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.