Amalfi,
Italy
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Expecting a little bit from the Amalfi Coast after my parents have raved about it for years, I was not disappointed one bit. Had one of the best times of the trip in Amalfi - a small town on a beautiful coastline, with a great small-town feeling. Even better was the town in which we stayed - only a 10 minute walk from Amalfi, a place called Atrani. We got to know quite a few local Atrani characters - the two guys who ran our hostel (Felipo and Gabriel), the "italian stallion" cafe attendant (a.k.a. Casanova), two crazy supermarket butcher/deli guys who managed to sell us double the amount of ham that we wanted, simply so we "won" a free mug with a pig on it....rrrright. Over in Amalfi we hung out at a pub called Willy's, with a bunch of great people from our hostel. Willy is an old Pom with Italian heritage who runs a pub and a hostel, and whose prices get gradually lower as he (and his patrons) become drunker. I have vague memories of free limoncello shots.
The beaches at Amalfi aren't really beaches. They're full of grey rocks. But it was sunny, the water was deliciously fresh, and sunbaking was the order of the day, most days. I tried to hire a scooter, but never having ridden one (or a motorbike), I failed to impress the hirer with my skills and wasn't allowed to take it! Would have loved to have a big paddock to get used to it, but it wasn't to be. Probably a good thing considering the breakneck speed with which bus drivers hoon around tight clifftop corners, tooting their horns with delightful regularity.
