Atrani, The Emalfi Coast, Italy – we arrived in Atrani at 16:00 hrs after a nice drive down the A1 and A3 highways of central Italy. The rental car we had was a Lancia, a very nice comfortable car. When we turned off the highway for Atrani at Salerno the road signs indicated 20KMS to our destination. My GPS told me 20kms and an approximate travel time of 55 minutes, I didn’t particularly pay much attention to the time as I thought the GPS may be overly cautious in its timing.
Well shortly after leaving Salerno the road started to climb and climb and climb and then we descended followed by another climb on switchbacks all the way. The GPS had been correct in the timing if there hadn’t been a multitude of large vehicles on the road at this time. Every corner where anything bigger than a midsized car met there was a jockeying back and forth to get the two vehicles by each other. The bus drivers in particular are magicians at squeezing two huge buses by each other with only inches to spare on either side.
Traffic on coast road
When we arrived at our apartment our hosts (mother and daughter) met us and directed us into their garage which was dug right out of the side of the mountain. It was very modern and could accommodate at least ten cars. They helped us unload our luggage and groceries which we had brought from Florence and directed us to an elevator that would carry us partially up the mountain. It turns out our apartment is on the highest level of the mountain. We still had about 65 stairs to climb to the front door of our apartment.
Our apartment entrance through the green doors
The apartment is very comfortable and had just been totally renovated it was fully air conditioned with a washer and two very large terraces that overlook the coast and the Mediterranean Sea. The apartment is a 10 minute walk from the town of Amalfi which is a major tourist spot on the coast.
Our kitchen with steps to the 1st terrace
Bedroom with second terrace through the doors
View of Atrani from the second terrace
Town of Atrani with the tunnel to Amalfi (from the 2nd terrace)
Our apartment (kitchen door) from the 1st terrace
View of Atrani town beach from the 1st terrace
Bob in tunnel which connects Atrani and Amalfi. Atrani is in the forefront
We have taken a couple of day trips to different towns on the coast. Most are very similar to our town built on the side of the cliffs with stairs and rising roads everywhere. We also took a day trip through Naples to Pompeii and Vesuvius the Volcano.
View of a road in Pompeii with pedestrian stepping stones so that they would not get their feet or togas wet - chariot wheels passed on either side of the stones. We saw many grooves in the road from chariots driving by over the years.
Pompeii was extraordinary, a town that was completely engulfed in lava when the volcano Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. The town was quite well preserved and after excavation a lot of treasures were found as well as buildings relatively unscathed save that the second floor of any buildings that were two stories were no longer there as they collapsed under the weight of the lava. We visited Vesuvius in the afternoon to see the crater. It is 16kms from the Pompeii site and is still an active Volcano having last erupted in 1944 during the Second World War. It has erupted 81 times since 79AD the very first time it blew its top.
Crater left from Vesuvius eruption
Bob on the edge of the Vesuvius crater, you could smell the sulphur and actually see a small plume of smoke.
Town of Amalfi
We will spend 8 days here before moving further south to Ostuni on the heel of Italy. Ostuni is located on the Adriatic Sea. We will spend 5 nights there before flying to Vienna for a few days and then onto Prague for a month.
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