(A momentary departure from Orcas Island life, continued from Walking Italy’s Scenic Towns IV: Amalfi to Ravello…)
I awakened early each morning while everyone else was still sleeping in order to plan the day’s or week’s transportation, book trains ahead of time, put QR codes into my Notes app, and double-check bus routes and schedules.
The quiet of the morning was lovely. I enjoyed looking out the windows of our Sorrento AirBnB, seeing the apartments painted various hues of yellow as the morning light brightened their colors. Cats played on rooftops across from our third-story balcony, and a kind grandmotherly woman fed a loft of healthy pigeons from her windowsill. (Did you know that a flock of pigeons can be called a band, a dropping, a flight, a school, a kit, a loft, a passel, or a plague? I just learned that.) Our younger one would come take my place at the window when he awakened.
This would be our second and final full day to explore the Amalfi Coast. We had planned a three-week whirlwind tour of several places we had always wanted to experience – towns of the Amalfi Coast, the island of Capri, the five villages of Cinque Terre, the lakeshore towns of Lake Como, and the famous monuments of Rome. We knew we could someday book a package deal to the main destination cities in Italy, so this would be our trip of a lifetime to as many beautiful areas off the beaten path as possible. Then we’d know which ones we liked the most for future reference.
Having only two full days to experience the Amalfi Coast is like deciding you’ll pick just two or three planets to visit in an entire solar system. Wanting to keep walking, we decided the best way to see more on foot would be to research any footpaths that might lead from one town to the next, heading farther east from Amalfi.
It would be nice to go back for a do-over and walk that path up to Ravello, but there was just so darn much to see. I found something called the Sentiero dei Limoni, the ‘Trail of the Lemons’ from the town of Minori to the town of Maiori. It sounded fairly easy; nothing like what we had done the previous day. We’ll just have to go back to Ravello again someday.
We opted for the inexpensive 2-hour public bus ride this time, the one that followed the road on the sheer cliffs from Sorrento to Amalfi. Once in Amalfi, we could take another bus ride of just a few minutes to the town of Minori and ask where to find the Sentiero.
Here’s that trusty map again of the coast.
These first many days for us were constant. We ate little, kept moving from place to place, and never slowed down. We didn’t have time to, but it was wearing on our nerves a bit. At some point, we’d need to start making time to have relaxed, sit-down meals and just “be.” Not yet though. We had a bus to catch. We chomped down some peaches and cereal we had bought at a market, and set off again for another full day of active exploring.
The ride to Amalfi was fabulous. The bus was modern, comfortable, and air-conditioned, and the scenery was unreal. The streets were so narrow that when two buses passed each other, they almost touched. The two-hour trip should have cost a lot – shhh, don’t tell Italy’s public transportation department. It was only €4 each, or about $5 – a little more than the average price of a gelato.
After leaving Sorrento, we steadily rose in altitude as we headed southeast, then began a gradual, snaking descent around the mountainous terrain toward the coastal towns.
Passing by Positano
The road was on a sheer cliff, hovering over the sea 
Coming into the town of Amalfi
We all have our own mini-goals while traveling. Our younger son was excited to see if he could find a bag of Fonzies in Italy, which are a little bit like white Cheetos. He had heard about them while listening to Rick Riordan’s audiobook series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians, so my husband helped him find some in a market back in Sorrento.
Once in Amalfi, we boarded the 5-minute bus to Minori to avoid walking the narrow roads again.
The town of Atrani, as we saw the previous day, but this time on the bus
We got off the bus in Minori and it was already almost 3 PM. We took a quick look around.
The streets were empty – a rarity in these parts in August. We decided that since it was the hottest time of day, most people were probably at the beach cooling off in the water. Here we were, on the other hand, beginning our walk to the next town.
With only peaches, cereal, and Fonzies in our systems, we needed to stop and find some quick food before our trek. Three weeks of whirlwinding through western Italy doesn’t allow much time for dining.
My olive and tuna bruschetta had some anchovies garnishing the top, and right about then we noticed a sweet little cat missing an eye. He must have been in a recent accident, as his injury looked quite fresh. I got a lot more satisfaction from feeding him my fish and tuna than from the idea of eating it myself.
We named him Champ and decided to pray for him from then on through our travels. He was a lovely little sweetie, and our younger son and I wished we could take him along with us, à la Finding Gobi, a book we had read together a few years back about a little stray dog that followed an ultramarathoner for 77 miles through the Gobi Desert and ended up going home with him to Scotland (you’ll have to read it if you love animals).
We said heart-tugging goodbyes to Champ, found the start of the Sentiero dei Limoni footpath, filled our water bottles, and doused our faces in another spontaneous pathside fountain.
We learned months ago while watching a Rick Steves documentary that donkeys are often used for hauling materials for construction projects instead of cars or trucks, since many pathways are too narrow for vehicles. Voila! There they were.
I look at these pictures and think, ‘Wow, there’s no way to capture how it felt to be there.’ It was lovely, regardless of the heat and sweat. Come along…
Lizards were everywhere on the hot stones, and we have a lizard lover 
A fresh lemonade stand along the way – how appropriate – 1 euro each 
Grapes hovered above us and grapevines and lemon trees flanked our sides 
The beginning of Maiori
A little trailside diorama 
Coming into Maiori 
Okay. High time for a swim! We booked it through the relatively quiet, clean, organized, more-modern main street of Maiori, remarking that it lacked the crumbly, narrow, unique character of Amalfi and Ravello.
We left the wide, comparatively bland, uncobbly street behind us and doffed our clothes for a dip in the crystal-blue waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea (which is part of the Mediterranean). Finally!
My husband and the boys are out there, surrounding the head of the man in the foreground. I only got out so we would have a photo of this memory. It was amazing. The water truly is that color of blue that you see in the tiny wave. It’s clear down to the bottom, it’s warm, and at 5:45 PM we had no goosebumps. Nothing like Orcas Island. Sublime is an overused word, but there is no other word for this experience. Totally sublime.
I had read and watched a lot about the towns of Italy before we went, but I don’t remember anyone saying all that much about bobbing in the sea. I would go again just for Italy’s warm, clear, stunning water.
It was a sad realization that our time was up. If we were to catch the right bus from Amalfi back to Sorrento, we would need to dry off and catch a quick bus from Maiori to Amalfi. The next morning we’d be having to wake up early and move out of our AirBnB in order to ride a ferry to the island of Capri, so we didn’t want to get to bed too late.
Two buses passing leaves little room for error on the narrow roads 
Back in Amalfi, we learned that our scheduled 7 o’clock-ish bus would not be coming. There would be one final bus back to Sorrento at 9 PM. We’re not really sure what happened. Is the intercity transit system casual in Italy? Was there a breakdown somewhere? There weren’t many English speakers around, and other tourists were mostly from European countries, so we just accepted our lack of knowledge.
From then on, while hoards of other travelers started swarming every bus that came in or left town, we set out on the streets to look around until dark and then find something to eat.
We were realizing that in Italy’s fabled little tourist towns, almost every third shop along the street sells either pizza or gelato.
We sat and ate our pizzas and calzone across from the bus area, just to make sure we didn’t miss any spontaneous departure to Sorrento. So much for getting to bed early!
Once 9 PM rolled around, two bus drivers illuminated their signs and the mob of hopeful passengers glommed together and split in two. The mass of people that surrounded the Sorrento bus was a little daunting. Especially in COVID times. Folks jockeyed for position while we hovered around the periphery and watched.
A woman getting out of the bus stepped down to the street and lost her footing, either spraining or breaking her ankle. Various men surrounded her immediately and carried her out of the throng to further assess her situation as she moaned in pain.
The driver opened his front door and the crowd moved in. Within moments we went from wondering if we should board the bus or get a pricey taxi for COVID reasons, to wondering if we’d even fit if we chose the bus, to feeling grateful for being the last passengers to board. With only standing room left and nowhere to stand past the first few seats, we turned around to face forward, grabbed handholds, and our younger (unvaccinated) son suddenly had what I felt was the best position possible – the front window to look out of and plenty of fresh, circulating air pouring through the front of the bus’s vents. No one hovered over him, I blocked and distanced him from the crowds behind us with my body, and he breathed the least recycled air in that whole vehicle. Shwooo! We realized the added bonus of standing right at the front once the bus started curving around the serpentine road – a view to fend off nausea.
The nighttime Amalfi Coast is not what it looks like in magazine photos taken with a camera’s slow shutter speed or an iPhone’s night mode. It’s just plain dark like anywhere else except for little dots of yellow light. So no, we didn’t get a look at Positano at night. Well, we did. It was black with some lights.
We rolled into Sorrento around 11:30 PM and walked back through the streets toward our AirBnB, passing this crowd around a street performer before ducking down our narrow road hemmed in by tall, yellow apartment buildings.
We opened the door to our apartment, breathed in the cold air conditioning, showered off the sweat and Mediterranean sea salt, packed our things for an early morning departure, and hit the hay on firm, comfortable mattresses.
Walking Italy’s Scenic Towns III: Sorrento
Walking Italy’s Scenic Towns IV: Amalfi to Ravello
Walking Italy’s Scenic Towns VI: The Isle of Capri
I just happened upon the coolest YouTube video series called Prowalk Tours. You can choose various city tours to watch – walking, driving, boating, and aerial drone tours. If you’d like to drive the Amalfi Coast for a few hours to soak up the sights and sounds – no narration, only captions with historical facts – it’s a fantastic way to do it. It literally feels like YOU are driving around seeing it all, and it encapsulates similar experiences we had plus additional footage of places we didn’t see. Here it is.
