We woke Saturday morning slightly tired – the Airbnb is very close to a main road and translation, and didn’t have very good curtains to keep out the light. But we started with a pretty great breakfast: The host here makes this breakfast every day for her guests, and it includes fresh home-made croissants which are seriously good.
After breakfast we walked down to the car rental place and got a nice little fiat for the next few days.
Today we would explore the Amalfi coast, including this little beauty of a drive:
Our first stop was going be a pretty cool place the “Vallone dei Mulini” (Valley of mills). This beautiful area once housed a range of water mills on the river to grind flour and saw wood, but they were abandoned at some point and are now completely overgrown. Our combined love for ruins was definitely peaked, and we navigated some of the more treacherous roads in the area to get there. Unfortunately there was NOWHERE to stop and NO signs to point us in the right direction. Such a Shame! Eventually I pulled over on the side of the road, leaving just enough space for someone to pass by and we checked out the last mill which was also closest to the town. As it turned out, it was pretty disappointing because while it had been overgrown with vegetation it was also overthrown by rubbish and a terrible smell coming from what I presume to be a somewhat polluted river. It seems to me that someone found these mills and loved them, attempting to setup a tourist destination which never quite took off. The remnants of decent stairs and footpaths, once more completely overgrown and impassible, could be seen in some areas. There were a lot of cacti and pretty flowers though!
We didn’t stay too long, deciding to head for the coast instead. The tiny roads leading to the Amalfi coast were super crowded and we eventually even got stuck behind a truck which, to my mind, was too big for the streets. It was about 45 minutes before we crossed the mountain and managed to get to the road along the coast, only to find ourselves traveling down a TINY street. And by TINY I mean I wasn’t driving a large car (a fiat 500) and had about 3-4 cm either side of the car. In taking one 90-degree turn we found ourselves going the wrong way, with no option but to reverse. I may have touched a corner and put a small dent into the door in this process… Whoops! Let’s just hope that’s not noticed when we return it…. At least the paint wasn’t chipped!
A repeat of the stopping problem faced us when we finally made it to the coast though: Nowhere to park, nowhere to stop. Hundreds of cars are parked on the side of the road illegally, making it hard for other traffic to get through, and pedestrians are squeezed in as well… Even by motorbike this would be a problem here. We stopped at one “beach” finding a curve to leave the car in, only to find a massive crowd on a relatively basic beach which didn’t look that nice. Manja took a few happy snaps of the view before we moved on….
We decided to find ourselves some ice-cream and coffee, and even managed to stop at one of the lookouts along the way. The little cafes dotted along the road offer valet-parking just to squeeze as many cars into their tiny on-site carparks as possible so it actually wasn’t impossible to park. We had a nice table with a bit of a view to relax for a bit of a break from the road.
Our next stop was the Vila Rufolo in Ravello (near the coast). It was initially built in the 13th century by the then powerful Rufolo family who were famous merchants (To the point of being immortalised in books of the time), and was used to host banquets with Kings of the time. During this time it was boasted to have “More rooms than days in the year”, and paired with it’s view of the Amalfi coast it’s easy to see why it was so popular. As the families power declined, so did the Vila, until it was purchased in a run-down state by a Scotsman around 1850, who lovingly restored it and added a unique garden which flowers all year round. The gardens included plants which did not usually grow in the local climate, and was seen to be quite the achievement in its day, even capturing the imagination of Richard Wagner when he visited. Nowadays it’s a museum, and holds extremely popular Wagner concerts once a year on a custom built platform overlooking the coast. By chance the platform was being built for a concert as we visited!
One of the highlights for me was a light show inside the bell tower. Basically they drew attention to several parts of the carved decorations by colouring in and even animating them. It was a brilliant way to draw attention to artwork I would have otherwise just walked right past.
Coming out of the bell tower we found a plant area which was covered in bugs, including some really cool black ones. @Niko: Any chance you know what these are?
More Flowers:
Manja at work
We enjoyed the villa immensely, but were both pretty tired. So we headed off to a place which was recommended for dinner, stopping at a few look-outs along the way. Unfortunately only one of the lookouts was really easy to stop at, and while the view was awesome, it was covered in rubbish and smelled so too. Made for some nice photos though!
So we arrived at our “Secret tip restaurant” pretty early for Italian dinnertime standards, around opening at 7pm. They did let us in, even though they were still cleaning, and we scored a balcony seat with a view over the countryside. The food was fine, but the view inspired plenty of excellent conversation, and we got a surprise visit by a little lizard as a bonus.
One thing that’s becoming apparent to me is that long distance riding messes up my right hand. I could not hold a fork properly, and Manja decided to document this, because, well, it’s pretty hilarious. Here’s hoping that it’s non-permanent damage 😀
We even took a bit of a time-lapse of the sunset for your viewing pleasure!
Finally it was time to brave the crazy Italian streets in the dark on a Saturday night. Let’s just say the trip was adventurous, even getting the usually calm Manja to occasionally squeal with “caaaaaarefull….”. But we made it back intact! Yay!
Listening to… (Language warning!!)
Wonderful pictures,thank you. I saw the Beatle too,es ist ein Mistkaefer. Ich beneide Euch nicht fuer die vielen gewundenen Straßen. Haette nicht gedacht,dass es so schwer ist dort zu parken. Genießt Eure Zeit und seid happy.