Amalfi

Amalfi, the city for which the Amalfi Coast is named, has a long history, and was an important maritime power between 839 and around 1200. After a series of lost battles eliminated its independence, a tsunami in 1343 destroyed the port and the lower town. As a maritime power, Amalfi never recovered, but it has been an important tourist destination for over 100 years.

We decided to travel to Amalfi by bus, which is the most cost-efficient option. To buy tickets, we had to find the bar/tobacco shop selling them. With a little help from the locals, we found the right place and  bought our tickets, which were only about 3 Euros each. So far so good. We waited at the bus stop confirmed we were in the right place, and right on time, the bus pulled up and we got on. That is where things got a bit strange. The driver looked at our tickets and was clearly annoyed and he seemed to indicate we didn't have the right tickets -- while he didn't speak English,  his body language was clear. Nonetheless, he accepted the tickets and we were on our way. The bus was full, with many people standing in the aisle, which was our only option as well.

We started talking to an American couple from the San Jose area and learned a few things about our trip. First, in Sorrento (the first stop and the one prior to ours), a long line of people failed to get on the bus because it was full. Second, the couple had paid about 10 Euros for each of their tickets. Why the bar owner sold us different tickets when we clearly wanted to go to Amalfi was beyond us, and why the bus driver stopped for us and accepted our tickets was even more mysterious. Finally, we learned that the primary road from Sorrento to Amalfi (which runs along the coast) was closed and we would be taking a secondary road through the center of the peninsula, which meant our trip would last about two-and-a-half hours (!). The coastal road is narrow and windy; the mountainous route was another level of crazy.

As we passed through the center of the peninsula, and came out of a tunnel on the other side, we got quite a shock. We were high on a very steep hill overlooking the ocean, and the road leading down to the bottom was extremely steep, serpentine and narrow. The next hour or so was a harrowing experience. We give credit to the bus driver who deserved combat pay for driving that road in a bus, but we found it difficult to enjoy the amazing scenery as we repeatedly thought we might be close to rolling off the road to our death.

Finally reaching approximately sea level, we sat in a traffic jam for a good 20-30 minutes to go the last 1000 feet into Amalfi. It turns out that the road into town is crossed by many tourists and there is no stoplight (which makes no sense) leading to long backups as cars and buses attempt to enter and exit the town.

As soon as we arrived at the bus "station," which was really just a parking lot, our bus was mobbed by far more people trying to get out of town than the bus could handle. Once we alighted from the bus, we made a beeline for the office selling ferry tickets. Although it cost a lot more than the bus, there was no way we were braving the crowds and those roads again. With ferry tickets in hand, we had just enough time to walk through the city and have lunch.

The city's church was interesting, with clear Byzantine influence:

Lunch was yummy with delicious pasta (of course) and wine (duh). And, that's it. We got on our ferry, took some pictures of the city on our way out, and went back to Sorrento where we caught the train back to Piano di Sorrento. All told, our return took about one hour. 

We are not sure what the moral of the story is, but in our next post, we will talk about yet another transportation challenge on the Amalfi Coast.

Hasta Pronto,

Jeff and Shana