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| Grumento Nova from Grumentum |
Woke up to Easter Sunday, though to our great surprise there appeared to be nothing special to mark it. We had thought that spending Easter Sunday in a Catholic town would be quite an experience, with constant bells and noise and processions and whatever, but zip, nothing, nada. And what’s worse is that we have no Easter eggs!
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| Herculean Way, Grumentum |
The day started well with a good explore of Grumento Nova, some photo-taking as usual for the book, and then down below the village to the old Roman settlement of Grumentum. This was a decent size town 2000 years ago, and there is a theatre, forum, houses and an amphitheatre remaining to explore, together with a good museum. Surprising to us, it was open on Easter Sunday.
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| Passegiata in Viggiano |
Across the valley to Viggiano where musicians came out to NZ from, and at last some evidence of Easter. Town was packed with people in their Sunday best presumably having been to a service, and now just enjoying each other’s company in the street and the bars. You should have seen the teen girls in their short skirts or skin-tight jeans and super-high heels parading about.
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| Absurd lemon, Amalfi Coast |
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| Lemon groves |
We had hoped to get back out to the coast, perhaps a little past Salerno along the Amalfi Coast towards Positano. What we hadn’t counted on was the Easter holiday, worsened by Monday being another holiday. We got to the coast earlier than expected in almost zero traffic so decided to try to stay in Positano. The road along the coast is certainly tight and vertical drops off to the sea, but compared to Cinque Terre and Liguria it really wasn’t too bad. Constant traffic, the odd delay while cars have to back up to let buses past, and frequent passing with 10cm clearance each side. You wouldn’t want to be driving a big Merc. Heaps of young couples on scooters, and many insane bikers passing on blind corners.
The views are great, though not any better than the Cinque Terre. There are some amazing lemons grown here – some would weigh several kilos and be 25cm long. We intended to buy one and photograph it next to our stolen airline mini gin bottle for a laugh, but they get more expensive per kilo as they get bigger, and a decent size one costs a small fortune.
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| Fuore, Amalfi Coast |
The parking was frightful. Every space from Salerno to Positano (40km) and beyond seemed to be full, and plenty of illegal spaces, but we did manage the odd photo stop including one amazing little inlet. We were still hoping to stay in Positano, but were losing hope when we saw the cars everywhere. We couldn’t find a park until at least a kilometre past Positano, so parked up and walked back – not a fun job with the roads being so narrow and traffic constant. No luck at the hostel we tried, and he said the whole town was full but ‘a mate might have somewhere’, but he didn’t. On that basis, and the impossibility of parking, we threw in the towel and we decided to try Sorrento instead. A little sad to not be able to walk around Positano, but it was a bunfight of people, and was getting too late to not have a place to stay for the night. The best view of it is the first view as you approach, but when you get into it, it feels a bit tawdry. Our next try was a B&B toward Sorrento, but he said he was full, and Sorrento was full, and everyone near him was full! 7pm by now, and we were beginning to wonder if we’d end up sleeping the night in the car, and in a Fiat Panda that wouldn’t be easy. Headed further inland to the first of our emigrant towns, and the second place had room. Woohoo!
Dinner at a local ristorante, where we were yet again amazed how loud Americans can be. Why do they need to be like that?
