Amalfi Coast

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  Sorrento, Campania, Italy
Tuesday, September 9, 2008

I finally joined my Kumuka tour in a very fancy hotel in Rome after a very arduous ordeal of getting to the other side of Rome from my bed bug infested sardine can of a hostel. I saw that it was on Aurelia st, and went to the beginning of the street, starting with number 1. Unfortunately, my hotel was number 481, and it was up a steep, winding hill. I walked for a very long time (swearing a lot, much like a crazy person) until I found a bus. Aurelia st was such an irrational street - it turned off quite a few times at T intersections and ran into other streets and didn't change street names, and then randomly it changed street names in the middle of a straight road, and then changed back to Aurelia a bit further down. So confusing, and so far. I was hot, sweaty, and there was no way I was mishing back to central Rome to meet my friends for my birthday picnic. The people in my tour are very nice but are mostly older couples. One guy seems to have slight asperger's syndrome - I feel a bit sorry for him, the others deliberately avoid him. He says some slightly inappropriate things and seems to be a bit of a tripper (without any need of stimulants), but I think his heart is in the right place. It must be hard getting to that age and still having trouble with social interaction.

After a buffet breakfast (a feast after hostel breakfasts of dry bread and jam), we headed to the Amalfi coast, which was simply stunning. I want to buy a house here, possibly in Positano. We spent time in Amalfi, Positano and Sorrento. We drove precariously along massive towering cliffs, and looked down onto the Mediterranean, an immense stetch of water. The jagged cliffs towered above it, with little villages of the Amalfi coast spilling down over the sides like an amphitheatre, the show being the azure sea. It is so amazing that all these villages were built down the edges of cliffs, with roads carved into the sides. It seems a crazy place to start building, like Venice, where they built a city in the middle of a lagoon, but I am very glad they did. Italian driving is scary to say the least, especially when I was looking down a cliff out my window and could not see any of the road. The roads were so narrow that people often had to back out because the two cars couldn't fit past each other. They still drive very fast. People parked their cars pretty much wherever they felt like, often in the way of something.

In Amalfi, I had the best pizza I've had in Italy, though still not as good as mum's. In Positano, I saw the Byzantium Black Madonna painting that was stolen from Positano by pirates. As they left, the storm overtook them and forced them back to land. They heard "posi, posi" (or something like that - it's a word in Italian for put it back anyway). They tried to leave again with the painting after the storm stopped, but it started up again, and they realised that they would not be able to take it. A cathedral was built in Positano to put it in, and it still stands there today. I saw it. I went with Traci, a really nice Canadian girl who has been living in Brisbane for 12 years, to climb to the top of the village and drink some wine in a bar that was on a platform that jutted out from the cliff and looked down upon one of the most stunning views I have ever witnessed. The waiter was flirty and charming, as Italian men often are.

Then, onto Sorrento, where we stayed for 2 nights in a hotel that was perched on top of a cliff, looking down onto Naples bay, another amazing view. I can't describe it, so the pictures will have to do. The hotels on this tour are much better than I expected. Some of the others have whinged constantly on this trip, about things like the hotel rooms being "atrocious", too much free time, and the lack of tomatoes at breakfast. It is quite bizarre, because the hotels have been 4 stars so far, the first one was originally a palace, and the second one has one of the best views I've ever seen, with a massive pool to view it from. The breakfasts have been feasts, with pretty much everything except tomatoes. The tour guide, Akatarina, is competent, friendly and knowledgeable. She is always helping people out and giving us extra information on things. She has also organised a really amazing tour for us. I have felt negative a few times on this trip, but definitely not here!

The first night I arrived in Sorrento, we all went out to dinner, and as we were walking along a tiny backstreet on the way to the restaurant, and I literally bumped straight into two very lovely people that I'd met in a previous hostel, and celebrated my birthday with. Miyo and Nick, both from the Central Coast. Miyo is half Japanese and living in Genoa, Italy, and is fluent in Italian, and Nick has been travelling and working in Europe and the UK for about 3 years. I really liked them, so it was fantastic to randomly find them again in this huge continent. Destiny. We met up the next day. The restaurant, again, was amazing. It wasn't too expensive, and the views were so good they just didn't seem real.

I absolutely love Italy!