Amalfi Coast

 Day 3 was time to relocate to the Amalfi coast. This gave us a leisurely start, and an 11 am checkout and a taxi back to the airport to catch our small bus to Atrani. After a small whoopsie when the driver told us our ticket was for yesterday, we paid again and drove south, past Pompeii and over the hills to the Amalfi Coast. 

This is a spectacular part of Italy. The steep mountains have houses perched on them, all with amazing views out over a, today, very calm Mediterranean Sea. We arrived at Atrani around 2 00 pm in good time for ouro meeting with our hosts in Piazza Umberto 1 at 3 00 pm. 

We had time for lunch, and a little more time than expected to await the arrival of our host. Our accommodation was accessed up 160 steps in a progression up the hill between buildings and through little tunnels. 

This had caused a little trepidation, but we had decined the offer to pay someone 15 Euros for each bag they carried up for us. We intentionally packed lighter than usual, Ann’s bag weighed in at about 12 kg and mine at about 14 kg. We also travel with a laptop and a backpack, but for this event we had consolidated to two bags plus Ann’s day back-pack.

 Ann was still struggling with foot injury from back in February, so I was the mule, my backpack and Ann’s in hand. Our host set a cracking pace, but we did arrive still all in one piece, I certainly generated a bit of sweat for the exercise. However, the view is fantastic. The accommodation was selected by and recommended by Georgia and Abi when assisting Ann in her research for this trip. A very good recommendation, thanks ladies.

Given the steps and the logistics required to go down the Piazza for meals, we decided to do a breakfast at home every day, lunch sometimes and dinner mostly at home. So after unpacking I headed off to Amalfi which has the supermercato. I managed to arrive when it was open and stocked up on supplies, for breakfasts, lunch and a couple of dinners.  Ann remained at home to do the washing and catch up on diary writing. It was the best walk I’ve ever had to the supermarket, a very spectacular walk around the coast.

      Amalfi was very crowded and touristy in the town, but the supermarket did us well.

 Cooking and eating at home gave us great opportunities to enjoy the view and the sometimes spectacular weather. The steep coastal hills push up some pretty wonderfull cloud formations, and the view out to the east provided some lovely dawns to appreciate from the eyrie. Lots of boats to peruse too. 

We have settled into a pattern of 5-5 30 wakeups, so there is plenty of time to catch up on day planning, communications back home, a bit of washing, pay a few bills, have breakfast and keep up with news. Sounds exhausting really.

First Atrani day was down the stairs to Piazza Umberto 1, to locate the restaurant for our dining out experience on Sunday night and do the prenotazione (booking). Then an easy walk through to Amalfi, taking the coast road option I had taken to the supermercato, as that was a new experience for Ann. We were early enough that the town wasn’t too busy. Lots of touristy shops of course and plenty of clothes, nice and otherwise, lots of lemon-themed pottery. So if you want lemon plates, platters, cups, busts with hair infused with lemon fruit, this is your place to be.

I continued my practice of buying a pocket knife from each area we have visited. My rules are fairly generous on this front. Area may be a country, a region, a village so it’s really anything that takes my fancy.

The cliffs in this region support some agrarian and agricultural activity, with the same style of terracing we saw back in 2008 on the Cinque Terre, only on quite a lot smaller scale here on the Amalfi Coast. 

There is some growing of grapes, figs and many many lemons. There are elaborate frames over the fruit apparently to provide protection from the occasional strong cold winds, and the frequent hot drying sun. Lemons are an important part of life here, tourists drink/eat all sorts of concoctions from lemons of all sizes and shapes. Also some precipitous beach access!

Amalfi was once a “world” power and assembled a huge (for the time) fleet of ships to help exert its influence in the Mediterranean.

It was also a centre for paper making for close on 1000 years. The papers were made with technologies and processes that travelled from China, through the Moorish neighbours, and Amalfi boasted a whole suburb now known as the Mulini district. It is sort of “throw a blanket over it size" district! There were about fourteen mills, with power provided by the stream cascading down the valley (and now under the town. Showing the scale of these operations, many of the mill buildings are now residences, the ultimate in recycling capital. Paper was made in various qualities using linen and other plant material, to revolutionise the world of writing and recording in an industry previously restricted by the difficult to use papyrus and parchment. The mill tour was in interesting diversion from wandering the street and browsing at shops. The paper is mulched with grinders and then sieved out and dried, one of our party, a lass from Latvia, made a sheet of paper while we did the tour. 

The town boasts a substantial Duomo including a small cloister, small chapels, a large ornate nave and the usual crypt. The Moorish influences prevail, the southern neighbours had invaded, and stayed a while, but were pushed out by northers wanting to live closer to the beaches, and exert some control over the seas.

Another supermarket visit gave us some local pork sausages for dinner and a top up of  Gin and Tonic RTDs.

We had been advised that there was no longer a bus service to Ravello, so on Sunday we decided on an expedition to Positano, “a very touristy town” about 20 km down the road. As we walked to catch the bus to Positano, we walked past the bus to Ravello!*!

The trip along the coast was a great experience in a small bus on a very narrow and in some places one way road. The horn is a very essential part of the bus, and it has to be sounded on very many of the very very many corners. The bus had to stop frequently to allow cars to pass in both directions. When stopped the driver would give continuous advice to motorists who found themselves in extremely tight situations which sometimes required quite a bit of backing up. Might is right in these circumstances. I’m sure the advice was colourful, and it would have been good to be able to understand the various honking regimes.

While all this was going on we enjoyed breathtaking views both up into the hills and down onto the coast. The photo shows the road taken later from the ferry.

                                       We were dropped off safely at the top of Positano town

and could then wander down the steep streets lined with shops and eateries. Same sort of stock, much lemon in evidence, some very expensive European labels available.

If you want to buy a watch, Great! You can have Mercedes, Maserati and even Jaguar label. Prices range from 400 Euro to around 4000 Euro, so I decided to stick to pocket knives, I can buy more of those.

We sat in a very small shady piazza and had a coffee. The nearby ceramics shop had a wonderful and very expensive range of product. Pizza wheels 50-70 Euro, some very nice small huille and aceto pourers on a tray. The 150 ml bottles about 50 Euro each and the tray just another 42, so for NZ $251 you now have a lovely little set and memento of your Amalfi coast visit.

After a stroll past a very crowded beach we caught the ferry back to Atrani on a beautiful flat sea on a very sunny day. 

                                                 Great views back on Positano .

It was a nice sit and have a drink sort of day, so we sat at a beachside bar for a beer and a lemon Spritz. You can see the bar in the background in this photo of our beach.

 From the bar I took pictures of our Casa Eden home up the hill just above the green and white window awning. When we got home I took the reciprocal shots back to the bar. The new IPhone 15 phone is proving great as a camera and the zoom performance is terrific. 

We had a Christmas (present) dinner that evening, courtesy of the New Plymouth Nelson family. A very pleasant evening at Ristorante A’Paranza, just off Piazza Umberto and at the bottom of our stairs. Our seafood menu Del Pescatore was great, accompanied by a house-recommended lovely bottle of white wine. 

Next day’s adventure was a trip to the renowned island of Capri, about an hour and a half away by ferry.

 We shared this day with a full boat of fellow adventurers, and when we got to the island there were crowds more!! This was Monday and a local guide did tell us that it was quiet compared to Saturday and Sunday which brings many thousands of day trippers from Naples and Sorrento.

Queuing is the biggest hassle here, for ferries, bus tickets, buses, funiculars and entry to anything.

The funicular ride up to Capri town gave glimpses of the panorama, and the views from the village square are great. beautiful shops too - very high-end.

We decided to go higher on the island to Anacapri, requiring a bus ride up the hill.

The Tabac shop had a nice skinning pocket knife (how could I resist the magic of the Isle of Capri)? Anacapri also features sandal making shops. 

We wanted to try the local lemon linguine dish, Limone al Limone, and found a recommendation to Il Solitario restaurant about 300 m away.The linguine was very nice, possibly could have done with a few capers, but, when in Capri………..

  

We wandered for more views, particularly from Swedish doctor Axel Munthe’s huge mansion, Villa San Michele, close to the northern cliffs. He lived here many years, and was visited by Sweden’s Queen Victoria on many occasions. Stunning views down on Capri and the harbour.

On our wanderings we found the church of San Michele, a baroque church which has the whole floor mosaiced showing the banishment from the Garden of Eden. Quite magnificent, as the shots from the organ players' balcony show.

We caught our ferry home at 4 30; lucky we checked the gate. We arrived at Pier 20, but departed from Pier 12 across the other side of the harbour!!

It’s about two hours for the trip back home. There is plenty of evidence of the local fishing industry with long line/net flags dotting the sea. We’ve enjoyed the seafood here, but have also tried the chicken, beef and saucisson and plenty of cheese and fresh OJ.

Tomorrow is a bus trip to Salerno where we pick up a rental car for the next 12 days of our southern Italy tour.