Dangers of la Costiera Amalfitana

25th Arpil

There are many dangers which await the unitiated traveller to the Amalfi. Here are some of the more serious:
1. Death by 1000 steps – It may seem farfetched that so many villages are connected by so many steps, but I can attest to the fact that there are 1003 steps down from Pontone, a hanging village, to Amalfi, on the coast. Pontone is certainly not the highest village on the coastline.
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Left: If you look closely on the left hand side of the picture, just above the netting, you might be able to make out Mike on the path down the mountain to Amalfi. Right: Amalfi with the tower at Pontone on the ridge above.
Mike and I walked here yesterday, in the Valle die Mulini, which explores a narrow valley inland of Amalfi, and is the site of a series of paper mills built by the fascisti. It is a beautiful area of forest, waterfalls and ruined buildings. As it was Independence Day, a national public holiday, there were lots of Italian families out walking. We even passed one group who had one guy playing a tamborine while others sang. Just don’t have an accident on the trail because the ambulance isn’t going to rescue you any time soon. M has nicknamed our walks the Amalfi boot camps.
 


The cool Valle dei Mulini
2. Death by rockfall, avalanche, or falling off a cliff. Any of these is a possibility given the terrain. The whole coast is composed of weathered limestone cliffs, capes and mountains. Little villages cling to the side of the mountains, above villages tucked into small coves along the coast. A network of mule tracks still connects the villages with the inland and the coast. And if you don’t believe that living here can be dangerous, just give some thought to the people of Amalfi, who saw most of their town of 70,000 drop off into the sea after an earthquake.
 
The cliffside Belvedere at Ravello, and the cliffside walk down to Positano.
3. Death by bus. You might think that bus travel is safe. Think again and choose your bus seat (if you are lucky enough to get a seat that is) wisely. If you are not run over by a bus as you try to cross the road; or run over as you try to use the road as your footpath (there being no other footpath); or even knocked down by a bus on a proper footpath (as nearly happened to me in Naples as a bus was manoeuvring); you run the risk of death on the bus depending on the skill of your bus driver, the madness of other drivers on the road, and the luck or otherwise, of meeting another bus on a blind corner, with cars parked on the side of the road, cliff dropping sheer to the sea on one side and rock wall on the other. You may either be smeared into a rock wall, sheered off by an oncoming bus, or literally fall off a cliff into the sea.
Yesterday, our bus met another bus coming round a blind curve, with a cliff drop to the sea on one side and an ancient rock wall on the other. Both buses stopped, wound down the windows and to the sound of “a destra”, “a sinistre”, “avanti”, e “NON”, they inched past each other, eventually even pulling in their side mirrors, as cars behind tooted their horns, or backed up, and the cyclists and motocicli wove around both cars and buses. When both buses were safely past each other, our whole bus broke into spontaneous applause (or maybe it was just the relieved tourists who clapped).
4. Death by chocolate – if all else fails, eat pastries for breakfast every morning, especially ones with chocolate.
  
Breakfast on the terrace at Montepertuso, in our B&B overlooking Positano.