting a feast of granola bars and trail mix. But, we also didn't have a clue where else to eat other than the expensive spots right on the water. We needed local help. Good thing I just smiled at one.

Janise about died when I walked back with a satisfied smiled from ear to ear.

Janise: "So did you find a place to eat?"

Me: "Yup."

Janise: "Awesome, where?"

Me: "Alberto's."

Janise: "Hmm, is it supposed to be real good? Where is it?"

Me: "Oh I don't know. He said it is and I'm assuming it's his house."

Janise: "Wait what?"

I just smiled and nodded. "I asked them where the best place for lunch was in Positano and the one with the green eyes and the baseball cap stepped forward and said, 'My house.' And that my dear Janise, is that. Free lunch and cute company with awesome English."

"How do you do that???" Shock and awe is the best way to describe her at that point.

So, that's the appointment that pulled me off my heaven sent rock escape. We had to meet them on the beach at 1pm.

From there we spent a few hours just hanging out on the steps in the center of town with a bunch of Alberto's friends. Pablo and Christian and and and. They knew everyone and I swear Alberto was related to half the town. Everyone that walked up was either a relative or a neighbor which for a town of a little over 3000 I guess isn't too hard but still. It was so much fun. And seriously, I swear there are like NO women in that entire town. And they actually kept telling us that it was like a holiday that women aren't supposed to go outside day or something...but

a. they were remarkably good at joking around and,
b. there's no way!

...but really really, I still couldn't tell you if they were being serious or not. Like they would try and prove it to us by asking random dudes that walked by and they all seemed to be in on it.

Oh yeah, I guess I probably don't need to mention that we didn't have a plan for where to stay that night. But don't worry, after like hours of chatting I had my little Alberto Russo and his motley crew wrapped around my finger. We got really great gelato, a night over drinks, and the top FLOOR of a sea front hotel which included the entire roof terrace and princess accommodations at an extremely discounted rates...like we're talking ridiculous. I had stopped at the restroom again and on my way back he grabbed my arm, pulling me to the gelato counter, hands me his favorite and says pick my price. I totally low balled...like hostel rate level...and he got Christian to give it to us. The hotel wasn't even open for the season until the next day so he just gave us the key to the front door of the hotel and insisted no men were allowed in our room unless they pay me 100 euro and a bottle of wine. hahahaha.

There was only about an hour and a half that night that we didn't spend with them where we went to this pretty little spot they recommended for dinner and then we got all dolled up for drinks, etc. later that night. The waiter of course knew the guys and we had actually met his son and one of his workers through Alberto. The whole restaurant treated us like family after that. There was even this funny little old artist that had just finished painting an interesting depiction of beauty on the main wall that came and joined us for a while.

The bar tender was really funny that night too. He obviously also knew Pablo and Alberto so he'd walk over and chat with us every once in a while. The other thing they were trying to convince us of was that Pablo lives in a cave. Everyone confirmed it but really really? I still don't know. hahaha But the bar tender, when he brought our drinks back he tried to offer me another...alcoholic perhaps?? I told him I don't drink at all and that I never have and never will and they all just stopped and stared...they may have even stopped breathing. I continued and said, "Yeah, I don't drink, don't smoke, or do drugs." and that's when the bar tender said,

"What? She doesn't drink. She doesn't smoke. She doesn't do drugs. And she's beautiful," then he kinda smacked Alberto on the back and goes, "She's the perfect woman!"

We all laughed and I don't know who's face was closure to the color of a wild strawberry...mine or Alberto's.

We headed back up to our room and all sat on our king size bed and watched "Dark Knight" in Italian.

The night ended with Alberto trying to explain to us that in Italia they say hello and goodbye with due baci (a kiss usually on each cheek...which yes we not only knew but were very accustom to by that point). And then asking if he could. umm and yeah, we let them ;)..though I apparently had been doing it wrong all this time, because I was always under the impression that they were two cheek kisses. Haha cute little country boy...although he's 30 so I guess he's not really a boy...but he sure acted like one sometimes. For example, they refused to let us take pictures of them. Silly silly boys.

We slept really well that night.