Creative Musings

So, I have a new favorite place. The beautiful Amalfi Coast. I have wanted to go here for years, but wasn't able to make it last time I was in Italy. When I was thinking of a good place to travel to while Lisa Andersen was visiting me, the Amalfi Coast was at the top of my list. Lisa, Sasha, Emma and I went down south for almost 4 days on a nice little holiday. Yes, a holiday from our vacation.

Here's how you get to Amalfi. Train from Florence, past Rome to Naples. Another train from Naples to Salerno. From Salerno a big bus that takes you on one of the windiest roads I have ever seen. For those of you who have been to Maui, Hawaii and have experienced "the road to Hana"... this is worse. Lisa pointed out that buses of this size can't go on the road to Hana because it is so narrow, and I responded with "Can buses really fit on this road?" "Good point." Said Lisa. The buses drive on it, because they have no other option. Cars have to give way to them and the buses honk their horns around nearly every single corner. "Hairpin curves". I think that's what these are called. These small towns along this coastline are built into the cliffs, because this area is mostly rock, and the road follows along the edge of land the entire way.

Our first night there, we arrived around 5:30 pm I believe, to our small town of Atrani, which literally is 200 meters south of Amalfi, a more well known town. What I liked about this place is that it's hard to get to, so there weren't any American tourists in Atrani or Amalfi!! There were Italian tourists, and a few people from Australia and a couple other places, but no Americans. It was great! The bus dropped us off, and we had to go down a narrow stairway, which couldn't have been more than 2 feet wide, around 90 steps....with our luggage! That stairway took us down to sea level, which is where the main piazza is. From there we walked up the street, and a small sign pointed us up another narrow stone stairway, which went up, around a corner, through a landing, and up some more stairs, around another corner, and up to the top where the door to our hostel was. It definitely wasn't anything fancy, but they decided to give us a room with a private bathroom when we got there, and the customer service was excellent.

First evening in Amalfi photo album.

After dropping off our bags we walked the 200 meters to the next town over. Amalfi is a cute town, which has been around since about 600 A.D. It is also known for their large lemons, and naturally limoncello. We wandered around for a bit, mostly looking for a restaurant that looked good. Finally we found one back through several small passageways, as this is how you get around in all the towns in the area.

The next morning we went down to the main piazza in Atrani where our hostel has a little dining area and offers us breakfast (included in the price of course!) We walk in and the super nice Italian greets us, tells us to sit where we like and says "Tell me what you prefer. Espresso, Cappuccino, Chocolate...." We let him know what type of coffee we wanted, then we hear him making it, and a few minutes later he comes back with a silver tray for each of us. On it is our coffee, a goblet of orange juice, a warm crossant filled with jam or something tasty (my favorite), an Italian roll, 2 slices of a crispy italian toast (it comes crispy) with little packages of Nutella, Jam and butter. Wow. That was a fantastic surprise.

After breakfast we walked to Amalfi, dressed for sunny weather. We wandered almost to the top of the town, on the one road that snakes up the center up the hill. At the top we found a cute little restaurant (where we were the only customers at the time) that had an Italian waitress who played with her grandaughter most of the time after we were served. Very cute. Once we had our nourishment we wandered back down to the port and got tickets to go see the Emerald Grotto. I admit, the grotto is neat. It's been there for a long time, and the water is actually green in spots from a small natural light tube in the rock that is about 12 meters under water. Sadly, this has been made quite touristy, and our little guide inside had a crush on Emma, which was creepy. We all thoroughly enjoyed the boat right though, and were gladly willing to pay for that portion of the trip.

Next we decided to hop on a bus headed for Positano, which is another story.

Here is the Pre-Positano photo album.
Emerald Grotto photo album.

Labels: Amalfi, Atrani, Emerald Grotto