From Sorrento to Capri and back
Day trip
20 minutes one way
54 Euros
That's a funny story, because we took an early afternoon ferry out to Capri, a big boat, just 20 minutes or so. We docked at the main dock. We spent a great day day on Capri, including riding a little bus up to near the top of the island to Anacapri, and then we took a zillion stairs back down to the harbor to catch the LAST ferry back to Sorrento. We kept a pretty rapid pace down the stairs and down the path and ran to the main dock where a big ferry was boarding. It was even going to Sorrento. But when I asked a guy from the crew if it was the right ferry, he pointed to one about half that size at a much smaller dock, way out on the pier. We ran hard to make it.... and we did. I didn't relish the idea of a pricey Capri hotel room with no toothbrush while I was paying for a hotel room in Sorrento.
From Sorrento to Salerno, down the Amalfi coast
2 hours
27 Euros
This is the famous 50 kilometers of coast featured in James Bond movies, and features beautiful little towns just dripping into the ocean like Positano, Priano and Amalfi.
From Reggio di Calabria to Messina (Sicily)
45 minutes
12 Euros
Drove hard to get from Parco Nazionale di Pollino to the tip of the boot to cross over to Sicily, made it in time to wait almost 2 hours for the next ferry, even tho the guide book said ferries left every 20 minutes. It was really hard to understand the old guy at the little ticket booth; I couldn't understand where to get in line. He kept saying the camiones, so we went and asked a truck driver in line, and he said that was the right line, and we could right in front of him, so we were basically at the front of the line. We shared our old pecorino cheese with him.....Hit Messina when the sun was going down. We were heading to climb Etna the next day, so we wanted to stay in Nicolosi on the southern slope. Made it late, about 8:45 or 9pm.
From Trapani (Sicily) to Cagliari (Sardinia)
almost 12 hours (I thought it was 10)
Overnight
239 Euros
Sleeper cabin (four bunk beds, tiny desk, window, tiny bathroom with a shower, and closets)
11 decks
This was the only thing we had booked before I left the US besides our plane tickets. And I couldn't do it myself, Leta at Tour West Travel did it. I called Leslie at TW from the airport in Phx explaining that I couldn't get reservations myself on line. The problem was the ferry only went once a week each from two cities on the northern Sicilian coast to Sardinia - Saturday from Palermo and Sunday from Trapani, and I couldn't seem to get us three tickets and a sleeper cabin on either for the week we wanted. By the time my first flight landed in Detroit, Leta had accomplished the feat, charged my credit card, and emailed me the ticket. What a miracle!
This is the ferry that was departing 5 km away from the main port, and a man in line, an MD who worked in public health all over the world, most recently Haiti, offered to drive us in his car. Giovanni. We all slept great on the passage, and woke early to get breakfast and get off the boat at 10am. Which turned into 11am, and then noon.
From Olbia/Golfo Aranci (Sardinia) to Livorno
7 hours - Overnight
200 Euros
Sleeper Cabin
9 decks
This ferry was much cleaner than the other overnight ferry - a different line altogether. We found our cabin easily and crashed hard, because this ferry was really late departing. It was beautiful waiting on the pier for the ferry, but we were exhausted. And the ferry made up the time - even though we waited 2 extra hours, it still arrived by 7am. In fact, they started the "wake up" announcements at 5:45 and kept them up, in both Italian and English, until we disembarked.
Their cafeteria had great food.
