V5 travels: Amalfi and Positano

We enjoyed a leisurely start to the day after our early start the day before. Breakfast at Hotel Pellegrino is superb - eggs cooked to your liking, fresh pastries, coffee, fruit, crepes - again we just couldn’t say no as it is all placed on the table in front of you!

We took the local bus to Amalfi. I thought it was quite a leisurely ride down as I was on the inside looking at the cliff face coming down to the road. V4 was not so relaxed as she was on the road side where she saw the drop down to the water (something she couldn’t see when driving!). When we arrived in Amalfi, it looked like there had been an invasion of tour buses all arrive at the same time. I hesitate to even imagine what it must be like in peak season! This was quite busy enough for the both of us. We wandered the streets and lanes and decided to take a ferry to Positano.

The ferry was the highlight of the day for me. We sat outdoors on the top deck and just got to see the coastline from the water. It is such an amazing place - houses perched on cliff faces is one thing, but then you see houses hundreds of metres higher than the roadway, and also below the roadway. We wondered what the access was like for these people - do they manage to get a car there or close by or are they physically walking up and down to conduct their lives? There are also masses of terraces that are more obvious from the water. I initially thought they were uncared for, but it appears there are numerous vegetable gardens on these. Indeed, opposite our hotel if you look over the edge you see at least three or four terraces of about 2 metres wide that follow the contour of the rock cliff - citrus, vegetables, grape vines; zucchini are just some of the plants I spotted. There was a watering system and it appears there is a crop rotation happening!

Positano was another very busy tourist destination. We wandered around the ‘beach area’ for a while and then decided to walk up. Finding a restaurant away from the big tourist area, we sat overlooking the water and ate a lovely lunch of lemon ravioli and pasta with cherry tomatoes. While the menu didn’t look extraordinarily expensive from the outside, our simple lunch was expensive…best not ask the price!

We then continued up the road to the bus stop to catch the bus back to our hotel. Arriving at a good time, we were nearly the first at the stop. People arrived for the next twenty minutes and lined up down the road. The bus arrived, and was already bursting with passengers who breathed sighs as they exited and gulped fresh air. However….the bus arrived at the end of the queue - the last in line was the first on, and and we didn’t get on as they were too full. There was a small group of people in the same boat, so we all took it on the chin and thought we were first for the next bus….an hour later! It was something you could not describe….a bus going north arrived at the same time and the two buses could not pass without traffic reversing, a quick manoeuvre of one bus. Our southern bus went to open the door at the other end of our line….there was a huge uproar - waving, yelling, etc. The driver and the conductor got the message and closed the door again - and managed to move the bus down to our end of the line so we could get on. Standing room only…luckily it was only half an hour to the hotel!