Our week in the Amalfi Coast was a very welcome start to the summer. After flying in to Naples we immediately made our way along to the coast for a whistlestop tour of Sorrento. Here we experienced a pretty resort town with a great main square, nice views and our first gelato and lemoncello of the trip. The bus ride to Amalfi, our base for most of the trip, boasted the most spectacular views over the coast and picturesque villages along the way, the start of many more to come!
Amalfi was a fabulous spot in which to stay to explore the region. We had a hotel right on the beach with a sea view to die for, both from our room and the spectacularly sunny breakfast area. The roads along the coast were perilous and made for an interesting journey into the township each day!
Our days were spent dining on fabulous italian food - we must have eaten our body weight in gelato, pizza, prosciutto, gnocchi and other pasta! In between these meals we managed to see a few of the sights - visiting the pretty beachside town of Positano for a paddle and a picnic and the gorgeously romantic hillside vista of Ravello.
We moved on to our next base of Naples, where we had previously visited a couple of years before, to allow us to explore the Isle of Capri. The food in Naples was spectacular as remembered, and such good value - a stark contrast to what was available on the Isle of Capri. The famous isle is home to super rich holidaymakers, many exclusive restaurants and fancy shops - not ideal for a trip on a budget but worth a look around - the views and iced drinks were superb! Naples was as filthy as we remembered, but we had an excellent night out exploring the town and tracking down the best pizza in the world!
It was a long time between drinks – so to speak. When we were last in Italy we were young, naive and on a budget. This time, three years later, we meant business.
Perhaps we didn’t enjoy Italy as much as we should have the first time around. The land of pizza, pasta and Peroni was, for us, the awkward middle child between the splendour of the French Riviera and the glory of Greece.
To be fair, the first time around we never really made it to the coast, preferring to stick to the country’s major cities (except for when we stayed at camping grounds orbiting said cities). This time it was all coastal, baby!
The Amalfi Coast is a stretch of coastline on the southern side of the big boot (effectively the shin). It’s more Greece or Croatia than Southern France, with lots of steep cliffs and rugged country side. Dotted along the coast are a number of cute little villages.
It’s a beautiful part of the country. Beautiful but just a little bit scary. The roads are steep and narrow, the corners are blind and the drops are terrifying. Riding the bus between towns was exciting enough, with the driver having to honk his horn at practically every corner while struggling to keep the bus barely on the narrow road, but the complete lack of footpaths made walking a particularly risky business.
We splurged on a room with a view just outside of the town of Amalfi and it was worth every euro. Overlooking the ocean from our bedroom, it felt as though we could dive from our balcony right into the beautiful blue.
Amalfi was a happening little place, with lots of restaurants and a wee stony beach. It was still too cold for swimming, but we enjoyed sitting in the sun with our books. I have a collection of the 100 greatest New Zealand songs on my iPod and I have got to tell you, there’s something just a little surreal about listening to the likes of The Exponents, Dave Dobbyn or Supergroove in Italy.
We stayed two nights in Naples – been there, done that – but we liked it a little more this time. The city still hasn’t sorted out its rubbish problem, though. When we last visited the city, I described it on this very blog as “absolutely filthy, with litter and piles of rubbish strewn about”. Well, it was even dirtier than we remembered.
The city made us feel a little nostalgic, as we remembered places we had been the last time we were there. We’ve always considered the pizza we had in Naples to be the best we’d ever had, but I believe we topped it this time after we went on a mission across town to find a restaurant famous for its pizza.
From Naples, we caught a ferry to the island of Capri for a day. Capri wasn’t nearly as nice or romantic as you might imagine; it’s crowded, touristy and extremely expensive. We caught the cable-car up to the main town – a place for the rich and pretentious to be seen – had a picnic on a rock wall with a view and that was that.
Pics of the Amalfi Coast are here
No comments:
Post a Comment