We were up early as Susan and Rob had worked out the 'time and space' the night before and when we should leave Villa Bertagni in Torrite, hand over rental cars at Florence airport, then taxi to Santa Maria Novella station, to catch our ItaliaRail fast train to Naples. From there we had booked a private limousine to Positano.

Rena's aunties and uncles were up before us, packed and ready to go by the time we started to pack our cars. We said our goodbyes and they set of home to Roma by car.

Once again we had some GPS fun on route. We were following Rob and Rena again, but this time they made a wrong exit from a round about and we now had a GPS, so kept our route onto the autostrade and phoned to check - they were OK but behind us now. Not for long; their BMW and a couple of Audis flew passed us as if we were stationary, yet we were doing the speed limit, 130kph. Just short of Florence airport we took a wrong turn and ended back on the autostrade heading back the way we came.  GPS got us back on track, by which time Rob and Rena were waiting having handed back their car.

Rena had earlier tried to book Claudio, our friendly driver from Florence, but he was already booked. We picked up two taxis from the rental park and arrived at Florence station 50min ahead of our departure, thanks to Susan and Rob's planning.  The taxis drivers offered to drive us to Positano for 500 euro. An interesting prospect and was certainly a cheaper option, but would add another hour and a half to the journey, excluding stops, and we had already paid our rail tickets from Florence to Naples and booked our limousine to Positano.

While the others rested at the station café, Allan took the opportunity to get some pictures of Francesco da Firenze shoe store, where he had ordered his handmade shoes a week earlier. Francesco was only 10 min walk from the station across the Arno via Ponte Alla Carriai.  On threat of 'pain of death' he had returned within 30 min with a photo record for Rena's and our blogs (see Day 7). 

ItaliaRail's fast train, business class was certainly a comfortable relaxing way to transit and get from one villa destination to another.  On the Naples journey we beat the Venice-Florence speed record, clocking 300kph. You can see why the Italians have an international reputation as tunnellers; we travelled at speed through some tunnels that seemed to go on for ever.

We arrived on time at Napoli Centrale station at 3pm and had no trouble finding Fabrizio, our pre-booked driver from Amalfi-drive Limousine. We were soon on our way south out of Naples in his late model Mercedes minibus. This was a fascinating trip through some grim looking streets of Naples, then onto the autostrade that took us around the bay of Naples, under Mt Vesuvius volcano, then over the Sorrento Peninsula on the Meta-Amalfi road to Positanto. It took just under a couple of hours including a short stop to take in the magnificent view of Sorrento from a roadside lookout at Montechiaro.

Once over the pass and on the Amalfi coast, the Meta-Amalfi road took some getting used to; especially driving on the right side of the road and seated on the right side of the van. This narrow road is carved out of shear cliffs dropping hundreds of meters to the water. I was glad of two things; first, that Rena booked our rail journey to alight at Naples north of the Amalfi coast, rather than Salerno from the south - otherwise we would have missed the views of Vesuvius and Salerno; and second, that an Amalfi Coast local from Nerano was driving. Fabrizio delivered us safely to our Positano accommodation, Villa Adonia. Another magnificent villa that Rena had chosen; the contrasting views out our bedroom window could not be greater between mountainous Tuscany and Amalfi coast.

A quick unpack followed by groceries and wines from, Alimentari de Colonali, the local convenience store 100 m up our street, then we walked 100m up the street again for a meal.   Our first choice was fully booked; so we walked another 100m and found a lovely family owned Trettoria, C'era una Volta, where Allan enjoyed fresh anchovies for the first time and Rena stated she had the best white wine on our trip - a house white served in the traditional porcelain jug. Later in the week stay, Susan the girls and I returned for a second meal a when Rob and Rena went Michelin Star dining.