You are here: Italy 2016 blog --> April 27

Previously: April 26: Arrival in Amalfi

April 27th: Ravello loop

Today was our first breakfast at the hotel, and it was a pleasant surprise. A typical Italian breakfast is cornetti sweetened croissants) and coffee, but the Hotel Residence actually had a small hot buffet (eggs, bacon, unimpressive hotdoggy sausage), in addition to some of the most delicious cornetti I’ve ever had, and had “American” coffee, which is to say good Italian coffee, but with large cups. Paradisio, and I heard the angels singing! Shoshanna ended breakfast with a cappucino; I ended (after two cups of the good stuff) with an espresso, which was also good, but was the traditional thimble-sized cup of good coffee. Some day I will ask for six espressos in a really large cup just to see the look of shock on their face. Meanwhile, here’s a look at the breakfast room:

Today’s plan was to hike east along the shore and go a long distance uphill to Ravello, then do a loop into the countryside in the Valle dei Mulins (valley of the mills). The basic walk is supposed to take about 4.5 hours, with an extension of about an hour if you take a certain side trip. We ended up being out for 6+ hours, including a couple of significant pauses. The route starts by heading east along the shore towards Altrani. The forecast was calling for rain most of the day, but it turned out mostly sunny, with only an occasional raindrop until nearly the end of the walk. Here’s one of the beautiful vistas on our way to start of the really steep part (note the rain missing us and drenching the background mountains instead):

So remember the part from yesterday about how much I love mountains and cliffs? More so, it turns out, when they can be admired from a safe distance and from sea level; less so when I have to haul my ass up one of them. The 360-m vertical ascent (= about 1150 feet) that I mentioned yesterday started our morning walk as 2+ hours of stair-climbing at a frequently steep angle, with very few horizontal respites. For example, here’s a representative stairway:

Yeah, two hours of that. I like cliffs less etc. etc. Needless to say, we took many opportunities to “admire the view” -- not to catch our breath, and shame on you for even suggesting such a thing. For example:

Writing this 6+ hours later, at the end of our day’s hike, feet pleasantly achey and legs not yet seized up, I’m glad to have done it, but we’ll see if I can still walk tomorrow.

Ravello makes a pleasant stopping point after the uphill portion because it has a lovely piazza flanked by towering Mediterranean pines -- Shoshanna calls them umbrella trees because they have no branches for 50 feet and then, suddenly, this upward spray of foliage. The piazza looks down into a steepsided valley that runs downslope into Altrani, the town just east of Amalfi, but separated from it by a tall ridge. We stopped in Ravello for a bathroom break and a beer, which was very refreshing after leaving most of my body’s water on the stairs behind us. Here’s one of the nicer shots from the piazza:

The Ravello church was nothing special, but had a way over-the-top pulpit covered with lovely tile mosaics. Here’s a closeup of one of the nicer mosaics:

From Ravello, we wended our way down yet another series of stairs on our way to Pontrone, a small and pleasant village that marked the branching point where we had several options for returning home. Here’s an example of the valley below Ravello and on the road to Pontrone:

The last hour or so of our hike was through the Valle dei Muline, which is a steepsided valley well-endowed with running water that drains from the surrounding peaks, and thus well suited for various kinds of water-powered mill. They’re now all abandoned and fallen into ruin, presumably because the advent of electricity made it cheaper to mill things in more accessible terrain without having to rely on anything as bothersome as water. The ruins are very atmospheric, and the forest is lovely:

Just before the downward course on the final stretch of the way home, beside a rushing waterfall, we met a group of Danish tourists. Since we wanted to walk alone, we decided to sit a spell and let them get ahead of us. I munched an orange, and because Shoshanna was getting cold, I loaned her my jacket. It didn’t fit very well, but was very cute:

Reminded me a lot of the days when we had a Boston–Montreal commuter romance. When I used to drive down to Boston, I’d stop in the White Mountains (NH), hike half an hour into the woods, have my lunch beside a stream, then hike back to the car and resume my drive.

Near the bottom of the forested stretch, there was a pleasant little stone house where a local organic farmer has set up shop to flog her wares. One of the specialities is limone caldo con miele, which is hot, fresh-pressed lemon juice with a little honey. (In the Amalfi area, you can’t shake a stick without hitting a lemon tree. So there’s lemon products everywhere.) We decided to treat ourself, particularly since it had just started raining seriously. We had a nice break, then donned our rain tops and bottoms and made the final walk back into Amalfi amidst a persistent but gentle rain.

As it’s our 13th anniversary today, we briefly pondered going to a slightly ritzier restaurant for dinner, but Shoshanna had a craving for swordfish/eggplant (pescespade/manzana) ravioli, and they didn’t have any. So we wandered along the main drag until we found a place that had it, and that was her choice. I had gnocchi in a tomato cream sauce as my primi, and grilled swordfish as my secondi. (Italian meals tend to be divided into antipasti before the meal, a first course called the primi, and a second course called the secondi, with side dishes called contorni if you’re really hungry.) Needless to say, Shoshanna helped out with both. For dessert, a mix of milk chocolate and dark chocolate gelato, shared as we wandered along the water to the western end of Amalfi, which perches even more precariously on even sheerer cliffs than the eastern end. It was late enough and dark enough that the lights were just coming on, and starting to get quite lovely. Tomorrow night I’ll try to remember to bring the camera.

Apr. 28: Valle delle Ferriere

©2004–2024 Geoffrey Hart. All rights reserved.