Day 26: Amalfi Coast, Italy

Set of with some trepidation to drive the coast road. We’ve had a lot of people tell us how harrowing this can be due to the narrow road, sheer cliffs and tour buses. It turned out that I was not so that bad at all, or maybe we are just getting into the groove of driving Italian. The atmosphere was not as good as we had hoped as it was quite smoggy due to local burning off and no wind but the scenery was just as breath taking as expected. We will definitely return on our last day if the conditions improve so we can see it at its full beauty under a blue sky.

The road was certainly narrow, very windy, extremely steep and two-way but they have build-up the drop side of the road which gives drivers a certain degree of comfort that they will not go over the side. All the way along the road there are homes and restaurants on either side of the both above and below and there are even swimming pools built way down the cliff on platforms! How ever do they build homes and swimming pools in cliffs and how do they get furniture in them????

Despite the narrowness of the road people park their cars anywhere: on both sides of the road and in either direction. After we stopped at on lookout we noted that all 12 cars we walked past on the way back to ours had dents in them!

Stopped at a lovely restaurant with a great view for lunch and from there it was onto Positano and Amalfi. Positano was the lovelier of the two but Amalfi had a magnificent basilica.

Turned around at dusk and drove back to Sorrento to experience the sun set into the sea and the townships turn on their lights - beautiful. On the way back had the experience of watching 2 tour buses going in opposite direction try to pass each other on one of the bends in the narrow road. There was a good deal of backing up and maneuvering with the resulting back up and jostling of traffic.

Slid into bed after a long deep bath – what a life!