The Amalfi Coast – Day 36 – Friday
I had great intentions to get up early and go to Capri
today, but my body just refused to get with the program. My alarm went off at 6:30, but I just rolled
over and slept until 8:00. Rome and
dragging my bag to the hotel had exhausted me.
I needed the extra sleep. The
other excursion that I didn’t want to undertake with weekend crowds was the
trip down the Amalfi coast. I decided to
tackle that instead. After a substantial
breakfast of yogurt, a croissant and a hardboiled egg, I caught the 10:00 bus
down to the bus station. The bus I was
on was actually headed to Amalfi, but they made us all get off at the station
and there was a long line to get on the bus for Amalfi. I didn’t make it onto the first bus, but
another one came right away.
I sat next to a Romanian gentleman named Konstantin. We talked quite a bit on the two hour ride to
Amalfi. He told me that the economy in
Romania is doing okay. If you can tell
anything about economics from who is traveling, then it is the Australians, Germans,
French, Russians, Polish, Ukrainians and Scandinavians who are doing well. I have seen no Spaniards or Greeks and few
Americans or Japanese. It was
interesting to hear Konstantin’s opinion of Italy. He sounded just like an American from a red
state. He complained that the pizza was
thin and didn’t have enough toppings and was dismayed to see all the African
refugees. He did tell me that he got a
flight from Romania to Naples for 72 Euros round trip. Such a deal!
Too bad nobody told him not to stay in Naples. 
The famous road along the Amalfi coast is unfortunately
closed between Sorrento and Positano due to a landslide. To get to Positano, one has to go to Amalfi
and then head back along the coast. Sorrento
is located on a peninsula between the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno. To get to Amalfi, the bus first headed back towards
Naples and then crossed the peninsula to join the coast road past the landslide
and Positano. That coast road is pretty
amazing. It is cantilevered out along
the side of a sheer cliff a thousand feet above the water. The view is stunning. There are the ruins of old signal towers
sitting atop pinnacles of rock. These
towers were once used to signal imminent attacks by the Saracens. Lemons are planted on terraces
everywhere. Homes and hotels grow
straight out of the rock. In many
places, the main road is the only one navigable by car. Other arteries are simply stairways cut into
the stone. The road is only just wide
enough for two buses. Sometimes the
drivers had to pull in their mirrors to pass.
One turn was a hairpin so tight that it simply turned around a fence. The buses had to back and fill to get around
that corner. We finally arrived in
Amalfi about 1:00. |
| Amalfi Cathedral |
There isn’t a lot to do in these towns if you aren’t a
shopper. I don’t need anything, can’t
carry anything and the shops are so tiny that I always feel like I’m going to
break something. I try to stay out of
them. Amalfi does have a beautiful
Moorish influenced cathedral. Spain
ruled this part of Italy from roughly 1500 to 1800 and you can see their
influence in the architecture. Much of
the cathedral complex is now a museum. I
stopped in and took a look around. The
crypt is especially beautiful because it houses St. Andrew’s (otherwise known
as San Andrea) remains and much effort was put into making Amalfi a pilgrimage
site. Apparently, tourism has been the
main business of Amalfi for centuries.
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| Amalfi Waterfront Panorama |
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| The North Sails Shop |
Being a sailor, I had to check out the marina. There were only a couple of sailboats there,
but there were a lot fewer tourists. I
stopped and ate some lovely bruschetta with loads of bufala mozzarella at a restaurant
on the pier. I did solve one mystery (to
me, anyway) while I was in Amalfi. Ever
since I arrived in Rome, I have seen people wearing North Sails gear. I thought it odd that there should be so many
sailors about, but figured it had something to do with the America’s Cup races
that had been held in the Bay of Naples last month. It seemed strange to me, however, that most
of the people wearing the gear seemed to be Italian and didn’t really look like
sailors. In Amalfi, I discovered a shop
selling nothing but North Sails clothing.
Apparently, it is like a designer brand here in Italy. I have since seen ads on bill boards. I guess I’m just ahead of the curve. I would also recommend that all my American
friends dig out their old Ray Ban wayfarer sunglasses because they are all the
rage in Italy this year. Too bad I didn’t
bring mine.
After lunch, I stood in line for a while to catch a bus to
Positano. Positano was another hour away
along the gorgeous and terrifying Amalfi Coast Road. Every house in Positano is a cliff
dwelling. The bus can’t even get into
town. It drops you on the highway at the
top of the town and you have to walk down.
Aside from great views and interesting architecture, Positano is just
one clothing store after another. I made
straight for the harbor to determine the boat schedule. I didn’t want to spend three hours taking the
bus back and wanted to see the stretch of coast where the road was closed. I got to the harbor at 4:45 and the last boat
for Sorrento left at 5:00. I bought a
ticket and stood on the pier waiting for the boat and watching a group of
sunburned young Americans who had spent the day drinking on the beach.
I’m glad I took the boat back because it was nice to be on
the water and it was definitely faster, but the scenic part of the coast is
really from Positano to Amalfi. Past
Positano, the hills are lower and slope down to the water without the dramatic
cliffs. It was also interesting to
arrive at the new harbor in Sorrento.
The ferry holds a few hundred people and all of them packed into three
minibuses to ride up the steep switchbacks that climb up the ravine to the main
plaza. I definitely do not want to be a
bus driver in this region. I don’t know
how those buses made it up the hill carrying so many people.
At the bus station, I waited for about 15 minutes and then
realized that I had been looking at the wrong schedule and would have to wait
another half an hour for the bus to my hotel.
It was getting cold, so I elected to take the bus that went a different way
to Sant’ Agata and walk back to my hotel.
I got to see the town of Massa, which sprawls all the way to Sant’
Agata. It was interesting. I had heard that it was a 5-10 minute walk
from Sant’ Agata to my hotel, but it was more like 20 minutes. Fortunately, it was all downhill and would
have been pleasant if it weren’t so life threatening. The road is very narrow, there is virtually
no shoulder and all of the curves are blind.
I made it down and only had to flatten myself against the wall a couple
of times to avoid getting smashed. I was
happy to get to my hotel, drink a couple of glasses of wine, watch CSI Miami in
Italian (the dubbed voices are really funny) and go to sleep.
Capri – Day 37 – Saturday
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| Marina del Cantone |
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| Entrance to Blue Grotto |
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| Green Grotto |
I had planned to go to Capri on Monday when I thought there
would be fewer people, but the weather forecast was for rain on Sunday and
Monday, so I made a last minute decision to join an excursion to Capri from the
hotel. This turned out to be very
economical because I got a boat trip around the Island included for the price
of the bus to the harbor and ferry to the island alone. It was also a bit more interesting because we
left from the town of Marina del Cantone, on the other side of the peninsula,
instead of from Sorrento. We passed by
the entrance to the Blue Grotto, but it was too rough to get in and so cloudy
that the grotto would have been the grey grotto, anyway. We also stopped at the Green Grotto.
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| My Chilean Friends |
I hooked up with three women from Chile because all the
seats were in pairs and I was alone. One
of them spoke good Italian and we managed to communicate just fine in a mix of
Italian and Spanish. I didn’t speak a
word of English all day. It was
great. Finally, my languages paid off.
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| Vincenzo |
Our guide, Vincenzo, was a tall, handsome Italian guy who
spoke English with an accent so thick that I found his Italian easier to
understand. We all joined him for a
private tour of Capri. Everything in
Capri is very expensive. The public
transportation just from the harbor to the towns of Capri and Anacapri costs
four Euros more than I paid to go all the way to Amalfi and back. I paid three Euros for a small bottle of
water at lunch. Under the circumstances,
20 Euros for a private tour seemed like a good deal.
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| Krupp Villa |
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| Krupp's Beach |
First, we went to the town of Capri and Vincenzo took us on
a little walk around town and then gave us a couple of hours of free time to
explore. During the 19th
century, Capri was a haven for wealthy homosexuals who found it hazardous to be
out of the closet in other places.
Consequently, there are a number of gorgeous villas with beautiful
gardens that were left to the public upon the deaths of their childless owners. The heir to the Krupp fortune was one of
these men. He built a gorgeous villa
tucked into a cliff about the sea and a beautiful garden with an impressive
steep pathway down to the sea and a small beach. Walking down there and back for a morning
swim would definitely keep one in good shape.
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| Anacapri is on Top |
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| Casa Rossa - Moorish Influence |
My Chilean friends weren’t big walkers, so I left them for a
bit to take a walk and then met up with them for a coffee before we rejoined
the bus to head up to Anacapri. In
Anacapri, Vincenzo took us on a walk to another villa with a fabulous sea view,
the Villa San Michele, which was built by a Swedish doctor named Axel Munthe. In his day, he hosted the likes of Oscar
Wilde and D.H. Lawrence. It must have
been quite a scene there before 10,000 tourists a day invaded. Once again, I left the Chileans who were
drifting through the shops, and had lunch in a pizzeria recommended by our
guide. I had a Pizza Marinara, which was
unique in that it had no cheese whatsoever.
Then I walked through the old section of Anacapri, which was pretty and
interesting. The thing to do in Anacapri
is to take the chairlift to the top of the mountain for the view, but the cloud
was covering the top of the mountain, so there was no point in paying 7.50
Euros to go up there. I bought some postcard
stamps and a hat a rejoined the Chileans to wait for the bus.
The sun came out about the time we boarded the boat to
return to the mainland. The ride back
was very pretty. We visited the
Faraglione Rocks (pronounced like the Farallon Islands and no doubt the source
of the name, since they look very similar.)
One of them forms a natural arch and our boat sailed through the
opening. We then poked our nose into the
White Cave, with its stalactites and stalagmite that resembles the Virgin Mary,
before completing our circuit of the island and returning to Marina del
Cantone.
By the time I returned to my hotel, I was ready for a glass of wine and a nap.
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