And the sun shone
After a couple of days of grey skies and brisk wind, we woke today to sunshine and blue sky, and everything looks better against a backdrop of blue. We’d got up early to catch the 0840 am ferry to Amalfi – a 35 minute journey
Straight off the boat and into a cafe for coffee and cakes for breakfast in the ever warming sun – delicious – before heading into the town to see the basilica and amble up the pretty, narrow street, taking in the ambience of the the town.
We then wondered along the road to the neighbouring town of Artrani, and this was a real gem. Chilled, beautiful, and largely devoid of tourists, we had a good explore,
and discovered that Escher had lived here in his twenties, and you could see how the town, and the staircases in particular, had inspired his work.
We then sat basking in the sunshine, looking out to sea. I could resist its pull no longer, hitched up my trousers and headed for a paddle. The sea was cold, but oh so refreshing on my poor feet.
We walked the 10 minutes back to Amalfi to get some fried vegatables for lunch (delicious)
but by now Amalfi had become a seething throng of humanity – overcrowded and any charm hidden beneath the swarms of tourists (of which, I admit, we were part) so we decided to escape, first by getting a bus up to Ravello, but the longer we waited for the bus, the more people joined us in the queue and it became obvious we would be swapping one over crowded tourist trap for another, so we cut our losses and headed back to Salerno and joined the townsfolk sat at the beach, enjoying relative calm, each others company and a couple of beers.
That evening we headed back out to eat, town was much busier, it being Saturday night – and Easter Saturday at that – we settled on an Osteria in the old town, the food was delicious, this starter of cheese and bacon wrapped in cabbage leaves being a particular treat.
