The Amalfi Coast

A lazy day dawned upon us with brilliant sunshine, the warmth of which gave all a sense of home and well-being as can only be felt when the sun is beating down on you, and the only care you have in the world is what to explore that day. Such laziness could just as easily be described as relaxation, but there's no need for that soft mushy stuff on holiday now is there!

To be fair, I didn't need to coax all that much to get the crew ready for a pleasant wander down the hillside from the very end of the Sorrentine peninsula, to an old war defence known as the Punta Campanella. The round trip was meant to be three hours. I'm proud to say we did it in less than that. But only just! Unfortunately we did choose the hottest part of the day, or at least we chose it by default, by not getting up with Abbey, before the sparrows have had a chance to fart. Perhaps this was one of the reasons in fact that we laboured in leaving Sorrento, to be honest, six weeks later, my memory is a little fuzzy. Which is why I really ought to get such things written earlier. Anyway. Nice walk. Lots of lizards of various colours and sizes. All of which were scared off their rocks with each person that walked past. I almost felt sorry for the poor wee fellas. They would just get themselves into prime sunning position and then, by virtue of sheer natural forces, not fully understood by giants such as myself, would have to flee for their tails' sake, only to haul their cold blooded little selves back out into the sun when the person had walked by. This wary scampering process was of course repeated for each person that walked down the path, twice for each person if you count the return journey. Minus I guess those that just decided to die at the bottom rather than climb the hill in such oppressive heat. Of course such plight on the part of the lizards could easily have been solved, by choosing to sun themselves on rocks other than those of the path down. But then that wouldn't make for such banal observations as this would it? I do love watching lizards though - they have always fascinated me, since I was a kid. Am fascinated by the prospect of seeing a snake in the wild too, though it hasn't yet happened, and disappointingly didn't happen this trip either. That day will be a cause for celebration. To see such creatures doing what they do (provided that is not biting you) is just a fantastic thrill - at least to me. I reckon that's why people watching is so cool too - just watching people being people... in the wild so to speak. Which makes me wonder of course about the authenticity of watching reality TV shows - a whole load of people locked in a house together is not exactly a 'normal' environment... doesn't constitute entertainment to me... but now I am way off track. Talking about the lizards was only vaguely related... reality TV just popped into my head, there you have it. Blogging stream of consciousness a la Ryan.

So the wander down the hill was cool. I managed to ignore the do not enter signs and climbed halfway inside the fortress before being persuaded by my darling wife to climb back down, along with our daughter... but seriously - was totally safe - just a few rocks missing here and there. Clearly a fortress in need of a bit of work to restore it to former glory, but quite safe to climb on, for the average monkey like me.

Beautiful walk though, despite the heat. Lots of interesting looking castley bits on houses heading down the hillside, and a couple of interesting little grotto's, showing the religious persuasion of the people. That was an amazing thing about Italy wherever we went actually - you go walking anywhere it seems and you will find little grotto's with crucifix's and statues of the virgin Mary. Fascinating. Most of them like little tributes to people long since dead. I guess New Zealand do a similar thing, except we just have plain white crosses, we've taken Jesus off them, yet the image of the cross is still evocative in the death of a loved one, though in the case of those you see in NZ, they're mainly found on the sides of roads - to mark tragic accidents. Enough pondering. It was great to wander down through citrus and olive groves. Farmland I guess, Sorrentine style. Beautiful. Hot. Entirely pleasant. Could possibly have been made better by having the opportunity to swim at the bottom to cool off, but we managed with the little shade afforded by the fort type thingy (which you can see the facade of in the photo of Mez and I). All I had read of this place intimated it was a mere stone's throw from Capri, which was not entirely the truth. Not even Zeus could throw that far. Although arguably God can, depending what you think about creation. Capri certainly looked enticing though - and much more rugged than I had imagined it would be... more on that later.

After sweating it out walking back up the hill, and Abbey being surprisingly good, we cooled off with some ice-cream and then decided to head for a wee drive around the Amalfi coast. I figured - winding road, a mere 50km long we could surely do that in 2-3 hours right? Wrong. Fun road to drive for the first hour or so, after that, just a little nerve wracking. And the four hours it took us to drive the distance to Paestum was a bit of an oversight on my part, and left all a little agitated and hungry. Most notably Abbey of course which doesn't exactly make for happy campers. Nevermind. Lesson learned. Make sure you check drive times and don't fob the suggested times as hogwash (it couldn't possibly take that long to drive that short distance... oh yes it can. It soooooo can).

Stunning road though, absolutely breathtaking scenery and sea views on every corner. The road ranges in height right from sea level to 400ft above it. There is stunning integration of houses into a completely inhospitably steep mountainside, not to mention the engineering of actually building a road like that with the kind of equipment that existed back then! (it was built from 1840 - 1852). Could do with a little widening in places though! Beautiful churches like the one pictured which is one of Amalfi's prime drawcards. Amazing mosaic work. Castles here and there, or at least remnants of them. And of course the boats. Cool boats. Would love one. Right after I buy a small african nation out of debt I think though!!! Was stoked I managed to make it all the way around without a scratch on the monstrous Chrysler. Gave us enough of a hunger to go back the following day too - touched with a healthy dose of realism to not try biting off quite as much as again in one day!

Paestum was of course stunning as the sun set through the ancient temples (Temple to Apollo 450BC pictured here... the square one below and right is the Temple of Hera, 550BC, the oldest temple at Paestum). Ideally we would have been there an hour earlier, but the best laid plans sometimes just don't work do they? Paestum was originally a settlement created by the Greeks in the seventh century BC, and taking in the natural advantages of it's raised position on high land, close proximity to the sea and a fresh water river. It's magnificent temples are not the only structures that remain - there are a whole load of excavated houses - a whole town in fact - but we were there after it had closed for the day, and didn't feel it worthy enough to come back to, so a brief look was all it got. Paestum was discovered, years after it had been settled by the Greeks, then conquered by various other factions, including the Romans, who of course on conquering it, then set about making it their own. It was re-settled, developed further, in the 4th to the 7th centuries AD, then abandoned again at some stage in the middle ages following what seems most likely to be some climate change. Evidently the area turned swampy and disease ridden, so the people went elsewhere. Hard to imagine now with the baking sun raining down its rays, making up for lost time perhaps. Anyway it was re-discovered in the 1800's along with Pompeii and Herculaneum and has been excavated similarly.

Impressive temples anyway. Once the sun had set, we set off again ourselves in search of a much needed bed, and on finally getting Abbey to sleep in the back seat, elected not to stop and drove straight home, for some pizza (not the a Mezzo variety) and bed. Great start to the day, could have finished better with some better planning. Great sights though. Nuff said.