May 16, 2024 - Classic Italy
Amalfi Coast
 
Today's event was driving the famous Amalfi Coast.  Our tour group boarded a bus in the morning and headed south from Sorrento.   After a short drive across the mountainous peninsula, we were on the Amalfi Coast road.  Which as you can see is very windy, narrow and on the edge of a rather steep cliff.  It is so narrow that private tour buses are only allowd to go in one directin(southbound).  This is one of the reasons I chose to see Italy via a guided tour.  I did not want to drive in Italy in general, and on roads like this in particular.
   
 Originally a hand-carved trail, the modern roads was built in the mid-19th century.
   
Approaching our first town:  Positano.
   
A good look at Positano.  The town is built on a series of manmade terraces, carved out o the steep rock, then filled with fertile soil carried from Sorrento onthe backs of donkeys.
   
 
   
The town has 4,000 inhabitants.  No new building is allowed so Positano will probably always be this way.
   
Scenic overlook of Positano.
   
 
   
Parking is difficult in Italy and nowhere more so than on the Amalfi Coast.  In fact, I could see virtually no public parking at all.  Tony, our tour guide, said that towns or areas had their own individual rules for parking and if you unknowingly violated them, you could receive a nice bill in the mail.
   
Looking up a draw in Positano.
   

Continuing on the coast road, we passed this old fortification -- lookout post -- overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.  Islamic pirates were a real danger over many centuries.  They would arrive via ship, kill the town's men and take the women and children for slaves.
   

Continuing on, we drove to Amalfi Town.

I was surprised to learn that during the 10th and 11th centuries, Amalfi was a pwoerful maritime republic -- a trading power with a fleet that controlled this region and rivaled Pisa, Genoa, and Venice.  But in 1343 the town was destroyed by a tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake.  That, plus plagues, left Amalfi a humble backwater.  Today, like Positano, Amalfi's 5,000 residents mostly live off tourism.
   
Now we're in the Pizaa Duomo -- the Main Square -- with our tour director, Tony, at center.  He has the dark blue and yellow lemon-covered shirt.
   
Off the main square is the Cathedral which is "Amalfi Romanesque" (a mix of Moorish and Byzantine flavors, built 1000-1300), with a fanciful Neo-Byzantine facade from the 19th century." -- Rick Steves.  It has a 1,000-year-old bronze door made in Constantinople.
   

The fountain of Saint Andrew, built in 1760, located in the main square.
   
Amalfi has one main street that runs up from the waterfront through a deep valley, with stairways to courtyards and houses on either side.  Our group had some free time so Lynnette and I walked up the main drag to visit the Paper Museum.
 
We went on a short guided tour with an English-speaking guide, at right in the black sweater and red scarf.  They've been making paper in this cave-like facility since the 13th-century."  The equipment is the real deal.  The equipment and techniques were improved over the years in a quest to make the paper faster.   The Amalfi river literally flows through the building and powers the machinery.
   
"Paper has been a vital industry here since Amalfi's glory days in the Middle Ages.  They'd pound rags into pulp in a big vat, pull it up using a screen, and air-dry it to create paper. "  -- Rick Steves
   
The vat of pulp.
   
Lynnette dipped the screen into the vat, coating it with a veneer of pulp.
   
The pulp dries and voila!  Lynnette has created paper!
 
   
Yay, paper!
   
I think the guide and Lynnette are looking to see the watermark.
   

More advanced equipment.

Amazingly, this factory produced paper through 1969 (when it was replaced by a modern facility up the valley).  --- Rick Steves
   
Walking back down Amalfi's one main street.
   
Looking out one of Amalfi's two stone piers.
   
I believe the beaches are private -- you have to pay to enter but you get to use the chairs and umbrellas.
   
We reboarded the bus and continued on, but climbing up into the hills to the town of Ravello, which sits 1,000 feet above the sea.
   
Lynnette standing in Ravello's main square.
   
We toured the Villa Rufolo which featured stunning views of the Amalfi coast.  The villa was built on the 13th-century ruins of a noble family's palace.
   
Not a bad place to have lunch!
   
Interspersed among the ruins and villa were flowers and greenery.
   
Terraced gardens.
   
The money shot!
   
They have art and music festivals here.
   
Duomo, Ravello's cathedral, which overlooks the main square.  It also has bronze doors from Constantinople, made in the 12th-century.
   
Another shot of the main square.
   
Looking up the hill from the main square at more terraced houses and buildings.
   
The main square again.
   
Our group had a nice lunch in Ravello at "Cumpa Cosimo".
   
Then it was time to head back to Sorrento.  But we didn't go the way we had came along the coastal road.  We continued up the hill, headed north, on a windy road, of course.  Back towards Sorrento.
 
If we had stayed on the Amalfi Coast road, a little further on we would have come to Salerno, where during World War II, the Allies invaded Italy on September 9, 1943.  Although the amphibious landing was successful, it was a near thing at one point.
 
A little further south on the coast are the ruins at Paestum -- one of the besst collections of Greek temples anywhere.
 
I would have liked to have seen Salerno and Paestum but such are the disadvantages of being on a guided tour.
   
By the time we made it over the top of the mountain range and could see the big valley south of Mount Vesuvius, I was getting queasy.  It's unusual to be this high, overlooking civilization, and not be in an airplane.  That's Mount Vesuvius at center in the distance.
   
Now descending down the north side of the range.
   
Approaching Sorrento, the same way we came in from Naples.
   

This evening we had freetime so Lynnette and I and another couple went into Sorrento town to have dinner at the Inn Bufalito, a restaurant recommended by the tour director.  It was an interesting experience.  The head waiter was very polished and gave us the rundown on how great their beef and cheeses were.  We went with his recommendations.  But we never saw him again.  Another much more junior waiter took over.  We started with the cheese plate which was excellent.  The head waiter had recommended the four of sharing this hunk of beef, which cost about $80.  It looked great.  But it turned out there was very little "beef" on it.  Each of us got two small slices of beef.  One of mine was mostly gristle!  But the other slice, I must say, was excellent.  We also received the highly praised pasta which was little more than mediocre spagetti with tomato sauce.  The wine was good, and the atmosphere was good.  The four of us laughed about the experience for the rest of the tour.

As you can see, Sorrento is a happening town.   The streets are jammed.
   
Even the side streets are busy.
   
When we came out of the Inn Bufalito, it was dark but the streets were still filled.
   
We walked back to the hotel under the old city walls.
   
 
   
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