2 buses & a ferry

4/17/14

Well today was pretty much a wasted day. I mistakenly thought there was more than one ferry leaving from Amalfi to Capri. Wrong. For all who care the ferry to Capri leaves at 9:30am. Thats it. So after arriving in Amalfi at sayyyyy around noon I grabbed a panino & gelato and waited for the bus to sorrento that left around 1:30.

Waiting for the bus in Agerola...

Waiting for the bus in Amalfi...

Its only about an hour and 45 min to sorrento where the ferry to Capri usually leaves every hour... FOUR AND A HALF hours later I arrived in the center of Sorrento.

The winding roads on the coast are terrifying and just as I was letting go and beginning to trust these bus drivers we pass a 3 car pile up. On a cliff. Like literally there is a thin metal tube for a guard rail and then Nothing. But. Air. (also there was a child vomiting in a bag next to me for the ENTIRE TRIP) Fortunately no one was seriously injured. We were stuck in stand still traffic for 2 hours so some of the passengers walked up the hill to see what was going on and they got the lowdown. Lucky for me my understanding of italian is coming back and I got the scoop when they told the driver what was going on. After that little excitement we were on our way (by the way that was when the child first started his endless tirade of vomit, first in his shirt then thankfully in a bag of what were once cookies. I get carsick so I couldn’t really blame him. Dramamine is a life saver in Italy. No joke)

Views from the road.

  We finally arrived in Sorrento around 5pm. I walked down the hundred or so steps to the port and patiently waited (beer was involved) for my 7:30pm ferry to Capri. 

The ferry ride was uneventful. It was dark by the time we arrived to Capri. (looks a lot like Rinella at night) I had to run to catch the last bus (8pm)to Anacapri, thankfully it left 5 min late and I was able to catch it. I got off at the 'blue cave bar' and managed by some miracle to find my way to the hotel. Seriously, a miracle. The directions I had were to “go down the main road until you find the right side of Via Padre Reginaldo Giuliani. Don’t go up stairs. Find Via Vagna then find Via Traversa Vagna. Hotel is 14.” It was dark and empty and was about a 15 minute walk.

This is the photo I took on my phone of the screen shot of the map to the hotel... I will tell you from experience... this is not how the streets are laid out.

And I didn’t even get lost. (if you couldn’t tell, I am very proud of myself) so I arrived, dropped my stuff and again ventured out (must be intuition) and found my way up to the center of Anacapri to grab some dinner. I found a small family restaurant set back down a little ally and had some delicious wine, fettuccine and rabbit. Then I went home and went to bed!

PATH OF THE GODS!

4/16/14

Well today I woke up at he bright and early hour of 7:15... and stayed in bed for an hour. This hostel is kept at an arctic temperature. I am wrapped in like 14 blankets just writing this and its only 8:30pm. Anyway, so I got up around 8:30 threw on some hiking clothes, packed my daypack and headed out for a coffee and to catch the bus to Bomerano, the start of the 'Path of the Gods'. After about a 15/20 min bus ride I arrived in the Piazza and made my way to the trail. Quite pretty, as you can see.

 

Came upon a fairly large ruined house built into the side of the cliff.

insides outside; outsides inside

Once I got to the split I had to choose left or right.

I chose the left path, known as slightly harder but with the better views. Away I went!

 Can't really beat the views...

 I see more ruins ahead!

 Ruins in the sky...

This house was cool, as you can see it was at one point quite large and there were hallways in the house carved out of the side of the cliff

 2 story cave halls

 A little farther down the path I came to a very large 2 story (in some places 3 stories) farmhouse. It was obviously falling into the ground but farmers were still using it to house not only supplies but goats on the second story...

 there were only 2 and they didn't make any noise. they just stared.

Up the little side staircase and you come to the blocked off door where the goats were and a quiet little stone deck...

Where the views were fantastic!

 Just past the large farmhouse there was a path leading to a giant cave and a pen with a bunch of goats. I can only assume the two in the second story window were being punished for some reason.

 About halfway through I made a new friend... who followed me all the way to the end of the path. Hopefully he'll find his home tonight! His name was Nando. He was very well behaved, didn't fight with any of the other passing dogs. Everyone thought he was mine because he would run ahead then stop and keep turing around to wait for me. I would love to bring him home. Near the end of the path we shared beef jerky and water.

 Super cool giant hole in the mountain.

 Decent views

 And finally, made it to Nocelle! A small hilltop town just above and to the south of Positano. Faithful Nando...

 There are 1700 steps leading down from Nocelle to the upper part of Positano,

and I walked down every one of them and then some, all the way down to the little beach and Piazza

 Not even halfway down I came to the Piazza in Nocelle where a guy was selling fresh squeezed lemonade with lemons from his yard. needless to say I had one and admired his enormous lemons.

 After a brief but interesting conversation with the lemon seller about taxes and the tax police, on my way again I went. Positano's getting closer! (and no, that beach you see is not the main beach in Positano... Ive still got a couple of winding km to go on these crazy Amalfi streets.

 But finally I make it!

 I got some lunch, walked around then jumped on the ferry to Amalfi. 

Watching the ferry dock was quite entertaining, it took them about 30 min and once they finally got it the made everyone run onto the boat. Very comical. It was very windy and there isn’t really a dock for the ferry, it sort of just drops anchor and pulls alongside of the jetty, so the boat kept drifting towards the beach threatening to ground the boat. 

Once I was on I had a great view of Positano and the path I had just hiked from the water.

 

 Can you spot the farm house I stopped at earlier?! That was the big one with the weird goats.

 We also went by Agerola, the town Im staying in, and you could see the fascist building from the sea... pretty cool.

 Once we landed in Amalfi I walked around a little, made friends with a boat captain, and then caught the bus back to Agerola. Crazy ride on those roads.

Once here in Agerola I dropped my bag and walked back up to the park to see the view looking to the sea. full circle people, full circle. It was pretty epic.

Nothin but blue

And now Im here alone in the freezing hostel about to fall asleep while typing this... and its only 8:45! Tomorrow off to Capri for the weekend.

Up and down and all around to Agerola we go

(4/15/14)
I arrived in Agerola around 4pm this afternoon, I ended up racing to catch the local bus from Napoli Centrale instead of taking the local train then catching the same bus. Smart choice, it was a beautiful ride and I'm sure it would have been even prettier had it been sunny. That said DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT attempt without dramamine. You WILL vomit. 

 

Once we wound our way to the town (the last stop on the bus) it was so foggy you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. I wandered into the first building I walked into (literally almost walked into a wall) lucky for me it was a cafe and the woman led me through the fog to the hostel. Once I settled I of course went back and had a cappuccino and thanked her again. After my coffee I wandered up the path to the small “park” they have. 

Of course I couldn’t see anything because of the fog but it was still kind of cool.

There was some sort of giant abandoned building that I, of course, went into stealth mode jumped the fence and throughly checked out.

It was pretty awesomely creepy and the fog offered the perfect sneaking around cover.

Feeling pretty confident with my sneaking I decided to jump the cliff wall and walk down the narrow path below the abandoned building to see what I could find underneath.

Looks like storage for... logs? Boring.

 Tomorrow I will head back after my hike and hopefully snap a few pix of the unfoggy view.

After a successful adventure I walked back to town and went to the grocery. THERE IS A MOTZZERELLA FACTORY IN THIS TOWN. And its right across the street from where I''m staying. Dinner.


Update & some history!

It is believed that Agerola was first inhabited during the Bronze age. The area was (and still is for the most part) known for its agricultural wealth. There are many farms and because it is so densely wooded its main export during the middle ages was wood for boats. The area is also known for its milk... hence the Fior di latte (mozzarella from cows, its usually from buffalo) factory in town.

The Park Colonia Montania

The park was first founded by General Avitabile in the first half of the 19th century where he built his castle and riding stables overlooking one of the best views on the Amalfi coast. The building that stands now was built over the remains of the General's castle during the Fascist era as a summer camp for young adults. The high reliefs on the front are by Pellini.