Coasting around Amalfi
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2006
1
26
80
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Sorrento,
Italy
Monday, December 25, 2006
Our cute little Fiat Panda hummed along contentedly, Greg and I stuffed in the backseat with the bags that wouldn't fit in the trunk. Both the ladies in the car have an unfortunate tendency towards carsickness, so this is the only seating arrangement that will be comfortable for anyone. It's a good thing that Deann prefers her seat far forward, giving me enough room to shift my legs every so often and keep a bit of circulation.
Being late, when we pulled up to the town's hostel and got offered a 4 bed room with bath for a decent price, we said "Sold!" Cierra and I took the bunk beds and left the double for her parents. Sorrento isn't a large town, and our late-night dining options were limited. We found a restaurant, but they had just closed their kitchen, so they sent us on to a pizzeria, where we had a great meal, topped off with a fantastic serving of tiramisu which was without a doubt the best I've ever had.
The next morning Cierra and I woke from a sound sleep to complaints from our companions about the noise in the room overnight. Apparently the traffic from the road had bothered them somewhat, but what had really kept Greg up was a rooster. This made me a little nervous, because my snoring has been compared to a rooster-like sound, but it turned out that an actual rooster had cock-a-doodle-dood ouside the window from 2 o'clock on. Greg spent the rest of the morning referring back to "That Blanking Cock" and it quickly became apparent that we would have to seek out new accommodation for the rest of our stay in Sorrento.
While her parents grabbed a cup of coffee in the restaurant that had sent us away the previous night, Cierra and I went to the tourist office to find a different hotel that would fit our budget. The lady at the office had the typical Italian exaggerated inflection, and when Cierra said we'd like to spend as little as possible, she dismissed it with a wave of her hand and "That means NOTHING to me!" She ended up telling us what we didn't want to hear, that we wouldn't find a decent room in town for anything close to what we´d paid at the hostel.
Sorrento is a town of twenty thousand or so, perched high above the Mediterranean on impressive cliffs and ancient stone walls that have been built up from the rocks below. Behind, high mountains form the backbone of the peninsula, and across the Gulf of Naples, deadly Vesuvius looms, large and foreboding. In the summer, the town is overrun with tourists, but now it's easy to get around. We wander through the shops and start drinking early by sampling a local liquor, Limoncello, distilled from the lemons that grow in small orchards wherever there's any space. Lemons and olives are the local cash crop.
After a brief time touring a very fancy hotel that Deann tried to work down to our range, we toured the fishing village at the bottom of the cliffs. There, we met a very friendly fellow named Tony who had a great affinity for the English people, and apparently thought we were British. He'd spent his entire life in the area, working at restaurants and making boats, and as a little boy in 1945, he'd befriended some British troops, presumably stationed there at the end of the war. He invited us in and showed us his latest boat, showering us with handshakes and well-wishes as he sent us on our way.
Over lunch at a pizzeria, I tried to finish a calzone that had to be larger than my head, and Cierra borrowed a guidebook from an Australian family, the only other ones in the joint. Eventually, we had the whole family standing around our table, finding out about our trip and telling us about theirs. This was turning out to be a very friendly place!
We were on the verge of just going to the expensive hotel and biting the bullet, but fortunately decided to try a few more places on the outskirts of town. There, we found an empty hotel high above the water, and the person at the desk was in the mood to bargain. Son we had a nice hotel room with breakfast included for only a few Euro more than we paid at the hostel.
On the way home from dinner, Cierra proved her trustworthiness for driving on the narrow and curving streets of small Italian towns. We got lost and ended up on a tiny street where stone walls pressed in on us and the lane shrank to almost nothing. Everyone in the car thought that there was no way we'd fit through. Everyone except Cierra. She didn't just get through there, she drove through at regular speed as the passengers in the car quaked with terror. Deann said "Your mirror just hit the wall a little bit!"
Cierra replied calmly, "That's what they're there for."
Thursday, we drove the Amalfi Coast and saw the towns of Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello. I could spend a lot of time here trying to distinguish one from the other, but the fact remains that they're all pretty alike as quaint tourist towns built into steep sea cliffs. Ravello is the most different, because it's so much higher, and the drive to get there is even more snaking and narrow than the rest of the road. Our guidebooks said not to attempt it, but after last nights display of skill and bravado, none of us were concerned about Cierra's ability to drive it. Although during a brief showdown with a bus, Greg did have to close his eyes.
What an amazing drive, though. Rocky outcroppings and cliffs covered with olive trees and clinging homes, and a road improbably hanging on to the rocks as the sea churns below. As the road curves in and out with the shoreline, you can see the supports below, here a rock arch, there a giant bolder wedged beneath the asphalt. Who designed this road, Dr. Seuss or M.C. Escher?
The next morning, we let Deann do her Christmas shopping in town, while we worked at the Internet cafe on ways to get to Malta. Finding a fare on Ryanair.com that beat anything I'd seen yet, we booked it and left it up to fate how we'll travel on to Tunisia. Hope it won't be too expensive.
Now, Cierra´s parents have to travel out of Milan in a day and a half, so we have to start driving in order to get them there....
