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Published: September 1st 2009
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So I Did!!
After seeing the Cote D’Azur in France, I decided that I wanted to see how the Italians do holidays so I made my way a little further South from Naples to the
Amalfi Coast. Nearly everyone I’ve met has said that it’s the must see area of Italy so hopes were high for some fun in the sun while being surrounded by beautiful coastline. It didn’t disappoint!!
The bus from
Salerno to where I was staying hugs the coast, often with shear cliffs falling away to crystal clear water, and takes about an hour to reach
Amalfi. I was staying in the village in the next bay,
Atrani, which is a little quieter and definitely a lot more local. Nearly everyone was Italian, coming here on holidays to soak up the sun, and with pretty much only Italians the food was authentic and amazing!! With coastline at a premium due to the cliffs reaching up from the sea in most places, each bay (Atrani’s being only about 100m long) is filled to the brim with sun chairs and umbrellas with quaint little cafes built into the cliff face in what may once have been a natural
cave.
The coastline itself it rugged with towns perched strategically on ledges and most of the seaside ones only having the one street that leads slowly up the ravines. Apart from that one street though, there are narrow lanes and stairs winding away to other properties that seem almost to be cascading over one another as they fill all the gaps of the accessible land, creating a truly wonderful feeling of being lost when your only seconds away from where you began.
The first morning I rounded the point and headed into Amalfi but soon found it to be a lot more touristy then where I was. With souvenir shops lining the promenade and beaches full before the sun even touched sections of it, I returned to Atrani to keep in touch with the local vibe. There’s not a lot to do on the Amalfi Coast with only one full day to explore so I spent the day at the beach and cafes, relaxing and savouring the exquisite Italian foods washed down with the occasional cold one. With more time, there are some excellent hiking trails ranging from a few hours to a couple of days but be
careful because it looks like a lot of hard work in that terrain. From Amalfi there is also the ferry that can take you to
Positano (which from what I heard was like Amalfi but for people with more money) or
Capri with it’s famous
Blue Grotto. I on the other hand quite enjoyed just being able to kick back and chill out for a couple of nights after the rigours of Rome and Naples.
Heading back to Rome the following morning was basically just so I could catch my flight to London the following day. I used the time to catch up on all the usual chores when your on holidays and London was much the same. It feels like a bit of a waste of time, but when you’ve got Egypt and Jordan to look forward to for the next 17 days you get over it pretty quick.
"What I find is that you can do almost anything or go almost anywhere, if you're not in a hurry." - Paul Theroux
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