Day 3 Walking Amalfi 30/10/18 - Ferriere

The day started with us trying to dry our shoes in preparation for walking - having soaked them last night on the way home from the bus. Thank heavens for hair dryers in the room.  We achieved something closer to dryness before it was time for breakfast.

Breakfast was again a choice of cereal, cold meat and cheese and sweet treats, and the place we are staying again made us up rolls to take along with us.

We climbed up from our accommodation today, heading up steeply through the top of the local village via an old limestone stairway, and into the woods.  Here there were lots of small trees which were chestnuts and also some other kinds of tree with a catkin and red berries.  The pathway was steep at times, but not too difficult to handle .  Would have been much easier if our legs were not so sore from two days of climbing up and down.

view from our door

We were treated to many beautiful views today as we looked out over the amazing rugged landscape with the small homes nestled in between their terraced gardens and the amazing steep cliff faces and hillsides - good for goats.  The area was all covered in about 1.5m of pumice when Vesuvius erupted, and consequently holds the water quite well.  We could see across to Salerno (around the ever- present power pylons) , but much better views than on previous days due to clearer weather.

a long way down!!

puzzle for the day... how did this car get here and why is it here (perched above a cliff)?

After our lunch stop we dropped off a few of the group to walk back down towards the village, before the rest of us headed onwards to a waterfall at the head of the large gully.  We were on the other side of the gully that we walked up yesterday, and it was interesting to view it again from a very different perspective.

there is a water chute inside this "chimney" and ladder on the outside to check it is all OK

and bridge and pipe crossing the gully

pensive moment

Then the slow walk downward along the winding track towards the village of Palermo. We looked at Palermo nestled on the hill yesterday and wondered why on earth anyone was crazy enough to build perched up on the hill like that.  Today we walked past the same houses and marvelled again.

A quick stop for a cuppa at a local cafe, and then a few more km to catch the bus home again.

If only the walking was always this dry and this temperature things would be great.
The decision has been made that we will not be visiting Capri - due to the exceptionally high seas and dangerous crossing - instead we will probably walk to Ravello - which sounds like it is very interesting anyway.

day 2 Amalfi Walking 29/10/18

Today the weather was still terrible, so it was decided to take the bus into town at 12 and to take our time this morning.

This meant that we made pizza dough at leisure with Pasquale at his place (all mixing our 200g flour, teaspoon of salt, squirt of olive oil and about 140ml water to make a dough ball).  Of course the mother yeast (about the size of an apricot) is the essential ingredient.  He says this yeast plant has been going for 180 years and handed down through the family.

proud pizza dough maker

waiting to prove

part of the home grown crop of hanging tomoatoes - apparently they will last for 3 months or more like this!!

We walked into the local town and found Colonia Montana - an old building, now restored and intended as a school of local culture etc.  Nearby on the same parkland allotment is the local observatory.  Despite the rainy weather we enjoyed the misty park and the fleeting views down to the coast.

In Amalfi we found a quick lunch of arancini balls and another quick Italian snack before heading off up the hill on one of the many paths out of town..   This very picturesque path follows the main valley out of town, past old mills (now ruins) and beside a lovely creek.  

Then the path crosses across to the town of Pontone, before we once again took many stairs down to the town of Amalfi again. 

wild cyclamen

this animal was taken part way down the stairs!

Day 1 walking Amalfi Coast Sunday 28/10/18

As suspected, the weather was not great when we woke this morning, and we looked out into white, wet blankness.

Breakfast was a treat, with a range of cereals, 3 different cakes to choose from, yoghurt, home made honey (tasted like leatherwood) and strawberry jam to put on the fresh bread which had just come up from the village. Great tea on offer and apparently good coffee as well.

The people who own this place supplied rolls for lunch along with an apple each, and we helped ourselves to extra piece of cake, which we took along in our packs for morning tea.

Joe, our guide had decided that today we would walk down to Amalfi itself, as he was hoping that the weather further down the mountain would be a bit better - it wasn't .

We followed mostly narrow , stairways down , past many stepped gardens and interesting homes.

There is a small section where a rack and pinion type set up transports goods for the locals.

 Joe did a pretty good job of teaching us how to walk with poles down steps and save our knees, but many of us were suffering by the end of the day and we were all very glad that we could catch the bus back instead of walking back. We did meet some young fellows huffing and puffing up as we were coming down - they wore racing bibs saying "Hoka1010" and we understood it to be part of a masochistic race of some kind.  It sure looked cruel.

Eventually we stopped at a small cafe - where we had a cup of tea in the rain (and used the loo) before heading on towards the sea level.

Eventually we arrived in Amalfi itself (about 700m down) . By then we were pretty well soaked, despite rain wear.  We had worked up a sweat while walking down,  so it was raining inside our jackets! 

Everyone was in pretty good spirits, but we were all a bit disappointed not to see the stunning views we had imagined. At times it was hard to see far at all, which was a pity. 

When we finally made it down to Amalfi the harbour was incredibly rough , with large waves crashing over the sea walls which protect the walking path from the sea. We couldn't imagine having a quick dip to cool off. It would have been frankly dangerous to go anywhere near the sea today.  But it wasn't cold.  

We hadn't realised the link to St John that we would find here - the Amalfi star is the same one used by St Johns and also on Malta (Maltese cross).  This is all about the link between St John and this area. Next time we travel we really must read up on the areas that we are travelling too.  We feel very ignorant and that we could gain more from travelling if we had a bit more of the background already.  It would also have been interesting to visit Rhodes or Malta in this trip (also significant places in the St Johns history) if only we had know the links....

We spent a large portion of our time in Amalfi having a look at their extraordinary cathedral .

This was influenced by various cultures and had various different areas, from very simple to very extreme in decoration and complexity. As often with these places I was dumbfounded by the investment in the decorations and the amazing artwork and expensive historical items in here. 

ancient mosaic

view of the temple spire

amazing ancient decoration

figure of St Andrew

amazing ceiling in the crypt!!!

incredible ceiling

the main cathedral aisle. So ornate.!!

We caught the bus back from Amalfi to San Lazzaro (thank heavens)  - which took an hour or so, but was so much easier on the knees.

Tomorrow the weather will still be terrible, so we are doing a different walk from the one planned (due to the weather)  - we will start early, bus to Amalfi and then walk up and down the stairs (possibly via Ravello) to another small town, before we head back on the bus again. Joe is working hard to try to find walks that will work with the weather.   

We still don't know if we will actually get to Capri at some stage, but it does look like the trip to Pompei and Vesuvius will be a goer.  That will happen on Thursday.

Getting to Amalfi

The flight to Naples was at 2.45pm from Gatwick- so this gave us time for an easy morning in London.
We were awake, so went out early to find ourselves a good cooked breakfast.  The cops were eating at the place, so we figured it would be OK. The guys on the table next to us had ordered egg and chips ,which they smothered liberally in sauce.

Back to our room for a cheap home made cup of tea before heading out on the next leg of the adventure.
We went via the old charterhouse (this area used to be taken up by the gardens around it, and it is still an alms house today) .  I had been interested to see it the day before, but we missed out due to all the other sights we found and time we took.  It was too early for the charterhouse to be open, but we enjoyed the nearby park and a peek through the gates.

We also came across an old market area - with extravagantly coloured and created decorations (dragons on the top corners, statues on the very top and metal supports beautifully elaborate and coloured).

We also happened on a pub called the three compasses!!
We found our railway station (Farringdon) and caught the correct train to Gatwick (with only a short wait at one stage for police to do a bit of work on a strange man and get him off of the train)

My case has been damaged in the flight to London and we managed to get the handle up a bit so that I can pull it along, but now it won;t go down!! - this means it is travelling as oversize luggage. An extra detour in the airport to check it through. We had miles of time to progress on through our security check before making our way to the British Airways lounge  and helping ourselves to refreshments until it was time to board.  We then went straight on to the plane and proceeded to be fed another meal each (and wine) .

When it came to landing, we had our first ever experience of a "go around" - with the plane very close to touching down and then suddenly accelerating again and taking off into the sky. Second time was better - with just as many cross winds .  After a long wait for passport processing and pick up of bags we enjoyed a steamy night time bus ride out from Naples  up and over the mountains to our little spot perched on the hill overlooking the coast (apparently) . The place was shrouded in cloud and still was when we woke in the morning.

Bathroom has a bidet , which is just as well, because the shower is so tiny that we can't bend over in it to wash our feet or shave legs. A very useful thing that I would be happy to have in my bathroom.