The Amalfi Coast - Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi

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  Sorrento, Campania, Italy
Sunday, September 21, 2008

Hello now from Sorrento, Italy!

After a day-long trek from Tuscany and Siena on Friday, we arrived in Sorrento which is just south of Naples. The ride was pretty uneventful. It poured all day long in a cold and misty sort of way; the kind that makes you appreciate that you're traveling in a train car instead of out trying to sight see. We got off the train in Naples and had to take an above-ground subway kind of thing to Sorrento. It might have just been the rain, but Naples gave off a completely sketchy vibe and the train couldn't go fast enough to get us out of there. I can't put a finger on what it was that didn't set right about that town - maybe it was the graffiti everywhere or the incessant "beware of pickpockets" message on the train station PA or the fact that the a branch of the mafia calls Naples home - but I was very glad we weren't sticking around!

Once in Sorrento, we still had to trek from the train station to our hostel in the rain, but a 15 minute walk through it wasn't too bad. The hostel here in Sorrento is amazing! Someone told us it's only been
open for about three months, so everything is brand-spanking new (and therefore really clean!) and up-to-date. Apparently it used to be a convent, and up on the roof there's a 360 degree view of the mountains, the Meditterannean, Vesuvius and the town of Sorrento. Mom agreed to to sleep in a dorm (previously we had been in private rooms) and so far her first dorm experience has been good. We have had older travelers as roommates (older meaning not college students) so we haven't had any miserable run-ins with roommates that party hard and come in late.

Looking back at Positano

Keep your fingers crossed that we'll have another good dorm experience in Rome, too!

The time here has been both frustrating and amazing. It's been tricky to get to where we want to go when we want to go. Sorrento is kind of the jumping off point for several area attractions, including the cities of Pompeii, Positano, Amalfi and the island of Capri. Despite the fact that this isn't the high tourist
season, there are still lots of people to move and not enough ways to move them. The buses here are limited, and water transportation is expensive. Yesterday morning we wanted to go to Positano and ended up
waiting about two hours before finally catching a bus. As soon as the bus started heading up the mountain though, all the morning's frustrations melted away. We climbed and climbed and climbed and went
through what seemed like hundreds of hairpin turns so close that the bus driver had to honk the horn to warn oncoming traffic that we would be taking up both lanes. The trip was both exhilerating and terrifying
- I can't really describe the trip in words so be sure to check out the photos. Even they can't do a view from the side of a cliff full justice!

In Positano we enjoyed just wandering around smelling the smells of bakeries and restaurants, perusing souvenir shops, watching several Saturday bridal parties and soaking up some of the first really warm
sun we've experience so far. We enjoyed the second best slice of pizza (the best was in Siena) from the water looking back up at what seem like impossibly situated buildings stuck to the side of the cliff.

Positano beach

We
opted to take the ferry back to Sorrento instead of enduring the nail-biting bus ride back, so we got a different and very spectacular view of the cliffside communities along the coastline.

Today, we had similar frustrating travel experiences in the morning but everything panned out in the afternoon. We had intended on going to the island of Capri courtesy of a tour arranged by the hostel, so we
were very disappointed this morning when it was cancelled due to choppy seas. We decided to piece together our own Capri tour only to find that the ferries were incredibly expensive and their departures were
incredibly limited (and we still had more boat rides and admission fees once we would get to Capri to do what we wanted to do there). As an alternative, we decided to go to the town of Amalfi which is just north
of Positano. Again we waited in the hour-long bus queue and had the astounding bus ride up and over the mountain, then gripping the side of the cliff to get to Positano. After Positano we had another half hour
on the bus on even narrower and even curvier roads. You wanted to look out at the ocean view but you were too scared to take your eyes off the road to make sure the driver was going to keep the bus between the hill and the small guard rail!

We only had a few hours in Amalfi in order to catch the last evening ferry back at 5pm, but we had time to find some lunch (and of course some gelato), admire the views and catch a kayak polo game being played beside the wharf. Young Italian men in wetsuits could never make for a bad afternoon!

Now we're back at the hostel gearing up for tomorrow's travels on to Rome. We have two nights there then it's goodbye Italy and hello Greece!

I'm starting to post pictures now of Positano and Amalfi (computer problems here might keep me from getting them all posted, so keep checking back). I did also add a few pictures to the Venice and Siena posts so feel free to check out those ones! Thank you to everyone who is posting comments! I'm sorry if I don't respond due to limited internet time, but I do read and appreciate them all!

Lots of love from Italy,

Amanda

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Positano from a cliff

Positano street

The bus ride

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