Sorrento to Amalfi

Thursday 4th February
Sorrento to Amalfi
Boy, were we glad that we had hired a car for this stretch of coastline! Ed E, if you are reading this, we know we are pathetic but put it down to age. We left Sorrento and had a glorious drive around the Amalfi coast. Anyone who has been here knows already that it is very beautiful and Alec took so many photos that we now have just had to label them Amalfi coast 1, Amalfi 2 etc etc, as can’t remember where any of them were. We fully intended to have lunch in Positano but there was not an inch of space to park and everywhere was shut. In the end we found a little bar to have a break in, sat in the sunshine and ate our picnic. Rather curiously this lunchtime bar closed from 1-3.00 which you would think might be a good time to eat lunch. However it suited us as we had bought a sandwich with us so didn’t feel at all embarrassed by eating it outside their bar after they had gone home.

Looking north from Sorrento.

Amalfi B&B middle right.

Roadside fruit and veg - whopping great lemons!

The real Amalfi coastline!

We had booked in to a small hotel in Amalfi where we have eaten the best food of our entire trip so far. Rina, the lovely lady who owns it also runs cookery courses and is an expert on anything from this area having been born and bred here. The little hotel is up at least 200 steps from the road so we had to take a deep breath and go up. Luckily she sent someone done to carry our bags. We struggle to carry our panniers ourselves but this bloke just put all of them on his shoulders and set off at a jog. We had a job to keep up carrying nothing and we think we are reasonably fit! She cooked us an absolute feast of Almafian food which consisted of lots of antipasti, marinated anchovies, aubergines, artichokes and many other veg from her garden. Afterwards, a huge bowl of pasta with prawns and courgettes, then more anchovies deep fried with smoked mozzarella, then cake and ice cream, THEN insisted we try her home made limoncello! She has 8 hectares of mixed orchards of olives, citrus fruits, vegetables and even the wine was from her harvest. Having taken no exercise at all we waddled upstairs to bed, replete. We felt reasonably secure that we could call on her husband who is a Dr (heart specialist) if we felt untoward in the middle of the night!