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Previously: April 28: Valle delle Ferriere

April 29th: Amalfi to Praiano

Today was going to be another long hike -- more than 5 hours, plus a diversion because recent heavy rains before our arrival triggered a landslide that wiped out a large chunk of the path we would have been taking. (Kudos to On Foot Holidays, since they were keeping track of local conditions and sent us an update a few days before we left with an alternate itinerary sketched out.) Being a little footsore, I suggested we cut out the first part of the trip, and Shoshanna agreed, so we took a bus for about half an hour to the eastern end of Agerola, at the convent of Santa Rosa. That trimmed about an hour and a half off the day’s walk, for which I was very grateful by the end of the day. (It’s getting warm, reaching around 20°C by mid-day.

We started the day with a relatively easy hike along the road through the Conca dei Marini area, starting with Yet Another Set of Stairs. Fortunately, this was the worst part of the day’s climb. The stairs took us uphill, heading north of the area that was closed by the landslide. Here’s the start of our walk:

The stairs took us up to a secondary road, which led directly away from the coast, into another steep valley that our maps labeled “Pino”. At the northernmost point in the diversion, a bridge crossed the valley and let us head back down towards the coast on the western side of the valley, on the far side of the landslide: basically, we took a detour in the shape of a large inverted V up north and then back south again for about 2 hours. This part of the walk was fairly easy, as it led along a secondary road that hosted all the coastal traffic that would otherwise have gone directly to western Agerola and eventually to Praiano. Here’s the bridge across the ravine at the farthest point in our detour:

At the end of the V, we ended up in Sant’Elia, where we had a choice of two routes to Praiano. One was a fairly straightforward route along the coast. The more interesting option was described as “not for those with vertigo problems”, so it was a no-brainer we’d take that route. The route led us into the valley of Furore, mostly contouring on a narrow path that led across the steep hillsides, with steep slopes above and below. The first half of the path was overgrown by tall (head-high) grass on the uphill side, and tended to be less than 2 feet wide. The downhill side wasn’t too intimidating, as it was also usually heavily vegetated, and not nearly so vertiginous as it could have been. But still... every so often the vegetation peeled away and you could see a steep descent to the valley floor. If you don’t watch where you’re stepping, you could easily step off the path and go for a brief plummet several hundred feet to the valley floor. Here’s a typical part of the path:

The path was a nice mixture of sun and shade, but heavier on the sun, so we both baked a bit. By the time we arrived at Praiano, we were parched. Fortunately, the last couple kilometres were along the Via Costantinopoli, a steep-walled alley beside the houses in eastern Praiano, a couple hundred feet above the main road. Nice and shady, and blessedly flat. Also, since this is the start of the Sentieri deglie Dei (“trail of the gods”), there were lots of beautiful wall tiles illustrating various Greek and Roman gods and legends. Here’s one of Odysseus and Polyphemus:

Also, beautiful views of the coast and the gleaming tiled dome of Praiano’s church:

This was the first time that the On Foot Holidays directions led us astray: the pensione that was supposed to be the turning point where we’d take the stairs downhill seems to have gone out of business, so we walked a few hundred feet past where we should have turned before realizing something was wrong. (As it turned out, this led us along the start of the trail we’ll take to start tomorrow’s hike. Oh joy: another couple hundred feet of stairs to begin our day! The big disadvantage of hiking in mountains and steep terrain that rise above a coast is that you have to climb to reach the trail each day.)

Fortunately, we met a young couple as we were retracing our steps, and my Italian was good enough to get across what we were looking for and get understandable directions in return. So we finally made it downhill, following stairs that wove their way downhill among the houses, eventually reaching the main street. Conveniently, we found ourselves only a few doors down from the local pub/grocery store. So we paused for a couple very refreshing glasses of beer and a coffee gelati for the road. Then through town to the western ‘burbs, where our hotel is located.

Busy ogling the gorgeous coastal scenery, we walked right past our hotel. Which, in our defense, was easy enough to miss: the front is covered in greenery, and we were walking into the sun, so the sign is easily missed. Fortunately, we had a street address, so it was quickly clear we’d gone too far, and we backtracked quickly enough. Hotel Pellegrino is lovely, and our host took us straight to our room for showers before a “welcome drink”. (Which probably isn’t gratis, but it was still well appreciated. More in a moment...) Our room has a lovely shady balcony that looks down over the road and back towards Praiano. It’s a bit noisy because it’s on the main road, but the view compensates:

“Welcome drinks” was a huge glass of wine for Shoshanna and a large pot of coffee for me, accompanied by a bowl of pistachios and a plate of bruschetta with fresh basil, tomatoes, and cheese. We sat and ate and drank on the hotel’s main terrace, shady and lovely and with a great view of the coast and Praiano.

Dinner tonight will probably be in the hotel, since we’re tired and can’t muster the energy to walk into town and back again.

April 30: Praiano to Positano

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