Fri 10.Jun.2022
Ravello, Italy
Like Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim, this blog has come unstuck in time.
We are going to skip (for now) over Nerja and Toledo in Spain,
and boom right down on
the Amalfi Coast in Italy. Mostly high above Amalfi in Ravello.
Sunset in Salerno.
For some reason, Sorrento is the standard jumping off point for the Amalfi
Coast.
But the roads are winding, and in season they are backed up badly with traffic.
Salerno OTOH is an easy and scenic boat ride from Amalfi and four other ports
on the Costiera Divina.
Amalfi.
Chaotic with far more visitors than a tiny town can really handle, Amalfi still
manages to dazzle.
Doggy Pizza!
Today, I skip Amali's own attractions, and find the bus for the hair-raising
ride up the ridge above town to Ravello.
My digs are a hefty walk up the ridge behind Ravello proper. Useful to get
me my daily exercise whether I feel like it or not.
My apartment is pretty ordinary (though very nice), but the walk up to it - or
down from - passes many exotic dwellings in the vertical terrain.
The nearby ports of Minori and Maiori.
The boat in the picture is coming from Amalfi via Minori,
heading to the dock at Maiori. It will continue to Salerno.
I actually walked down to Minori one day. Arguably a mistake at my age
and condition. The way is mostly stairs - thousand(s?) of them. Not gentle modern
stairs, but steep medieval defensive stairs. Standing up and sitting back down
were pretty painful for a few days afterward.
The first day of getting out of bed painlessly felt
really good!
Detail of the town cemetary. The crypts(?) stack vertically up the mountain
side.
Central Ravello - looking out over the edge of the Piazza Del Duomo.
We'll see more of the piazza and its duomo in the next post.
Villa Rufolo,
Ravello's premier pay-to-get-in tourist attraction.
I paid - no regrets!
A misty evening over the sea.
Next: more Ravello