| Page Views: 125 Last Visit to Amalfi: August, 2002 | Amalfi Coast by edwis - last update: Jun 26, 2007 |
This whole peninsula in southern Italy is called the Amalfi coast, however we actually stayed in a little place called Amalfi town. It is a little fishing village and harbor, seaside but built into the cliffs. The drive coming along the Amalfi coast is truly one of the world’s most famous, with curvy “S” turns, up and down, in and out. It is always on the list of the world’s most scenic drives. Many times when two cars meet, you have to slow down to 5 km, just to pass. This was the most nerve racking drive I have ever experienced, even though Joan did all the driving. When a tour bus comes along, we and the other cars had to pull off to the edge and stop on the little shoulder. We even saw some cars having to back up to let a bus get by. Jay later told us when they where there the summer before, they watched two cars passing slowly and the mirrors hit each other – one driver reached out his window and slapped the other driver and they all kept driving on. We did see that most cars parked anywhere in Amalfi did have their side door mirrors either turned in, or else they were already broken. After the beautiful yet treacherous drive, we finally got there; took a deep breath, parked the car near the seaside hotel and relaxed. We then walked for the rest of the week.
Our hotel was actually built into the cliff along the seaside. We had a corner room with a balcony and patio area on the third floor, which overlooked the city on the left and boats straight out. This patio area was equivalent to a pool deck size back in the states. At night you could see lights from the boot of Italy landline off in the distance. During the day, we watched fishermen tending and mending their nets down below along the shoreline.
We should mention that we booked all three hotels on this our first trip via the Internet, made all flight arrangements, and even the car rental too. The best news was that not one problem arose and every single hotel room was up or beyond our expectation. God bless Al Gore.
You must know how those little disposable Kodak cameras come in an air tight sealed silver foil package. Well I had one I brought along as a backup for our first digital camera outing. While at the hotel I laid it out on the dresser during the day while we went out exploring the town. We came back and it is missing. We searched all over the place and then figured out that the maid must have thought it was just some aluminum foil wrapping for the trash. So then I think all this through for a little while and try to put together enough of the words in Italian to explain this situation to the hotel manager. I finally do it, but he informs me that he is sorry but all the trash has all been removed. Oh well, it is not a major issue I guess; but later that day Jovanna opens the little mini bar in our room, and Voila! - She finds the silver wrapped camera in the refrigerator! The maid thought it was some kind of candy and was doing us a favor. Now I had to go back and try to explain this in Italian to the manager all over again.
It rained one-half day while we were in Amalfi land. So we just sat around and read, hung out in the main lobby with a reading room on couches, and even watched some Italian TV. There were mostly variety shows that always with a pretty face with a low cut top as the hostess, or then the American shows with Italian voice-overs. I watched the “Simpsons” in Italian language, with Homer and Marge saying the words, but certainly did not with the same voice tones at all. That was very weird. You could always find two channels of soccer games. |
|  | The whole Amalfi town is about a mile long, right along the sea side. The town consists of a very beautiful harbor full with a variety of fishing and tour boats, a nice curvy tree-lined boardwalk, beach type shops, and then a central district. All the Italian central districts seem to surround the big cathedral. The cathedral of St. Andrew is the town's centerpiece. It is a unique blend of Moorish and European styles. Amalfi is full of steps which include the 57 steps to get up to the Cathedral. Joan attended a Mass there. |
| | The people were all very nice mostly touring Italians on holiday. We didn’t find one American while in Amalfi, and we loved that. We usually walked all morning, poked around shops, planned out lunches and did ˝ day afternoon trips to neighboring villages. It seemed like every other close by village was only about 20 minutes away. |
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