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Labor day 2025: Istanbul, Cappadocia and Amalfi coast trip

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One complaint I get from folks who go to the blog to get travel tips is that they have to go post to post backwards. There is no link from day 1 to day 2.. as I write in start to end sequence. My walking buddies suggested that everytime I finish a “series of posts”, there should be a summary post that describes the placed we stayed in, times between locations, etc.. something that they can literally cut and paste for a future itinerary. So for the first time trying that.

Click on the images to see the individual posts..

Day 1: Fly out of SFO to Istanbul. Start Friday afternoon. Reach Saturday afternoon local time in Istanbul airport.

Day 2: Two hours to reach hotel in old Istanbul area from Airport. Check in, change and visit Grand Bazaar, then walk around, see the Grand Cisterns and have dinner outside the Cisterns at a roof top restaurant, walk around the Sultanahmet mosque and square and get back to hotel.

The Grand Bazaar

Day 3: Sunday (Grand Bazaar is closed) All day walking tour of Istanbul with Viator. Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, catwalk at a mall, lunch break on our own, back to hotel, then Topkapi palace, back to hotel, then a night cruise on the Bhosporus strait.

Walking tour..

Topkapi palace

Night cruise

Day 4: Monday : Another morning at Grand Bazzar and walking around, then go to Hammam for 2+ hours, lunch near the Hammam place and back to hotel, pack and leave for Airport. Fly from Istanbul to Nevshehir and a long ride to Cave hotel in Kapadokya (Cappadocia).

Hammam and bye to Istanbul

Day 5 Tuesday: Wake up to see the ballons, then go on an all day Viator tour of Kapadokya. Open air Museum at Goreme, Lover’s hill, Pottery at Avanos, buffet lunch, Imagination point, PInk Valley, underground city of Kaimakli, Pidgeon valley, Uchisar castle, stop for buying Turkish delights, back to Cave hotel. Walking around the Goreme village at night and a dinner in Indian restaurant.

Hot air balloons in Kapadokya

Goreme open air museum

Lover’s hill

Pottery gallery at Avanos

Imagination point and PInk Valley

Kaimakli underground city, Pidgeon valley and Uchisar castle

Day 6 Wednesday: Cancelled Ballon ride. Spend time in the village, drive to Nevshehir airport, fly to Istanbul, wait, fly to Naples (basically entire day in cars, airports), drive from Naples airport to Sorrento hotel.

spending time at cave hotel and off to Naples (all day travel via Istanbul)

Day 7 Thursday: Walking Food tour in Sorrento followed by visiting Church and Cathedral. Back to hotel and walk to the water to spend time in the sea in the public area. Back to hotel, change, visit city center for dinner, followed by sunset viewing.

Sorrento food tour

water time and sunset in Sorrento

Day 8 Friday: Drive to Ercolano to see the buried city of Herculaneum. Then drive to Pompeii to see buried city there, lunch at Pompeii, drive back to Sorrento, short break and Kayaking in sunset in Sorrento.

Buried city of Herculaneum

Pompeii

Kayaking at sunset in Sorrento

Day 9 Saturday: Say bye to Sorrento, load luggage, drive to Positano, spend time seeing vertical village, lunch, then drive to Naples hotel. See the Naples City center, Castle, Galleria Umberto, Via Toledo, ice cream, take out dinner which we had back in hotel with the little one and pack.

Positano Vertical village

An evenings in Naples

Day 10 Sunday: Early morning flight from Naples to Rome and Rome to SFO and back by Sunday late afternoon. Time to recover in time to head back to office Monday!

Had to take five days off instead of 4 as Turkish airlines flight time moved earlier. So had to take off Friday before labor day.

There was something for everyone in the family in this trip. No check in baggage. Managed to pack only clothes (fortunately summer clothes) and do a 9 day trip with a carry on bag each. Did not buy anything that would add to weight. Didn’t take laptops on trip. It was an exercise in luggage frugality. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

Hope this summary post helps you better. If it does drop me a note or let me know on FB and will do this for all future trips.

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An evening in Naples

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The previous post in this series is here..

We drove non stop from Positano to Naples. Our hotel originally gave us a scare as the route took us through some run down neighborhoods. Finally when we went inside the hotel, it was really nice. It was the Buono Hotel in an area called Poggioreale. It is actually a 25 minute drive to the city center.

The staff were courteous and told us to take the public transport if we wanted to visit the city. However the ticket booths were closed and they did not accept cards on the bus and also we waited for 15 minutes and no bus/train came. The stop was right outside the hotel.

The little one bailed on us as usual as she had to study and rest. She told us to get her dinner. We just took the car and went into the city. It was a stupid idea. Even though I had been driving in Italy the last two days, in traffic, Naples evening traffic on a Saturday evening is a nightmare. Apparently there was a huge concert happening downtown in the city center. Roads were blocked. We did find parking near the castle. I have never been more proud of a parking job in my life. Jackie Chan would have been proud after seeing that parking job.

Then we walked to the castle. It was meh. So we did not bother to get tickets and go in. Just walked around it. Then came the Galleria. It was just amazing. This is one beautiful building. The photos and pano's are not fair to the place. Go see it for yoursef. We also visited a beautiful church in the city center and walked in Via Toledo which was surprisingly open to pedestrian traffic. Cops had blocked off a lot of roads for the concert.

Even though I took pictures of those strawberries and other foods on display, could not eat anything except the gelato. Thank god I am not allergic to chocolate!

our hotel.. which is actually really nice inside. Very close to airport. Don’t be shocked by Apple maps which says it is 20 mins away. It is 5 mins away in the morning at 4:30AM.

Photos from our walk around Naples city..

Some of these photos were DNG file for some reason and what I see on my phone is not what I get after saving it. Have to figure it out later. The shadows are dark!

This is where we got dinner from. It was really good!

After this we went to the third attaction which was closed thanks to the concert. Finally ate some gelato made from buffalo milk and got dinner from a busy restaurant. It was time to drive back. We used the breakfast area to eat our dinner. The staff said “go ahead. not a problem”. It was an early dinner. We had already packed for the most part.

The two panos from this walk..

The Umberto Galleria is massive!

A video highlights reel..

We had a 6:30 AM flight from Naples to Rome, a 2 hour wait in Rome and a flight from Rome to SFO. We tried to leave at 4:30 to the airport. It took us under 10 minutes to get to the car return area. It took a lot longer to figure out where to drop the key and then walk to the airport from there. It is a good 15 minute walk lugging the carry ons.

We did have a little fiasco where we got seprated from the kids and they did not show up at the gate. Gate D22 is off to some side in the airport and we were trying to get our money back on taxes paid at a kiosk. That process took too long (that counter opens late and there was a line) so we gave up and when we showed up at the gate, the kids were missing. Their phone died etc.. everything you can expect to go wrong and does.. Finally they showed up and we were off.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. Alitalia airlines was decent. First time flying in that but the food, entertainment and service was great. San had upgraded to economy plus as a surprise for the family! Given how tired we all were.

We were all smiles. The overall rating on this trip was an A+. Something for everyone, narrow escapes with sickness, falls, but on the whole made it back in one piece.

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Positano in the Amalfi Coast - Vertical village

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The previous post in this series is here..

After Jr.’s scaring us with her health the previous night post kayaking into the sunset, we tried to get her back in shape with EmergenC, tylenol etc. and by morning she was in better shape.

We had one last breakfast at the Angelino Hotel, said bye to the staff. Loaded our luggage and started driving to Positano. It was a tense drive on windy roads along the coast. Once we reached Positano we found a paid parking garage and walked the entire vertical village up and down a few times.

Thoroughly enjoyed the churches, the lanes, the cute shops, and had a fabulous pasta lunch.

The gallery of photos , mostly in portrait format..

A video highlights reel..

Then we walked back in the hot sun to the car. It was already close to 2 PM when we started. The original plan was to go sleep in Naples close to the airport and catch the early morning flight out. Given the heat and need for some chai, we skipped the gelato plan and drove straight to Naples.

Positano was amazing. It felt like an action replay of Sorrento at placed but the vertical village has its own charm! Do not miss visiting Positano if you go on a trip to the Sorrento area.

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.