Tuesday, June 5, 2012

We left our room this morning all set to head to Pompeii and Herculaneum. While we were waiting for the shuttle into town we found out that the three-day train pass we have also covers the bus down the Amalfi Coast. There is a stop just a few steps from the hotel and the person at the desk said we’d have no problem getting a seat.

Well I guess tourist season has arrived because it was standing room only when we got on. It was awkward, but I used my “vaporetto stance” and didn’t find it too bad. We had read that you should be on the right hand side of the bus for the trip, but being in the aisle meant we could see on both sides. We did manage to get seats partway through the trip, and the were on the right side!

There are no photos from my camera taken in transit – I was hanging on for dear life with both hands even when we were seated. The road seldom was wide enough to have two lanes marked, and you never go more than a few feet in a straight line. There are motor bikes and scooters passing buses, cars headed in both directions, and I’ll have nightmares thinking about all the times we met other buses on the road. If the windows on the buses had been open there would have been no problem high-giving the folks in the other bus!

When we finally made it into Amalfi my nerves were calmed by its beauty. The main street was a zoo – lots of tour buses had arrived – but we headed up a quieter street and just wandered. We passed by a paper making shop where I watched an elderly gentleman affixing leaves and blossoms to the sheet of paper he was making.

Further up the hill we met another gentleman, and I made the mistake of saying “Buon Giorno” – pretty much the limit of my Italian. He took from that greeting that we spoke Italian. Pat was able to make out that he wanted to know where we were from, and he gave us a big smile when we said Canada. He started in with a lot of Italian telling us about the paper making in Amalfi. At least we think that’s what he was saying. It could just as well have been something along the lines of ” you darned tourists, can’t you leave us in peace!”

We walked as far as the street would take us and passed the paper museum and saw some of the water that runs down from the cliffs above. As we made our way back down we stopped at a place that makes limoncello. It wasn’t exactly like a wine tour, but we got a sample and bought ourselves a bottle.

When we ran out of street we turned around and stopped at a lovely restaurant for lunch.

After lunch we set out on the 200 meter trek up and over the ridge to Atrani. There were great views of the blur water, the cliffs above and the beach below. There were lots of folks on the beach sunning themselves, and lots were brave enough to be swimming. After the trek down we were ready to get away from the crowds.

The trip home on the bus was just as heart-stopping as the trip out. We did have seats though and, again, they were on the side of the bus we were supposed to be on for the best view.

When we got back town we wandered the streets of Sorrento for a bit. We only found one shop of interest – the rest were selling imports from India, Indonesia, China and who knows where else.

Our shuttle arrived right on time to take us back to the hotel and the wonderful view we have from our own balcony.

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