Day 44 - [N]aples (Sorrento, Positano, and Amalfi)

Visiting the Amalfi coast

Today was the second organised tour centred on Naples. I knew that the Amalfi coast was a bit of a way out of Naples but not so far that I couldn’t visit Naples and not visit Amalfi. So, I chose a tour on Trip Advisor that would take me all around that isthmus. I met the tour bus outside the Ramada Hotel (chosen because I knew I’d know where it was by now) and was escorted onto a mini-bus full of fellow tourists. There were 19 on the tour under the leadership of Giuseppe (“you can call me Pepe”) and driven by the non-English-speaking Pietro. The drive out to Sorrento was uneventful. I tried to capture a few photos of the scenery passing but was up to my usual standard with such things and only have one photo of Castellammare after we had driven past it (you can see the rocky outcrop in the middle of the harbour that gives the town its name) and then a couple of Sorrento, on approach. Fortunately, the bus stopped at a viewing spot for proper photos, where I also captured the coast line and road along which we’d been driving.

Castellammare from the road to Sorrento	Sorrento, on approach
Sorrento, from the photo stop	The cliff-hugging road we drove to Sorrento

Panorama of Sorrento

We arrived in a designated parking area just outside Sorrento and Pepe led us into the main piazza of the town. It’s a lovely town, and very quiet at this time of the morning (just after 9 am) and this time of the year. Pepe led the group through the centre of the town to a shop that specialised in limoncello and other lemon-derived products, which are the local specialty. The limoncello is a liqueur (approx. 35% alcohol by volume) that I quite liked. Very unlike the limoncello that I’ve had in Australia, which is essentially a soft drink, and much tarter. The shop also produced a lemon cream, which was really nice, some other fruit creams, and some chocolate products that were infused with limoncello or the lemon cream. I bought a small bag of dark chocolate bullets that contained limoncello (irresistable!) and a bar of dark chocolate that is infused with lemon liqueur. The store was a riot of bright coloured (mostly yellows and other pastels) products. I noticed that the Vesuivian phallus theme had made its way into some of the lemon cream bottles.

The main piazza where Pepe gave us directions	The road down to the port/jetty from the town	Street scene of the old town in Sorrento (very poor picture)
Obligatory church spotting	An abandoned? chapel in an open vestibule	Some of the products on offer in the store we visited

After the limoncello tasting, I wandered off to follow Pepe’s suggestion to visit the ‘villa comunale’, which was adjacent to the sea cliff over the port/jetty and was reputed to have a cafe where coffee and cake could be bought. Having not had breakfast, the idea of a coffee and cake over-looking the bay towards Vesuvius was very appealing. I walked the long way to the villa, coming out of the old town onto the main thoroughfare through Sorrento going further out the peninsula. This was a really well-maintained boulevard, which must be alive during the summer as there were stores all along it (though most were closed today, some for the season).

Main street in Sorrento (looking West)	Main street in Sorrento (looking East, back into town)
Street scene in Sorrento old town	The villa comunale di Sorrento

It turns out that the cafe at the villa was not open. So I saw the sights there, and they were very pleasant, then walked back into town to find a cafe that was open. Inevitably, I landed in a restaurant, and so had an expensive, but very nice, coffee and lemon cream iced cake. I then walked slowly back through the town to the parking lot to await our departure for Positano.

The port/jetty at Sorrento (looking West)

The port/jetty (looking East)

Vesuvius, across the bay, commanding the landscape

The drive to Positano was windey and narrow. Pietro demonstrated his considerable skills keeping us safely on the road and navigating a series of very narrow hairpins on the way into Positano itself. I tried to capture some of the impressive scenery and views of the Mediteranean coast as we drove along, with my usual level of success. The following photos might be rescued by some advanced AI refinement, but I haven’t got to that yet.

Li Galli islands off the coast. The one on the left is shaped like a dolphin, from above	The coast road winding along the cliff top	Housing, perched on rocky outcrops on the very steep cliffs
First look at Positano	Another town, Praiano, along the coast	Positano from the parking garage

There’s really only one street in Positano, and it runs through the town along the coast. There are, of course, some other small roads, but they are exclusively local traffic. The bus was obliged to stop at a parking garage near the top of the town and we were set free to walk down into the town to look around. Positano is another lovely little town. It is noticeably smaller than Sorrento. Pepe had said that while Sorrento had a population of about 20,000, Positano had a population of about 2,000. It is clear that the primary industry in Positano is tourism. The only other industry would be ceramics. The walk down to the beach was past innumerable souvenir and ceramics shops. Brightly coloured ceramics are the local specialty. I walked down to the beach, and then climbed back up to the main road and walked out of town going East. Walking away from the town centre quickly reduced the level of activity. I passed several hotels that were already closed for the season, many of them undertaking renovations. Eventually, I walked back to the parking garage to wait for the next leg of our journey.

Looking down the main gorge into Positano	Looking back up that gorge to the hills above the town	‘Street’ scene in Positano
The church in Positano	The church tower and piazza	View from the church piazza out to the Mediterranean
Vine covered walkway down to the beach	The beach at Positano	Along the beach at Positano
Looking up and West into Positano from the beach	Looking up and North	Looking up and East
Examples of the local specialty ceramics	More ceramics	The ‘Hotel California’ – closed for the season
Positano in context of the coast (looking West)	The olive tree is very old in that pot	Looking East towards Praiano from the eastern end of Positano

Back in the bus and another windey ride along the narrow, elevated coast road. Traffic wasn’t too bad, it seemed, but Pietro had to keep his wits about him the whole time. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to do the drive, and would not contemplate it at all in the busy tourist season. Next was our final stop, Amalfi.

Looking back along the coast on the road from Positano to Amalfi	Terraced farming along the coast	More terraces for agriculture
A former church to San Gennaro, now a trattoria (closed for the season)	A wholly ceramic tiny town where nativity scenes are set during christmas	More housing perched on cliff edges
First glimpse of the harbour at Amalfi	More of that first glimpse	Looking up at the town from the harbour

From the outset of the tour, Pepe had been teasing us with a possible extension to the tour in Amalfi. It was apparently weather dependent. You can see in the photos that the weather was pretty good. Sure there are some clouds, but they are high and the water has been millpond-calm the whole day. As we approached Amalfi, Pepe revealed that an optional boat ride along the coast off Amalfi was available for an additional €20. He said that the trip would show some sights that can only be seen from the water, including lovers’ arch, Sophia Loren’s villa, the green grotto, and the dragon’s mouth cave. The boat ride would also offer views of the smallest village in Italy – Atrani – the setting of the film Equalizer 3. That last sold me, as I love all the Equalizer movies and the town that Equalizer 3 is set in is unbearably charming (in the film). (It turns out we later drove through Atrani to get back to Naples, but it’s so small that you don’t see anything of the town in the three minutes it takes to drive through.)

Residences outside Amalfi (from the water)	Impressive residences up the coast	Lovers’s arch – Pepe counted us down to the right time to kiss
The dragon’s mouth	Sophia Loren’s villa (white building, lower centre) and includes the watch tower Reportedly valued at €12m	The green grotto, so named because the water becomes green in the grottos Small opening at the foot of the cliff; I was on the wrong side of the boat when it passed close by
Amalfi, from the water	Amalfi, from the water (‘close up’)	Fortifications that protected Amalfi harbour
Antari, from the water	Antari, from the water (‘close up’)	Looking up the gorge that bounds Antari
Some of the ancient local architecture	Pepe had a story about thee blue shuttered house but I can’t remember it now	The green shuttered house also had a story, now unremembered by me

The view from lunch

I had bought lunch as part of the tour package. After our boat trip, Pepe guided the five of us with that option to a cafe right on the harbourfront. The set menu lunch was very nice; bruschetta, spaghetti with lemon cream, and a glass of the local wine. After lunch, I walked into Amalfi proper with the idea that I’d walk up the gorge to the back of the town and then walk back down to the harbour. I turned off the main road that led up the gorge to a footpath that ran behind the first layer of housing so that the return trip could be down the main road. What that little journey showed me was that Amalfi was a lot like Positano. If you weren’t in the tourist quarter, there was not a lot to see. Still, it is a quaint town.

The church in Amalfi	The main piazza, in front of the church	The main road leading up into the gorge
Street scenes in Amalfi
Looking up the gorge from towards the back of the town	This tree caught my eye; it’s obviously been there a while	Underneath the tree on the return journey
Another look at the church	The Fontana di Sant' Andrea in the main piazza	A statue of Flavio Gioia (very poor photo)

I still had plenty of time to kill before the bus left. I walked all the way to the end of the long pier in the centre of Amalfi harbour and took some panoramic shots of the town from out there. They tend to flatten out how the harbour is a horseshoe shape, but they work OK as context setters.

Panorama of the west side of Amalfi	Panorama of the east side of Amalfi
Panorama of Amalfi harbour from the end of the pier

In due course, we left for Naples. The trip home was completely unremarkable and I was dropped in the piazza in front of Napoli Centrale. I walked briskly home, stopping only to acquire a half-bottle of wine to accompany the rest of the food that was in the AirBNB, which I had decided I would scoff for a cheap dinner. The half-bottle of wine cost me €2. You can imagine the quality, although it wasn’t actually as bad as you might imagine at that price. I had an early night as the next day I had to be on a 7:30 am train, and the station was 20 minutes walk away.

Daily facts: Location: [N]aples (Amalfi coast) Temp: 18 Weather: Sunny