I got a lot of ribbing from my relatives when I told them we were going to a buffalo farm in Italy where the buffalo get massages and are milked. “Oh, please. Milk a buffalo?” Yes, it’s true! I saw it with my own eyes. These buffalo are not the American bison we were picturing. They were closer in size to cows, and they came originally from India. They got to Italy by walking—but not recently! And, yes, they are pampered. They are free to roam around and sleep wherever they want. They don’t like people staring at them (not kidding), so we had to view them from a platform above. Three hundred cows and six bulls live there.

We saw how the mozzarella is made. It is made here all day long—five hours from milking to finished product. We had lunch at the farm, and all of the dairy products were made from buffalo milk. The ricotta was to die for, the best I’ve ever eaten! The mozzarella was more firm that what you usually see. We had a pasta that almost seemed like a crepe filled with ricotta and spinach. Mmmmm. So, so good. We also had banana buffalo yogurt followed by buffalo gelato for dessert. It was awesome.

It’s a self-service massage for these buffalo, and they do walk over to the milking machine whenever they’re ready.

Heavenly ricotta and mozzarella with the best salad of the trip.

We made another stop on the way to Positano, at Paestum, to view some Greek temples. The one above is the Temple of Athena. At left, Robin is standing by the roof of a house. The rest of the building hasn’t been excavated yet. We also had a little time to go through the museum there.

The night before at dinner, Robin and I had Rainer and Maurizio at our table. When Rainer got up to pay the check, Robin and I offered to drive the bus to Positano so that Maurizio could just sit back and relax for a change. Good job driving that big bus on those narrow mountain roads, Robin!
(Just kidding!)

From my blog entry: “This is it. This is why I’m here. The blue, blue water of the Mediterranean has been calling my name since our stay at Cinque Terre two years ago. The coastline views of the Amalfi coast of Italy are absolutely breath-taking. Our pictures just don’t do them justice. Many of the photos today were taken from our bus. I couldn’t drink in enough scenery. It’s absolutely incredible!”

This faun was perched on the corner of a fence. We were to see much more of him later in Pompeii and Naples.

Positano is a more ritzy, touristy area complete with a beach. It’s built on a cliff, of course, so there’s some steep walking, and the streets are narrow. There are loads of shops, some quite expensive, and lots of restaurants too. It’s a fun place to stay, and there’s a night life too!

Our favorite drink in Italy?
It was called "The Miami."

We had a free evening once we settled into our very favorite hotel of the trip, Hotel Savoia, and had pizza with some of our group. We were surprised to find that Andrew, the youngest member of our group, had been invited to make pizzas in the restaurant kitchen—for real! And they were served to the customers. But it’s Italy. Expect the unexpected!

The next morning, we decided to take the bus to Amalfi for the day. It was a short walk, but the scenery was beautiful, of course. I especially love that Mediterranean haze, where the water meets the sky, and they become one—like a perfect marriage!

At the bus stop, we seemed to wait and wait. Finally we asked an Italian woman what time the bus was scheduled to come. She said, “In a half hour, so it should definitely come within an hour.” That's Italy!

The bus finally arrived, and we enjoyed more great scenery on the way to Amalfi. We really missed Maurizio as we felt quite safe with him on our bus, and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for the routes on the city bus. There was only one road that zig zags the mountain, yet every once in a while the bus would stop, back up and go in the other direction. Once the driver even stopped and left the bus for a while without any explanation! We thought he had abandoned us, but he just went across the piazza to get a drink from the fountain. Remember, you're in Italy!

Robin was such a good sport. It wasn’t easy to get to exactly the right spot for that perfect picture.

This part of Italy is definitely lemon country. Look at the size of some of these. They’re like grapefruit! We had fun sampling the various limoncellos and picking out our favorite to bring home.

Ravello is another quaint town where we could do a little shopping (and eating—couldn’t pass up the gelato). Our main reason for visiting Ravello was to see Villa Cimbrone, and it didn’t disappoint.

Villa Cimbrone was beautiful—lush gardens, stunning views. And yes, we even saw a couple of poor panting dogs way up there!

This is my favorite photo from grounds of the villa. There’s that Mediterranean haze again, and what a perfect Roman nose! How many generations before us have enjoyed this beautiful view?

We took a leisurely boat ride back to Positano, where the group later gathered for dinner at Bruno’s where we had what was the the hands-down favorite dinner of the trip for most of us.

We had wonderful ravioli and “frutti di mare,” which is a pasta dish with lots of different local fish and shellfish. For dessert we had cannoli, cream puffs covered (make that smothered) in chocolate, AND tiramisu. If you llike to eat well, this is a good tour for you.

Lev showed us his battle scars. He had tangled with a jelly fish earlier in the day.

If you’re a late sleeper and would rather start your day at a leisurely pace, a Rick Steves’ tour is probably not for you. Most of the time, you’ll have breakfast available at about 7:30 or 8:00 and will be meeting with the group about 8:30 or so. For me, it was great. If I’m traveling, I want to see and do as much as possible. I agree with one of our tour guides on the last trip: “Let’s get going. You can sleep after you die!”

Ann was a little tired the next morning when we had our early breakfast call. We were sad to say good-bye to pretty Positano and our beautiful hotel, but we were anxious to begin our next adventure. It was time to conquer Mt. Vesuvius!

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