Giovanni is a fantastic driver, guide and new friend who helped us find our Grandparents birthplace, a very small village in the Basilicata Region called San Constantino Albanese. He not only got us there and back in total comfort and safety, with his excellent bilingual talents he located a cousin we didn't know we still had there and also secured a meeting for us with the local Priest and even the Mayor. Overall it was a wonderful experience that would not have been possible without Giovanni. We are most grateful and will never forget his help and kindness. We hope to see Giovanni again when we return to Italy.

Sono contento per la Vostra simpatia e professionalità Carlo

The next day was a "cruising" day - believe me you will need it to recover from all the walking you will be doing.
Our final port of call was Naples/Capri. Brilliance was in port for 12 hours. We were supposed to meet our tour guide at 7:30 a.m., but due to some hold up, we weren't allowed off the ship until around 8:20 a.m. The captain announced that we would be given an extra hour that evening to return to the ship. Again, while reading Cruise Critic, I came across the name and company of Giovanni.lerusce@tin.it. I made contact with Giovanni and it proved to be a great decision on my part. This part of the tour included Pompeii (remember me, the antiquities "nut"), and I could not wait to get there. Giovanni's vehicle could not hold 11 of us (one of our group did the RC tour and hiked up Mt. Vesuvius) so he turned us over to his friend, Nino, for the tour. Giovanni had told me prior to our arrival that he would not be our guide, but he was there when we got off the ship and made it a point to introduce himself to me - he was a very nice gentleman. Giovanni also arranged for a private guide for Pompeii by the name of Ameena (and I know I didn't spell that right - and I apologize). Ameena was a really terrific guide. She showed us all the high points of Pompeii and the 2 hours we spent there with just flew by. Her knowledge is extraordinary. Archeologists have only uncovered 7% of Pompeii and still working. It won't be completed in my lifetime, but those that come after will hopefully get a real picture of what life was like in 79 AD. Nino, our guide, was terrific. After the Pompeii tour, we opted to take the Amalfi Drive. It is a very, very winding road along the seacoast of Italy and up into the mountains. We visited Sorrento and Positano. By the time we got to Positano, we were all starving. So Nino took us to Trattoria La Tagliata, which was situated above Positano, for some of the best food any of us have ever had. We walked in, they had our table ready. As soon as we sat down, the water, red wine, white wine and bread was put on the table. Then came the food - and it came, and came and came! We had at least 8 different dishes of antipasto to sample (all of which were outstanding). I don't like eggplant, but I couldn't get enough of the eggplant parmesan or the fresh mozzarella. After that came the pasta dishes - so many to try and each more delicious than the last. After the pasta came the desserts - again so much to try and each more tasty than the last. We were there about 2 hours, but it was worth every minute and every bite we took. We made sure before we left that we met "Momma" who was doing all the cooking and gave here a great big "Grazi." We continued on to Amalfi then returned to Brilliance. Again, if you want a tour that is truly worthwhile get in touch with Giovanni.lerusce@tin.it, you won't regret it if you do.

Naples: For this tour, I booked Giovanni Lerusce based on the recommendations I got from Cruise Critic. We again shared this tour with a couple we met on Cruise Critic. Anyway, when we got off the ship, Giovanni was already waiting for us with his absolutely lovely Mercedes van. We all kept complimenting his van that I think at one point he was already embarrassed. The 6 of us fit comfortably inside. We drove to Pompeii first, catching a glimpse of the infamous traffic on the other side of the highway. It did look terrible and I'm so used to horrible traffic back home. It was a beautiful clear day, not a cloud in the sky so we had great views of Vesuvius. We arrived at Pompeii just after it opened at 8:45 am. We saw a lot of guides gathering groups but we decided earlier that we were comfortable exploring on our own. We rented one audio guide and grabbed some of the free maps. We all enjoyed Pompeii. It was really cool to imagine the people living there 2,000 years ago. It is rather difficult for older people to walk around though because the paths are stony and uneven. We saw an elderly gentleman on what I think was a shore excursion lose his footing and fall. I think he hit the side of his head but he got up and seemed ok, especially for someone his age. I hope he had nothing more than bruises. We did not make it to the amphitheater because it was too far from the entrance we used (Port Marina entrance). We did see highlights like the baths and the house of the faun though. At 10:45 we met Giovanni outside the entrance. We also bought some orange granitas in the stand while waiting for him. They were delicious! Giovanni said that there was a protest going on the road to the Amalfi coast so he would take us through the back way through the mountains, first stopping at Ravello. Half-way up, we stopped at a lookout point to take some photos and get a nice view of the Bay of Salerno. In Ravello, we visited the church of San Pantaleone, an old church from the 11th century where the saint's blood miraculously liquefies each year during his feast day. We bought some souvenirs and paid 0.50E to use the bathroom at the bottom of the stairs on the left side of the square. At least it was a clean and well-supplied bathroom. We walked into the Ravello tourist office who told us the best place to eat was Villa Maria, at the top of the town. It was about a 5-10 minute walk up the mountain on paved roads/stairways but quite difficult to get to still. The place was beautiful though. It had a great view and fantastic pasta and risotto, probably the best meal we had on the whole trip. It took longer than we anticipated though including the walk up and down the mountain.
After Ravello, we then made our way to Amalfi where Giovanni had to make some tricky moves on the narrow road when we came face to face with a large truck. He is a good and safe driver so we weren't nervous at all. In Amalfi he dropped us off near the parking area by the beach. We bought some gelato for 2E per cup, took some photos and went into the main square where we bought some limoncello to take home. They had small bottles in funky glass containers shaped like guitars or shoes for only 2.5E. The church was closed so we took photos from the outside and stopped to buy some souvenir dishtowels (also 2.5E each). We spent about half an hour in Amalfi but it would've been nicer to get to explore a little bit more. After Amalfi we drove through Praiano on the way to Positano.
Giovanni parked along the main road and we had to walk down to the village. We only had 30 minutes and after taking some pictures of the great view, we only had enough time to walk down, browse in a few shops then walk back up the steep road. We did not even go all the way down. It would've been nice to spend some more time here as well. The view here was fantastic! By the time we got back to the car Giovanni said it was time to make our way back to Napoli. It seemed pretty early to me but of course we did not want to get stuck in traffic. We didn't go to Sorrento but we caught a glimpse of it from the road. It seems to be a bigger town than the others we visited. We also drove through Castellamare di Stabia and Giovanni pointed out the gates of his house to us. We did not hit any traffic on the way back to Naples.
We were back on the ship at 5pm. The Amalfi coast is so beautiful and the towns all so charming. It was rather relaxing compared to the harried pace we had in Florence and Rome where there is so much to see. It was a nice change to just ride along and enjoy the scenery.

We used Giovanni Lerusce in Naples and had a wonderful day. He is a great driver, which is important when driving on those winding roads. He took us to places with such fantastic views, that it will be a day that my family will always remember. His e-mail is giovanni.lerusce@tin.it We went to Pompeii, Positano and Amalfi.