Escapade: Costiera Amalfitana And The Towns Of Amalfi, Positano & Sorrento

Costiera Amalfitana

Amalfi Town

Positano

Sorrento

Escapade: Part V

Città vuota

No, it should be Lonely Town, not a song of a small town girl in a lonely world

Saturday, 4 May 2013

I finished my packing this morning and went for breakfast. The Canadian elderly couple who slept in the room next to mine told me they were going to Paestum, an archaeological site south of Salerno. I had checked the train times the night before and the train times were not frequent at all. They are like these:

Salerno-Paestum 0804-0839, 0830-0911, 0921-0959, 1339-1420...; and

Paestum-Salerno 1116-1150, 1406-1439, 1441-1517, 1522-1549, 1541-1618, 1801-1846.

So if you take the 0921 train, do you take the 1116 train back or the 1406 train? Whatever are you going to do there for 2+ hours? I decided to play it by ear.

As I only decided while having breakfast that I would go to Paestum that morning itself instead of in the afternoon, I hurriedly finished my breakfast and took my bags out into the hall. Then I rushed off to the train station, walking as fast as my vertically-challenged legs could take me. I arrived at the station with 5 minutes to spare but a glance at the screen told me the train was delayed by 5 minutes so I had 10 minutes to make the train after all. Phew. Although of course it also meant that my time in Paestum had been reduced by 5 minutes, should I decide to take the 1116 train back to Salerno. The train ticket cost €3.30 one way.

When you get down at Paestum, exit the station and walk towards the arch and walk on for about 700 metres. The site will be in front of you and you need to turn right and buy your ticket at the museum.

I made up my mind that I wouldn’t rush through the site and just enjoy it. I decided I would take the bus back to Salerno. No way was I going to wait for the next train out at 1406. See, Paestum is not as large as say, Pompeii, and you should be able to cover it in 90 minutes or so.

In the flower-filled meadows of Paestum are three perfectly preserved temples: the Temples of Athena, Hera and Neptune. Paestum began as Poseidonia, the city of Neptune or Poseidon, a colony found by the Greeks in the sixth century B.C. and taken by the Romans in the third century B.C.

If you’re going to take the bus back to Salerno, walk out of the site and walk towards the museum. Walk past the museum and on for another 400 metres (? I’m not good at measuring distance like this) until you come to an intersection. About 5 metres from the intersection is the bus stop back to Salerno. I asked around just to be safe and when I was sure that I had the right bus stop, sat down to wait. The girl at the bar opposite the bus stop told me the bus comes on an hourly basis. Fortunately for me, I waited only 10 minutes before the bus arrived. The fare back was €2.80.

It took 45 minutes to reach Salerno although when we entered the city, we hit the Saturday lunchtime traffic so the bus was inching its way slowly. It took another 15 minutes before we reached the train station. I walked back to my B&B, stopping for a slice of pizza (lunch). I also bought a huge vegetable pastry for dinner and breakfast the following morning.

Italians here observed the same siesta hours as the Spaniards so I returned to the B&B to rest myself too.

The Canadian couple came back just before 3 and we sat in the living room and chatted with each other. It was fun to be able to talk to someone else in English. In Galway, the hostel I stayed at had a lot of Spanish and French backpackers but they were all travelling in their own groups and they stuck to each other tight, hardly making the effort to talk to other travellers. So to be able to converse with them was such a pleasure.

I left at 7:30 pm and bade them goodbye. I had a night train to catch. I had bought the ticket online for a berth a few weeks back. And guess what, first the electronic board showed the train would depart from one platform but when I came out of the washroom, it showed a different platform instead! So I had to drag my bag down the stairs and up the stairs to the other platform. FFS. Then when the train came, I had to go down and up again because I went to wrong coach (the conductor said it was easier for me to get down and walk on the platform to my coach than to walk between the coaches). I was so exhausted from all that climbing up and down that I almost fell off the train after hauling my bag up. Luckily, a girl managed to grab my hands and pulled me to safety. Then there was some problem with the door: you need superhuman strength to twist the knob to lock it and then summon your strength again if you want to open it. Despite feeling tired and sleepy, I couldn’t sleep well. Of course. Nothing new there.

Sunday, 5 May 2013

We pulled into Milano Centrale (the Italians pronounce it Chin-tra-lay. They pronounce Barcelona as Bar-chee-lona) ahead of schedule. I had earlier utilised the tap in the train to brush my teeth and wash my face and a good thing too. I bought return tickets to Mendrisio and then went to store my bag at the left luggage. Today was shopping day! The return ticket to Mendrisio cost €15.

The lady at the ticket office sold me the 0810 train ticket. The trip would only take slightly more than an hour, meaning I would reach Mendrisio by 0915 while Foxtown would only open at 11. Oh well, at least it was a direct train and I wouldn’t need to change trains at Chiasso.

The ticket office at Mendrisio was closed on Sunday so I couldn’t wait in the waiting room. I didn’t feel like exploring the town centre so I spent the time reading my novel. I stopped reading at 1050 and walked to Foxtown. I hadn't been there in years and was excited to visit it again after all this time.

There were some free WiFi spots in the centre so I spent some time checking my tweets in between shops. I tried on some clothes but most didn’t fit me well. I managed to get some bargains though. Alhamdulillah.

I decided to return back to Milan earlier and checked the train schedules online. Took the 1648 train back to Milan, reached Milano Centrale at 1750 and rushed off to get my bag from the left luggage to make the 1805 bus to Bergamo Airport. It wasn’t as if I loved to spend time in airports but I could visit Orio Centre near the airport, get some dinner and rest there. There were some Juventus fans on the road honking their cars and flying their club flag on the streets.

Alas, it turned out that it rained earlier in Milan and was threatening to rain again. I dozed off in the bus and was not happy when I woke to find that it was raining in Bergamo. It was heavy enough to make one wet and I didn’t want to lug my bag in the rain getting unnecessarily wet. So in the end, I spent a longer time at the airport than I would have liked. And of course I couldn’t sleep a wink that night. Airports are the worst with their bright lights and noises.

To be continued

Escapade: Part IV

We Built This City

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Woke up for morning prayers. Sensed something was unusual so I poked my head out and guess what, it was raining! I had never associated Napoli with rain before so was surprised to discover it actually did rain in the city. Of course it does but Italy always seems sunny to me.

The rain had stopped by the time I got up again. I left after breakfast and left my luggage in the hall. Walked to the nearby Circumvesuviana station at Piazza Nolana and waited for the next train out to Sorrento. The train schedule was still affected by the strike of the previous day because we had to wait a bit before the next train departure flashed across the screens.

It was about a 38-minute ride before we reached Pompeii Scavi Villa Misteri station. This is where you get down for the Pompeii ruins. There were a few restaurants and stalls selling mainly lemons and limoncella (lemon liqueur) along the way to the main entrance. And there were already a lot of people there!

I spent close to three hours at Pompeii. Evidently it was a bigger town compared to Ercolano (Ercolano was more of a small town) with a few temples, bathhouses, villas and houses within its walls. It was getting hot very quickly out there so a word of advice if you’re heading there: bring a brolly or wear a hat, bring water, wear sunblock and wear comfortable flat footwear.

I returned back to Napoli (had to wait longer than scheduled for the train) and went to have lunch at a restaurant recommended by Francesca. As Napoli is the birthplace of pizza, I decided to have pizza. It was huge and I didn’t manage to finish it because it was too big a portion for me and because I didn’t like it. It was too salty for me.

I went back to the B&B and waited until 4 pm to get my bag (the person manning it would only be back then). After collecting my bag, I walked to the train station for the next train out to Salerno. If you bought the 3-day Campania Artecard, it includes the local public transportation in the region so I didn’t have to buy a separate train ticket. After the Circumvesuviana train, the train to Salerno was so much cleaner and faster too.

It took me 30 minutes to walk to my B&B from the station. The main route was one cobbled street linking to another and I cringed at the damage I imagined it caused to the wheels of my trolley bag. Then I had to ask for directions to the B&B as it was situated around a small alley. And guess what: this time, the B&B was on the third floor. In a building with no lift too. Oh joy...

After checking in and paying for the two nights I would be staying there, I went to my room to rest. I ventured out again after 6 pm and walked around the vicinity before returning just after nightfall. Again, I was so happy I chose to stay there as the B&B was so charmingly decorated. There are only four rooms, all en-suite. The girl who runs it is a great baker because she left cakes she made herself at the dining table. And just like the Napoli B&B, you are free to help yourself to anything from the food table, fridge and dining table.

Now, you may ask, why did I stay in Salerno? Good question. I had searched for lodgings in Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi and the lodgings there are not cheap. Not cheap at all for a single traveller. Positano is a vertical town; this means you have to climb up and down hills with your bag. No way. Amalfi is hilly too with cobbled streets. Bad for my trolley bag. Sorrento is a big city in comparison to these two but the prices put me off. Finally I stumbled on this and I was sold to stay in Salerno. And Alhamdulillah, I managed to find a very reasonable B&B too. Not just reasonably priced but also centrally located and tastefully and charmingly decorated too.

Friday, 2 May 2013

I woke up for prayers then again after 7. Left after breakfast and made my way to Piazza XXIV Maggio where the girl said the bus to Amalfi leaves from. I had printed the bus schedules earlier on and was hoping to get the 10 am bus out. Good thing I decided to check with a lady at a nearby news kiosk who told me that the bus didn’t come that way anymore. She told me to wait for the bus near the post office down the street. I hurried off as it was close to 10 am. Found the big post office and asked at another news kiosk. The guy said he didn’t speak English but understood me enough to point me to the stop. Phew!

Costiera Amalfitana or the Amalfi Coast is Italy’s most beautiful stretch of coastline and is deservedly a UNESCO World Heritage Site for natural scenery. We drove right along the narrow coast zig-zagging along and around winding hills and towering cliffs and through idyllic villages tumbling to the sea. Pastel-painted houses and steeply terraced fields of olives and lemons on one side and the sea on the other. Sit on the left side of the bus for the magnificent view if you’re heading to Amalfi from Salerno. And riding the bus has its advantages: you don’t have to worry about navigating your car, you can just enjoy the view and your viewpoint is above the traffic. We passed a few towns before reaching Amalfi 75 minutes later: Vietri Sul Mare, Cetara, Maiori, Minori and Atrani, just to name a few. The next bus out was at 11:30 and the one after that was at 12:15. I decided to take the 12:15 bus out as I wanted to explore the town centre first.

Well, Amalfi is a charming lovely town (in its day, it was one of Italy’s four maritime republics - with Venice, Pisa and Genoa) and so is Positano, the next town I stopped at, 40 minutes away from Amalfi. We got down at the stop announced by the driver (I remember feeling surprised and wondering why he had dropped us there. Then only I realised that the town is vertical and you need to walk up and down) and from there, you get the most gorgeous picturesque view of the town beyond. To get to the town centre, you need to walk down the hill. I remember thinking ‘This will be hell climbing back up’ and yet I still walked down and down. It is a vertical town alright. The shops sell about the same things as a lot of shops along the Amalfi Coast sell: limoncello and lemon-based beauty products, and ceramic, the two important products of that part of southern Italy. Oh, and also the local chillies. I would never have associated chillies with Italy.

I didn’t linger long in Positano as I planned to continue on to Sorrento. I remember back in school, we were taught the song Come Back to Sorrento and man, I was not going to leave until I had visited Sorrento. It took an hour to reach Sorrento from Positano.

As mentioned before, Sorrento is a much bigger town than either Amalfi or Positano and I had fun walking along its streets. It was hot afternoon though and I joined other tourists traipsing in the alleys full of shops selling ceramics and other local souvenirs. I left at 4 pm and rode the bus all the way to Amalfi. There, I had to wait for the 6 pm bus back to Salerno. My, it was a full bus back to Salerno (and no wonder as it operated on an hourly basis), so full that some passengers had to stand. I sat on the right-hand side of the bus so that I could enjoy the view of the sea. It was a scary feeling at times though as I felt the driver drove too close to the boundary and I could see the deep plunge into the sea. Even the lady in front was shrieking at almost every sharp turn so it wasn’t just me.

We reached Salerno at 7:15 pm and I rushed back to perform prayers before venturing out again to find dinner. I also managed to buy some ceramic bowls at much lower cost than at Amalfi, Positano or Sorrento.

To be continued