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| Amalfi today |
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| Single lane drive, everyone squeezes! |
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| Inside the SITA bus |
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| View from Ravello |
It's funny how things always don't seem to go according to what's planned. We planned for today's day trip for days, if not weeks and we have always struggled to finalize where to go and when for our third day in Pompei. Initially, we planned to take a train to Sorrento, take a local bus (SITA) and drive through the coast line past Positano before stopping by Amalfi and Salerno and taking the fast train back to Pompei, well, a gentleman who helped serve breakfast here in the hostel advised to do it the other way round instead. No harm trying, so we did what he suggested and man, what a day it turned out to be!
So, we first ended up stopping at a different station using the fast train, customer service wasn't much of a help with the limited English, we walked out, found the place to buy the daily ticket and bumped into a fellow traveler from Germany who was on his vacation. We needed to know where the bus stop is and he needed to know where the ticket booth is, we both helped each other and before you know it, we were chatting away and ended up going to Ravello (an in-between town, before Amalfi) side by side. We spent half of our day visiting the garden in Ravello with our new German friend, Klaus, explored a church, lunched together and hiked our way back to Amalfi before parting.
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| Klaus and us |
The visit to Ravello was good, they have a lot of small dainty ceramics for sale and the town has a less touristy feel to it, well at least not as tourist-packed as the Amalfi. The walk downhill was unexpected (as the day itself) but pleasant with plenty of olive, lemon trees and grapes growing in yards and on the hillside.
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| Steep walk down |
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| The million dollar view |
We bumped into a small group of travelers from the States (Chicago, Phillies) who are as amazed as us with the local bus (SITA) system - Klaus described it best, its a different kind of zoo. We have also discovered the training ground for italian race car drivers - the Italian Pacific Coast Highway. With room barely enough for one car, let alone two cars squeezing through and bicycles and motorcycles zooming in and out. By the time we got out from the bus, I can barely feel my stomach, all the curves and near misses. Phew!
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