Amalfi Coast

Hazy Coastline in the Morning

The Amalfi Coast is famous for its beautiful hillside towns and its scary, scary roads.  They are basically tiny horizontal ribbons tossed onto the cliffs.  One slip of the wheel and you're falling.  Not being brave enough to drive it ourselves, we took a bus tour that stopped in several of the towns along the way.  I was glad not to be driving, but wish the weather had been clearer.  There are winds from Africa called sirocco that are blowing in a hazy, hot front, muting some of the dramatic views.  They also make it really, really, really hot, and make me think that if I wanted Saharan heat, I could have gone to the Sahara!  Also, global warming: it does exist!

St Andrew's tomb

We stopped first in Amalfi, where we had a short walking tour of the town and then took a boat tour out in the sea to look back at the coastline.  It was really beautiful, and I loved getting out on the water.  In town, the Cathedral was pretty cool, with a gorgeous courtyard and some pieces of St. Andrew in the crypt.  I'm oddly fascinated at how so many saints got chopped up and distributed through Europe during the Middle Ages.  I think his head's in Scotland.  I wonder if they do tours specifically to see all of the parts of a given saint.  Maybe I'll start them and make millions....

Ravello

Anyway, after Amalfi, we rode further south, stopping in Ravello for a delicious lunch and some free time to explore the town.  There was a cool castle-like remnant as well as some beautiful gardens and just gorgeous cliffside views.  I loved one building that had "Peace" written on it in many languages.  I'm also amazed that neither Joanne, Lisa, nor I got a picture of it.  I would have made it my Christmas card.  There was a great pottery shop too, but big souvenirs during the first week of vacation just take up too much room and usually get broken by the time you leave.

 

This was new Italy for me, and I could definitely come back here and stay longer.  Next time I want to go even further south and see the Greek ruins at Paestum.  Being in a section of Italy that was so caught up in the Mediterranean rather than European world is definitely something I want to explore more.

Clearer skies in the afternoon.  Gorgeous