Positano and Amalfi
We’re pretty content in Sorrento, all things considered, but the whole coast came so highly recommended that it seems like we’d be missing out if we didn’t at least day trip further south. So today (after breakfast on the balcony) we’re out the door to catch a bus to Positano. The trains don’t go to the coastal towns and the guide books say only a fool would take a rental car, so bus it is.
It takes a while to get out of town, but before long, we can see ocean. Not long after that, we’re several hundred feet up a sheer cliff on a road so narrow the buses almost rub together as they pass each other. The views are breathtaking and I’m thankful I get to enjoy them instead of having to focus on not banging a car into the guardrails or oncoming traffic. Nevertheless, an hour of this experience is plenty and we’re more than happy to arrive in Positano.
The cities along the Amalfi Coast are famous for rising straight up from the ocean and they really are amazing to see. Living here and having to get from your house to the city center and back may be less so, although it comes with a free gym membership.
As the first stop south from Sorrento (the towns of Amalfi and Ravello are the other popular spots), Positano definitely gets the lion’s share of the day trippers. The place is crawling with tour groups and other free agents who bused in like us. There are dozens of souvenir shops, restaurants, ceramic “factories” and other options that can easily separate one from their cash. The one that catches our eye, of course, is selling lemon gelato packed into the frozen shell of a hollowed out lemon. Here I am looking not at all like a tourist.
The crowds are a little much for us so we decide to move on to Amalfi. A little wiser, we opt to do this leg in a boat. Easily our best decision of the day. Not only is the trip much more relaxing, but from the water you get a whole difference perspective.
Amalfi is night and day different from Positano. There are people here, but the town is far less crowded and the prices much less inflated. It was also the the original seat of power when this region was its own kingdom so there is some history for us to explore. We also give it two enthusiastic thumbs up for the lemon cream gelato (it is unreal just how good this is) but a giant raspberry for the industrial pizza overlooking the Duomo.
We take a quiet break by the ocean for a bit before piling back aboard the bus for the return trip to Sorrento. It’s an hour and forty minutes from Amalfi and just as harrowing on the way back (although going this direction we’re on the inside lane). We arrive just in time for dinner at a local place outside the city center. At some point, my body will reject anymore pizza or ice cream, but not yet…not yet.
