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Thursday, 28 June. After breakfast, we checked out of our hotel. (The bill was $18 for 3 nights, including 6 breakfasts & 2 dinners.) It was another bright, sunny day and still very hot. We were on our way to Positano and the Amalfi Drive. Positano had been one of the “in” places for the “glitterati” for the last decade. Less than three months earlier, Jane Mansfield and her family had been here (even though March is hardly the time for beaches, even in Italy). We drove across the Sorrento Peninsula on a very hilly road to the southern coast road. It was only about 10 miles to Positano, but it took us about 30 minutes to get there. We discovered that the coast road did not actually go into the town, but clung to the mountains behind it as Positano itself spilled down from the road to the sea. Darrell was confused about how to drive into the town, but he took a guess and headed down the hill on a narrow street, buildings crowding in on both sides of us, with no idea where we were supposed to go. Because of the steep hill, the car kept trying to go faster than we wanted it to. Suddenly there were no more buildings. We had reached the beach! (We know this is no longer possible, but we really did it in 1962.) We managed to stop just as we passed the last building, a rather large seafood restaurant. Darrell backed up a bit so he could get into a parking area by the restaurant. People stared at our huge 1953 Pontiac station wagon, so out of place in this chic and upscale town, but we casually got out like we knew what we were doing. We walked out onto the beach and looked back up at Positano, spread across the mountain like a huge fan. We planned to have lunch here, so that gave us about two hours to explore. We headed up a narrow lane and wandered through many twists and turns, confident that we could find our way back simply by going downhill. Just before noon we returned to the beach, looking for a restaurant for lunch. We chose the Buco di Bacca (Mouth of Bacchus) primarily because we could get a table right by the window overlooking the beach. We could tell that it was expensive, but we did not know that this was both a famous and historic restaurant, dating back to 1916. The atmosphere was quite formal, too. We only had the pasta course (risotto with seafood), so our bill was only about $6.00. We found our way out of the maze of streets without too much trouble and were soon back on the Amalfi Drive headed east. The original road was carved out of the side of the coastal mountains by the Romans. It follows each mountain ridge to its tip, and then loops each inlet between the ridges. To anyone in a vehicle on the road, it is a constant game of peek-a-boo, from a beautiful vista of miles of stony fingers jutting into the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the dark mountain walls blocking out everything but a single inlet. Fortunately, there was almost no traffic, and we were able to cover the 12 miles to Amalfi very quickly. Amalfi was once a major maritime power, competing with Genoa and Pisa, but a series of reverses beginning in the 12th century had already reduced it to a local power. The final blow was a tsunami that destroyed the port in 1343. We only intended to spend a couple of hours here. We drove directly to Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) to see Saint Andrew Cathedral and its adjoining cloister. The Cathedral dates to the 9th century, but the unique Arab-Norman facade was rebuilt in the late 19th century. The adjacent Chiostro del Paradiso (1268), combining Arab and Romanesque styles, was probably the most beautiful cloister we had ever seen. By now it was 2:30. We also wanted to visit Ravello, a small town on the mountain overlooking Amalfi. Ravello was another favorite of the “glitterati.” (The First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, spent lengthy holiday there only a few weeks after our visit.) The steep climb on a twisty road was quite a challenge for our big Pontiac. We went directly to the Arab-style Villa Rufolo (1270), whose gardens were said to offer spectacular views of Amalfi and the coast. We were shocked to find that the vantage point we sought was closed to the public. It was completely covered by a huge platform being set up for the annual Wagner music festival. (Back in 1953, the town fathers had decided to use the historical fact of an 1880 visit to Ravello by composer Richard Wagner as a way to promote tourism. The annual Ravello Musical Festival, popularly called the Wagner Festival, succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.) There was still plenty to see. The Villa itself was very interesting and we toured the interior. Also, there were gardens that we were allowed to visit. The narrow streets of Ravello were not the place for our station wagon, and we decided to proceed directly to Paestum, our destination for the night. Traffic was light until we got to Salerno. In September 1943 the city had been the site of a large Allied amphibious landing that led to massive casualties. Now it was a fairly large city (pop.280,000) with no bypass, so we had to contend with the usual big city congestion. Even so, we got to Paestum before 5:00 p.m. We found a rather run down hotel right across the street from the ruins and checked in. During the last couple day’s, our Pontiac’s transmission had been acting up again (failing to shift), and we were concerned that we might have trouble driving back to Verona. Darrell asked at the hotel desk if there was an auto mechanic nearby. It turned out that there was a garage just a couple blocks away on the same street. Darrell quickly drove there and found they were still open. Of course, they were not about to work on the transmission of a big American car, but Darrell got them to agree to change the transmission fluid the next day. Darrell left the car with them and walked back to the hotel. We had dinner there and went to bed early. | ||