The Amalfi Post

The Amalfi Coast 

Capri, Sorrento, Agerola, Pogerola, Furore, Ravello, Amalfi, Atrani, Scala, Ravello, Conca di Marini, San Lorenzo, Furore, Praiano and Positano

Photos Taken: 1058  See some more here.

Sorrento 11/2-11/5

Getting to Sorrento took one long day of transit, from Civitavecchia to Rome to Naples then finally, the Circumvesuviana (literally “around Vesuvius”) commuter rail out to the last stop.  The town was quaint with a lazy summer feel even in fall. It was relatively quiet in the off-season, but we still managed to run into a Princess cruise tour on their pricey day excursion.

We spent most of our time doing laps around the small town, checking out lemon groves, churches, and basilicas, climbing down cliffs to marinas (and back up to town!), and making friends with a local stray dog who kept turning up during our tour.  He even followed us to the train station to see us off.

Capri 11/4 

You can’t visit Amalfi and not visit Capri (apparently CApri, not CaPRI, if you’re wondering). The tiny island, a 45 minute ferry ride away from Sorrento, has amazingly overpriced food and gorgeous views. A winning combination for a hike and a picnic lunch. Of course, that’s only if you’re not running too late to pick up picnic supplies before boarding the ferry.

Once we arrived, we stayed budget-minded and skipped the funicular to the top of the island in favor of a long hike up to the city center.  Our guidebook wrote of a cute restaurant that you can get a decent lunch at a steal of 8 euros. The nearly impossible to find restaurant now charged 13 euros for a one plate lunch, so we were back on the picnic plan, this time with a bone to pick with Rough Guides, the book of awful restaurant recos.

We found some cheap salami and a huge bottle of water and set off on a hike around the top of the island, guided by a walking tour we’d found on an Italian/English site, Capri.it. The walk was amazing, and we lucked out with sunny weather. We started on a path through neighborhoods with a stop to see the Arco Naturale, a couple hundred foot tall natural stone arch. From there we descended down old staircases and through wooded areas along the coast till we reached a viewpoint overlooking the famous faraglioni rock formation. After a lot of debate about how terrible the hike back up would be if we descended, we locked our backpacks to a tree and headed down for a sea level look. We ended up at a restaurant that was closed for the season, and a rocky beach that had been filled in with cement to make a sunbathing platform.  We were surprised to see that even in the fall it was in use, by one lone (bottom) half-naked sunbather. Perhaps the view was better from the lookout point…

With our detour, the hike ran long, so we were chasing light back down to the ferry to return to Sorrento in time for a reasonably priced dinner.

Agerola & The Walk of the Gods 11/5 -11/7

We were planning our next stop after Sorrento, looking at various places on the Amalfi Coast that fit our budget.  Of course, most of the budget spots are not so much “Coast” and more inland, but a few of those mentioned their proximity to the Walk of the Gods.  Which we thought sounded divine.  The Walk of the Gods earned its name because of a myth of the gods coming down to earth to try to coax Ulysses off his ship.  And from what we read, the views were worthy of the name as well.  So we checked into a B&B a few meters from the start of the path in Agerola, loaded up on grapes, Pringles, and fresh sandwiches at the local deli, and we were off.

We’d read horror stories that this 4.5 hour hike had become a 10 hour nightmare when people got lost on the trail, but the pamphlet we got at the hotel said “the path is so clearly marked it’s impossible to get lost,” so we left optimistic, as always.  Our guide was actually relatively clear, and we luckily guessed the right path at every confusing fork in the road.  The trail originally connected various farms and rural villages via a foot and mule path.  It starts overlooking terraced farmlands, then snakes along the sides of cliffs above the seaside village of Praiano, eventually ending with a long descent to Positano. We had a fun time hopping off the trail to explore centuries old abandoned farmhouses on the edges of cliffs along the way.

We took carefully planned stops eating a quarter of a sandwich at a time when the views called for it.  We weren’t able to find the natural spring to fill our water bottle as promised on the pamphlet, but we met a friendly farmer who let us fill our empty bottle from his faucet.  We didn’t see any wild animals on the hike, but we nearly stepped in a lot of signs of life.

240 photos later, we reached the end of our journey. To get off the high path, you take a climactic descent of 1,700 steps to reach the road that leads into Positano, the picturesque town built into the cliff edge.  We were thrilled to see it, since it was Robin’s favorite day on her 1001 Places to See Before You Die page-a-day calendar (the math doesn’t add up, but it’s still a super calendar). 

With Elvis legs, we reached the city at sunset as the clouds broke for the first time that day…almost doubling our photo tally for the day.  We walked the winding roads through the city, not realizing that we were slowly descending. When it came time to find the bus to get back to our hotel, we had to climb another few hundred VERY steep steps.  We felt like true Positanans.

The next day, we had the hiking itch (not to be confused with poison ivy) again.  But when we woke up, it was pouring outside, with more clouds rolling in.  “Excellent,” we thought naively, “what a perfect time to unpack the rain pants.” We grabbed an extra pair of socks, and suited up – rain pants, rain jacket, backpack rainfly and mesh running shoes (the weak link to our ensemble).  The hotel staff shook their heads and gave a foreboding “not a good idea” as we shrugged and headed off anyway. The light rain comically became a torrential downpour the moment we stepped off the hotel’s property. The streets became water crossings and there was lightning every half minute. 5 steps into our hike, our shoes were sopping. We made a return visit to the deli, as much for shelter as to pick up another sandwich for our “bad idea” hike. The power in the sandwich shop flickered on and off, and we got more gestures of disapproval from the deli owner and customers at our plans. But hey, what’s a bad idea hike without copious disapproval? As we started on the trail, we tried to remember what we could about lightning safety, and debated turning back. We both agreed we should avoid being in open plains, beneath single tall trees, not to hold our hiking poles in the air and wear rubber soled shoes. It didn’t matter though. About 15 minutes into our hike the storm moved inland as went coastal, the sun came out and we had better weather than we did the previous day. We threw on our extra dry socks, shed our rain gear, and had a great hike through terraced farms down to another small coastal city.

Pogerola & More Day Hikes 11/7 - 11/11

We really overestimated the size of the Amalfi coast, and so after two days in Agerola we decided to move farther down the coast for a weeklong stay in Pogerola,…which we found out was only a 20 minute drive away.  But, where the bus actually dropped us off  left us with an hour hike up switchbacks to reach our apartment. When we finally arrived, there was no one at the apartment or signage to guide us. But with the help of five locals (about 10% of Pogerola’s population) and a half hour wait, the apartment owners were summoned and figured out who the heck we were (turns out we were “Perahjoeh” instead of Perigoe as they pronounced it).  The short-term rental had a beautiful ocean ravine view, and terraced lemon and orange trees that we raided on mornings before big hikes. Our big plan for our time at the remote internet-less apartment was to do an “Italian cooking” blog entry, but we realized that was not to be when we saw our apartment was  kitchen-less as well. We made-do with a cabinet that had two small burners, no oven, no cooking utensils, and a handful of random bowls and pans.

Instead, the week morphed into more of a geographical exploration than a culinary one.  We did a LOT of walking…up and down tons of small staircases between houses and through terraced vineyards and orchards, trails through the woods linking cities, and good old side of the highway trekking, which is pretty scary (but very common) on these narrow winding cliffside roads.  We made a lot of cat and dog friends – and a couple of enemies who were very protective of their territory.  

We hiked all over the place (it sounds farther though if you don’t look up how close the towns are to each other): Amalfi, Atrani, Scala, Ravello, Conca di Marini, Furore, and Praiano.  Our big and final inland hike from Pogerola to Ravello rivaled the Walk of the Gods hike, using old trails used by shepherds to move their animals between cities. We passed one goat herder and his flock, and the air smelled pungently of goat cheese. 

We also hiked an hour West of our apartment to the Emerald Grotto in Conca di Marini, mostly to make up for missing the Blue Grotto on Capri, but we think they were pretty comparable. (If they’re not, don’t tell us.) We had a 3 minute tour on a row boat, with a guide singing Volare and feverishly reminding us that it’s alright to tip. We continued on to see the famous fjord in Furore, which must be bustling in summer, but was completely abandoned in fall. Also, the beach was composed almost entirely of broken pottery. Since tourist season had long passed, the bus system wasn’t running regularly, and after an hour’s wait, we hitched a ride home from a friendly Italian when we realized our bus was never showing up.

Back in our tiny home base of Pogerola, we met a bunch of lovely business owners, all of whom knew our hosts closely.  Our favorite (and the only) activity in Pogerola was watching the soccer games played on a mini carpeted and netted-in field basically built into the cliff. 

And even with our sad little kitchen, we still managed to eke out 2 frying pans’ worth of tiramisu (eggs whipped up with a fork and a lot of elbow grease), penne carbonara, spaghetti marinara, and fettuccini a la siciliana (which we had at a restaurant in town and it was delicious…eggplant, tomatoes, and tons of cheese). We had great meals on the balcony overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea and every day tried to perfect making Italian coffee on our tiny burners.

After it all, we were sad to say goodbye to the small cliffside neighborhoods and head back into the gritty bustle of Naples to head for our next destination — olive picking in the South of Italy.