No wonder Roberto our ultraskillful coach driver felt he had to sit down for our team photo. He’d just loaded our 40 suitcases into his coach ready to start our journey home after 6 days of memorable October adventures around Naples and the Amalfi Coast – most of which were blessed by beautiful autumnal weather.
Why any hotelier would name their establishment after one of Greek mythology’s three dangerous females who sported living venomous snakes in place of their hair had us all intrigued. But our leader Paul Tiller’s choice of La Medusa for our Moleside holiday HQ proved a wise one.
We found ourselves warmly welcomed into ornate surroundings that offered tantalising views of the surroundings we were to explore.
The hotel stands in a beautiful garden laden with thriving citrus and shrubs in full flower and offering a wonderful choice of spots to relax when the opportunity arose.
Not that there was too much chance of a great deal of relaxation because Paul’s action packed programme certainly made the most of the riches open to visitors living just south of Vesuvius.
We joined the thousands investigating the time capsule that is Pompei – as it continues to reveal details of lives as things were in 79 AD
Across the Bay of Naples we explored both the coastline and the narrow winding roads of surely the most glamorous of Mediterranean islands. And some of us – courtesy of the local chair lift – reached Capri’s summit on Monte Solaro.
Naples is in Florida our guides told us but the original Napoli that we could explore here revealed a history shaped by the Greeks, the Romans and the later generations of citizens who have made this working and vibrant city their home.
In the Royal Palace of Caserta we learnt about the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Bourbon kings, members of the family tree that once dominated European royalty, who ruled their Neopolitan kingdom from here.
Their instruction to their 18th century architects was to deliver the best in the world – a palace with at least a thousand rooms and a park in which it could stand that would put their cousins’ masterpiece of Versailles in the shade.
Sadly the bright sunshine deserted us for the day when we had planned to explore the legendary Amalfi Coast from the best possible view point – a boat at sea.
The experience of taking Roberto’s substantial coach amongst all the other traffic forced by the weather onto the narrow roads of the Sorrento Peninsular helped us appreciate our surroundings whilst also understanding why the Italian’s style of driving is both admired and feared most everywhere else.
Thanks Paul & Britt for a great holiday. Planned 3 years ago, before the pandemic made such travel impossible, all of us on this long awaited Moleside Holiday have been invited to share our photographs that we took along the way. Alan Willis is now collecting them and reports that he’s already received a substantial set of contributions. So this website report is just a taster and once the real Album takes shape club members will be able to see them all in the Members Area. You can be sure you’ll hear about it when it’s ready on www.molesideprobus.org.
