It is 5 o’clock in the afternoon as I write this penultimate chapter on our 2009 adventures. We are in Pozzillo in Sicily on the Eastern side about halfway between Messina and Siracusa. On one side of the fisherman’s cottage I look out onto the slopes of Mt Etna, and on the other side onto the Ionian sea which the cottage nestles up to. It is warm but with a lot of cloud which we have seldom lost since we arrived in Italy.
Our stay in Praiano was tempered with fine days and drizzly days. On Monday we set off bright and early to go to Amalfi by bus, but when we got to the bus stop we saw dark brooding thunder clouds so we decided to call it a day and went back home just arriving before the heavens opened. The view is simply stunning from the villa with 180 degree views across the Bay of Sorrento.
We look across Praiano to the Littari Mountains that form an immense ridge down the back of the Sorrentine peninsular, past the lovely mosaic tiled church. Or down over an umbrella pine tree to the blue waters below.
Next day we tried again and the weather was excellent. We caught the bus to Amalfi admiring the way the bus drivers weave in and out of traffic on roads that are no more than one lane wide. It can be chaos when two buses meet especially when cars bank up behind and there is much shouting, waving of arms and hooting until one side or the other back up and the traffic flows again.
On arriving in Amalfi about 8km and 45mins away by bus! we caught another bus up to the heights above Amalfi to the most pictureque village of Ravello where we visited the Villa Ruffolo home to many great movie stars and famous people in the past. The views across the bay are divine.
The houses cling to the cliffs, hundreds of metres about the sea and earth and sky seem entwined as one. The gardens at the villa are very colourful.
We had a lovely pasta lunch in a quiet square in Amalfi, and wandered around with the thousands of tourists, and bought some limoncello, a lemon flavoured liqueur that is the local speciality.
Wednesday was another fine day and so we caught the bus to Sorrento and the train to Herculaneum, which together with Pompeii were buried in Roman times by Mt Vesuvius. Unlike Pompeii Herculaneum was buried by mud (not ash) and it has preserved the city much much better than at Pompeii. You can clearly see three story buildings still intact and even wooden staircases inside.
It is not a large site, but very well restored with the existing town of Ercolano all around it. Most of Herculaneum still lies buried under 20m of mud below the existing town.
There are well displayed boards in English besides the key houses including the Roman fast food shops that served their hot food from amphora inset into the counters.
It drizzled all day on Thursday so we stayed at home reading hoping to go to Capri on Friday. Whilst better on Friday, the sea was quite rough and it was unlikely that the Blue Grotto would be open in such conditions so we hopped on the bus and went to Positano for lunch.
It is surging with tourists and whilst a lovely town clinging to the mountainside, like Taormina in Sicily which we visited today, the huge numbers of tourists have made the experience just one big souvenir shop experience. Still we had lovely pizzas overlooking the harbour and walked back up the hill to catch a bus back to Praiano for our last night.
On Saturday we drove along the Amalfi drive that we had been using the buses before to Salerno and connected with the A3 autostrada for a fast but long run down 550km over mountainous terrain. The road was again a mixture of long tunnels and viaducts. It was almost as if there was a motorway 800m up the side of the Southern Alps from the top of the South Island to the bottom. The traffic was tiresome with black mercedes or black anythings looming up in your rear vision mirror from nowhere impatient to pass and then roaring off. Like no other country we have ever visited have we observed such total disregard to the speed limit and by quite excessive amounts too!
Then suddenly there it was, the Straits of Messina, narrow, wine dark and busy with ferries and freighters going in all directions. We were still 300m above it all as we descended in long tunnels to sea level to catch a ferry across the Strait. A welcome relief from driving followed for 30 minutes as we crossed the 5km Strait and caught the A18 autostrada for the final hours journey to our villa in Pozzillo. We were welcomed by the owner and relaxed on the large terrace a few metres from the sea and the fishing harbour.
Today we drove 20km to Taormina, the jewel of Sicily but ruined by tourists. Taormina has hosted kings and emperors and was originally a Greek settlement. It is 300m above the sea with views to Mt Etna and along the lovely coast. The Greeks built a theatre in a natural bowl on the hillside and it still hosts performances. What a setting!
We stopped at a pasticerria and bought two cannoli, lovely Sicilian cakes that are filled with creamed sweetened ricotta and studded with chocolate pieces and served in a pastry twist.
This week, weather allowing we will visit Mt Etna, Siracusa (Syracuse) and some of the lovely baroque towns of South Eastern Sicily and the great Greek temples of Agrigento. Ciao.
