Why don't the seats on this train match the layout when we booked, and why are there people sitting in our spots? "Did you check the train number?", asks a concerned passenger. "Yeah, we're going to Napoli at 11:05am." We had already sprinted to barely get on this train, only to find out that there are actually two different trains going to Napoli at precisely the same time. We happened to board the 9965, not the 9856! "Kids, get off now!" It must have been quite the sight for the Romans going about their daily routine to see a family of five sprinting with luggage skipping along behind yelling "mi scuzzi, mi scuzzi, mi scuzzi." We were spared the anguish of figuring out alternative plans by the gracious lackadaisical nature of the Italian folks as the train didn't start rolling until 7 minutes after the scheduled departure.
Mar 23: Herculaneum and Pompeii
We boarded one of the many Trenitalia Frecciarossa bullet trains that go whizzing about the boot of Italy to head south for four days in the Amalfi Coast. The Italian countryside is exactly as I had expected with a patchwork of orchards contoured over rolling hills made green by the winter rains. (It looks like the East Bay in February). However the snow-capped range of low mountains flanking either side of the train was truly unexpected. Isn't everything South of Rome near the equator and never drops below a pleasant 60 degrees?
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| Screaming past quaint rural Italian towns perched on hilltops in front of snow capped mountain ridges. |
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| Back to backseat shinanigans |
We pulled in to Napoli (why do we call it Napels?) about 2hrs later and picked up our rental car* to head south another 90 minutes to the Amalfi coast. Is it sad that up until about 2 weeks ago, I had no idea where Mt Vesuvius and Pompeii were (I actually thought they were in Greece), much less that they were perched right on the western coast between Napoli and Amalfi? (Furthermore, is it even more sad that I am only loosely aware of their existence from the movie White Men Can't Jump, and every time I say Vesuvius, I actually say Vethuvius?). In any case, considering we quite literally drove on the slopes of Vesuvius, we stopped at two of the main archaeological sites made possible by it's deadly belching in the year 79AD - Pompeii, and the lesser known Herculaneum.
Nicole and I must be getting old. Science needs to study at what age you find visiting a 2,000 year old dead city to be awesome and a ton of fun, and set that as the official point when someone gets old. We loved it. Admittedly, the kids seemed to be having a jolly good time as well because of the freedom to wander around like it was the year 0. The two Roman towns were decimated in two different ways: Herculaneum was buried in 20meters of pyroclastic flow (super hot gravelly mud), and Pompeii by falling ash (also piping hot). Given how both cities were entombed by the volcanic waste, they are surprisingly intact (after digging them out) and paints a very clear picture of life in the year 79. As we wandered about both towns it really puts in perspective just how advanced the Roman world was compared to the rest of the world at the time. I just kept thinking how the temples and wats in Southeast Asia looked primitive by comparison, and they were built 1,000 years later. Pompeii is a massive site, complete with a modern civil layout, several amphitheaters, a stadium, a shopping mall, and takes a solid thirty minutes of speed walking to go from end to end (which we had to put to the test to get out before our bags in the lockers were locked for the evening).
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| Herculaneum is invisible to the surrounding town as it sits 50 feet below the current surface. It took a hundred years to dig it out, and there is still so much more to go. (Although they have stopped to make sure they preserve what is currently exposed) |
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| This was particularly moving. These were people huddled in alcoves facing the ocean that were flash burned in a state of panic, then encased in volcanic flow. |
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| The volcanic flow actually preserved a lot of the intricate tile and frescoes. |
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| This is Pompeii |
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| Vesuvius lords over Pompeii. So cool to see it snow capped. |
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| Pompeii has a wonderful city layout with sunken roadways for the horse drawn carriages. The stones allow for people to step across the roadways. Many of the stones were rutted from decades of wheel abuse. |
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| We're in one of the amphitheaters. It was huge and you could imagine spectators watching a show 2,000 years ago. |
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| The construction techniques were wonderful. Loved the mosaic work. Spread throughout the site are plaster casts of people encased in the falling volcanic ash. |
Before we hopped back in to our car for the final leg to Amalfi, we stopped for some Napoli style pizza. With doughier crust, it is our favorite so far (reminded the kids of their beloved Mangia pizza back home). We were treated to a spectacular sunset that night, forcing us to pull off the road to take it in. I have never in my life seen such a blood red sky like the horizon was on fire.
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| What's the best thing about Italian pizza? The price. This cheese pizza was $5 that was cut in half and still created leftovers. |
Mar 24 - Praiano
Today we woke up leisurely. Contrary to the auditory abuse we endured throughout our Rome nights, our place in Praiano was the epitome of peace and serenity. The only faint sound was waves lapping against the rocks 100ft below. Our place is perched impossibly against a shear cliff and accessed by three sharp hairpin turns. There is a further 227 steps (Zane counted each) down the face of the cliff to get to the rocky shore below. Here is a picture of our place...(it's the lone white building under the main roadway)
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| Bryce pondering how long it would take to hit the water from a jump over the rail. |
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| Not sure if it was an off-season thing, but our three bedroom cliff-side apartment was only $150/nt. Would have been $500/nt anywhere along the Cali coast. |
We booked our Airbnb in one of the lesser known mellow towns along the Amalfi coast called Praiano. It's the town people stay in to avoid the crowds of Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, and Sorrento. So when it's the off-season, it's really mellow. Life is about compromises. Where we have sacrificed the perfect outdoor weather for sipping a limoncello deep in to the warm evening hours, we have been rewarded with seeing how the real locals spend their days. They stand at the coffee bar and polish off an espresso, talk in an animated manner with hands pinched upward to emphasize a point, the men sit on a park bench not in a hurry to do much of anything, while the women shop for their daily bread in the small corner shop. All stereotypes are founded upon a modicum of truth, but in the case of the Italians, the stereotypes are just plain unadulterated truth.
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| Lower Left: 3bP (3 burro power) hauling equipment up the streets and stairs. Lower Right: Basking in the morning sun. |
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| Love this shot. Locals sipping their espresso under a snow capped peak. |
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| Between our apartment and town is an impressive miniaturization of life along the Amalfi coast. It's lit up at night with Christmas lights hidden among the street and home lights. |
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| Walking the main road is the only way to get around. It's not the safest experience. |
We spent the morning walking in one direction to grab breakfast and some groceries. We spent the midday scaling the stairs down to hang out on the shore. Nicole and I ditched the kids, and spent the afternoon getting lost in the other direction of town. It's a lovely and sleepy little town.
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| Stairs from our apartment down to the private shoreline. |
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| Prosciutto, Salami, Cheese, Crackers, Italian music on the bluetooth speaker, waves crashing on the shore, and the sun beaming down. It was a nice midday lunch. |
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| Nicole wants one of these for running in to town in Lafayette when we get back. Anyone know where we can get one of these? |
Mar 25 - Amalfi and Ravello
We hopped in the car for a hair raising drive along the coast to the towns of Amalfi and Ravello. As the crow flies, it's perhaps three miles away. As the road goes, it's six miles and forty minutes. Most people take buses or taxis to abdicate their terror to more experienced people. I figured it was off season, so why not give it a go. It wasn't easy, but no worse than Ireland or Norway. Although I can't imagine how it goes in the summer...
Amalfi is an old fishing town along the coast, while Ravello sits perched on top of the mountain. Both towns are quaint and make absolutely no sense.
Sometimes you look at a two dimensional map and you have a vision that is completely different than reality. The reality is that this place shouldn't really exist. There is not a flat piece of land bigger than the size of a Napoli pizza. Where it is flat it's because some crazy person decided to gather a million craggly rocks to build retaining walls up from impossible slopes. The coastline is more or less shear cliffs with homes and terraced gardens creeping upward and outward. I understand perhaps a couple lonely souls looking to get away from it all, but these are full fledged towns with schools, churches, stores, and restaurants.
Amalfi Shots:
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| These are quite possibly the cutest cars on the planet. Seeing two large men jammed in the front seat driving by is amusing. |
Ravello Shots:
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| Upper Left: Saddest cat we have ever seen. |
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| Not entirely sure why this street has Richard Wagner's namesake. |
Mar 26 - Path of the Gods
Fifteen hundred feet above our apartment is the "Path of the Gods," a 6km trail from the mountain town of Bomerano to the coastal town of Positano. To avoid 3 hours of nausea inducing bus rides to get to the start and subsequent return home, we opted yet again for a drive, this time 15 miles to go effectively 1 mile straight up the mountain. Sections of the road were impossibly narrow, and curiously steep.
The was a wonderful hike overlooking the Amalfi Coast. It also tested Zane and my fortitude as we walked along trails that lacked Earth on one side. The trail zigged in and out of plunging valleys and further added to the mysteries of how people have crafted a life as billy goats. The towering cliffs that continued to rise above our heads looked like one of those super textured oil landscape paintings, but if the paint was melting under the intense southern sun.
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| Zane and I had to take baby steps to make it through certain sections. |
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| The closest road is about 1 mile away over a hilly track. |
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| The kids can find a lady bug anywhere. |
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| On his way back from the feed and grain store.... |
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| That's Positano over our heads. |
Mar 27: Goodbye Amalfi
As they say, the early bird gets the worm**. Today was my final morning to catch the sunrise. While I can't speak for the other 360 days of the year, the sunsets and sunrises we saw during our stay were particularly mesmerizing. The early spring skies were packed with ever changing multi layered clouds painted with pastel colors, and when the sun broke through it cast a spotlight on the slightly choppy Mediterranean Sea creating a kind of dancing sparkle. As I sat there sipping my coffee, I began to understand why so many of the skies in the Italian frescoes and paintings look the way they do. I half expected Jesus to float down from the clouds with cherubs fluttering about with harps.
In summary, if Nicole and I had to rewrite the past 18 years, I wouldn't hesitate to kick it off along the Amalfi coast.
All for now... Next Stop: Firenze (Florence to you and me)
* Before we set out on our journey, we neglected to research driving in Italy (mostly because we had no idea we would). As it turns out, they are one of the only European countries that requires an International Drivers License. Thanks to Nicole's crack internet research skills, we were able to find an online company that can translate an American license, which is all that is necessary if Gianni Q Law happens to pull you over.
** Nicole is not much of a morning person and recently unearthed one of her favorite new quotes; "Worms are gross, and mornings are stupid"