It was extremely difficult to find something affordable on such short notice, but we found a less than memorable apartment with water views, about 2km from Amalfi.
"The Costiera Amalfitana or the Amalfi Coast is a stretch of coastline between the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno in southern Italy. In 1997, the Amalfi Coast was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a cultural landscape. It is located on the relatively steep southern shore of the Sorrentine Peninsula, leaving little room for rural and agricultural activities."
"The only land route to the Amalfi Coast is the infamous 40 kilometres long Strada Statale 163 which runs along the coastline from the town of Vietri sul Mare in the east to Positano in the west. Thirteen towns are located on the Amalfi Coast, many of them centered on tourism."
Can you see the building perched right on the tip of the rock on the left? That was the closest bar to our apartment. To get there, we had to walk either 100 steps down our rock to the lower road, and then about 1km along the lower road; or about 200 steps up our cliff face to the upper road and 750 m along the upper road. We only went once!
Even Paul found it hard going from our car space up the steps to the right with the suitcases.
"The Amalfi Coast is known for its production of limoncello liqueur as the area is a known cultivator of lemons, which are grown in terraced gardens along the entire coast between February and October. Amalfi is also a known maker of a hand-made thick paper which is called bambagina."
The township of Amalfi, the largest on the coast, is lovely. Although it is very busy - it's the bus terminal for buses along the narrow, winding coastal road - it is not as glitzy as Positano.
Positano is the jewel in the crown, but it doesn't come cheap. The tiny hotel we stayed in on our honeymoon in 1998 is on that hill. Paul remembers 541 steps from our deck to the beach - and of course, 541 steps back again.
Much infrastructure has been added since then. This area was just rocks over which you scrambled to get on a little boat to go from pebbly beach to rocky beach and back again. Now it is a proper paved wharf for the many hundreds of people getting on and off boats every day. In summer you would not be able to move here.
More facilities being built on, above and between the rocks. It makes the water more accessible for swimming - but at a very high price as this would have originally been a public access area. Now it is pay or keep out.
This is the main pedestrian street. It's just gorgeous, covered with bougainvillea, wending its way up the hill.
Goodbye, Positano. Lovely as you are, I don't think we'll be back.
Morning coffee at Maori on our way to access the autostrada for the 60km to Pompeii.
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