Day trip to Amalfi and Positano

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  Amalfi, Italy
Monday, June 25, 2007

Ciao!

We headed out early today for what we figured to be a BIG day of travel along the Amalfi Coast, which we have really looked forward to. We have met several travelers along our way who have highly recommended this coastline and we could not wait to see it!
 
We had scoped out the bus schedules last night and found one of the earliest buses left at 8:30am. We bought our tickets last night and were ready to hop on. The recommendation was to ride the bus to Positano, sitting on the RIGHT side of the bus, get off on the 2nd stop (the first one is too high up and not in the town) and then hop back on to the next few towns, ending in Amalfi. Once that was done we should get back on the bus in Amalfi and ride it all the way back to Sorrento without getting off

Amalfi coastline from the ferry

.

The reason for doing the sight seeing in this order is because we heard the buses would be packed and difficult to get on later in the day and we did not was to risk having to wait in the blistering heat - no way!  We got good seats on the bus and as soon as we sat down we knew we were in for a thrill ride! We were on the right side of the bus and once we hit the first stop the bus was in "standing room only" status. The first 30 min was a milk run through Sorrento and then they hit the road to Amalfi - what a road that was!

The bus climbed up and up and UP on one of the narrowest switch-backed roads, reminding us of the Nob Hill in San Francisco but multiply that by 100!! Cars and scooters were parked along the right hand side of the road making what we thought an impassable road. This bus driver found ways to squeeze through these narrow hairpin corners with less than inches to spare, and at a VERY high speed, whipping around corners with us showing our white knuckles! Many times we were playing chicken with buses and cars going right for each other (nothing short of Bangalore, India), all the while we are sardine packed in this bus and less than 6 inches from a cliff which drops down several thousand feet to the ocean! The only thing between us and the water is a small rock wall that is not even a foot high

Beach in Positano

! (Katie - your description of this trip was right on! We were lucky to survive it and seriously, sat frozen to our chairs for the hour journey!) (Sammy, MJ, Roger and Jilly - this would not be a ride for any of you! You would be passed out after the first turn and screaming to get out!)

We said earlier that we were told to get off on the 2nd Positano stop. Well, there are no markings on the side of the road and the bus stops several times between the "stops" for people wanting to get off and on, so when what we "thought" was the 2nd stop came - it went fast as we could not peel ourselves fast enough out of the seats to squeeze through the sea of sweaty tourists to the door so we missed the stop. We were way too far along to turn back and climb UP that nasty road that the bus had just straddled down (we are not on a suicide mission - one CANNOT walk along this road with the buses without being run over or slightly maimed), so we rode the bus all the way to Amalfi and were going to regroup to figure out how to get back to Positano - there is always a way!

The narrow winding road up the Amalfi coast is truly one of the most scenic roads in the world and in the top 10 of white-knuckle drives (scarier than shit).  We literally crawled off the bus and got our legs under us, we both looked at each other and said "No freakin way are we getting back on that bus

Ferry view of Amalfi

. Where is the ferry?" We immediately bought our ferry tickets for our return to Sorrento as well as the one to drop us to Positano which we had missed earlier! We were not getting back on the bus today.

We wandered around Amalfi and grabbed a quick drink as we only had an hour before the ferry took us to Positano and the town was jammed with tourists and buses. This was the central point for the SITA bus line so it was time for us to get out - too many tourists!
The ferry ride to Positano was very enjoyable and short - 20 minutes sitting on top of the deck with the sea breeze in our faces drying our sweat and watching the Amalfi Coastline whiz by.

Positano was everything we had heard and read about! It was truly a great way to spend a few hours and we walked up and down the little windy roads exploring the boutiques and little shops, enjoying the beautiful sea views of the ocean and village below. We climbed up pretty high and got some great panorama's. The bougainvillea was in full bloom and EVERYWHERE! It was kind of hard to capture the beauty through our cameras since the town is literally on a cliff, but none the less it was gorgeous.

Positano from the top of the village

We were really happy that we chose a base camp of Sorrento instead of Positano, because if we would have stayed in Positano, we would have had mules attempting to carry our bags up the hundreds of steep winding staircases.  Mules are luggage porters in Positano and frankly our bags were bigger than some of the mules!

After exploring the village, we grabbed some nice cool gelato and waited for our return ferry to Sorrento.  Well, we thought it was going to be a nice calm ferry ride similar to the Positano ferry ride, but were we wrong!

We got on board and took our seats by the window and fortunately we chose seats in the middle of the vessel and by the window.  This was a high speed hovercraft, so they did not let us sit up top, we had to sit inside the cabin.  Within moments of taking off, the crew swarmed the cabin looking for anybody that might be getting sea sick.  The swells were around 14 feet high and the boat was really rocking and swaying -- then the sea sick bags started flying and the arms started flailing and people ran for the bathroom to hurl (if they could make it).  (Gail/Jilly - this was re-living the hover craft English channel crossing nightmare with Grandma and we thought of you with each sick bag that passed us).  

The captain of the ship did not even slow down, he just kept ramming through the swells and the boat would climb each swell and come crashing down.  All we could hear were moans and people hurling and crews trying to hand out sick back before it was too late.  We figured there were around 100 people on board and close to 80 percent got sick

Positano with beautiful flowers

.  Thankfully both of us did not get sick.  Ryan slept and Laurie watched the horizon bob up and down.

We finally it back to Sorrento and literally had to climb over the bodies laying in the back of the boat.  We felt really badly for the people - there is nothing worse than being sea sick, especially on vacation.

After our adventure at sea, we headed back to the hotel and made a pit stop at a local pharmacy where we ran into a couple from Kirkland, WA (Chris and Bob).  They were lots of fun and both were Oregon State alums so we chatted about the Beaver baseball win for quite awhile and then walked up town with them to do some shopping.  It is a very small world as their son lives just a few streets from Laurie's parents on Jamison road.

After we showered we headed for dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant to have our final meal in Italy.  Tomorrow is a travel day for us and we are headed for Croatia and really looking forward to a new country!  Also, this means we only have one more train ride and the rest of our trip will be ferries and scooters!  We are DONE with the train travel after 9 countries.  Our Eurail pass is looking worse for the wear.

Today's walk: 5.3 miles
Total for the journey (210 miles, 39 days)

Love,
Laurie and Ryan
 

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Ryan in Amalfi

Sunbathing in Positano

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