Thu, 2 Oct - The road to Positsano (not terribly different from the road to perdition)

Today can only be chalked up as a "travel day." I say that because, all we did was travel for 18 hours straight.

Given the uncertainty of the day (no train ticket, no boat or bus schedule), and despite some travel delays, things turned out pretty well.

Our flight out of Philly left late (of course, it's PHL, where the 1st flight of the day is scheduled to be late, and the rest never catch up), so we arrived in Rome late, which makes it a good thing I hadn't bought that train ticket in advance. Since we're getting married and have to carry all the wedding clothes and trappings, we have an extra large suitcase and had to check it, against the most fervent advice of Rick Steves. There's a reason Rick gives that advice ... it took a full 45 min for our giant suitcase to appear on the baggage belt.

After grabbing our bag, we made it to the airport train 2 minutes before the express to Roma Termini left. I found "la bigletteria" and conducted the ticket transaction entirely (and successfully) in Italiano (without accidentally ordering a horse). The doors closed as we boarded the train and we were off, arriving at Roma Termini with minutes to spare before the intercity express to Salerno was leaving. Again, I completed the transaction (this one more complicated as it involved travel class, time schedules and destinations) entirely in Italiano (Nancy was starting to be impressed), and we found our platform, boarded and departed. The train trip was long and the airconditioning in our carriage was not working well, and we stopped to let some sheep cross the tracks or something, so we arrived in Salerno three hours later, tired and sweaty, little knowing the toughest part of the trip was ahead of us.

THE ROAD TO POSITANO

A quick e-mail sent from the train to Christian, at Villa Flavia Giaio in Positano confirmed that we would (given all the flight/baggage/ sheep delays) now miss the last boat leaving Salerno for Positano (the long boat trip along the coast being our main reason for going through Salerno). Bus (or a €120 cab ride) was our only way to get there now. Little did we know what bad news that was.

There is no direct bus from Salerno to Positano, so we have to take the SITA bus from Salerno to Amalfi, then another SITA bus from Amalfi to Positano. After some scheduling confusion where I was reading schedules from Sorento instead of Salerno (hey, jet lag, broken AC, sheep delays ... I was tired and entitled to a mistake or three), we recovered from the mistake by luck of the 3:30 bus arriving 20 min late. We loaded our bags and hopped on.

The road from Salerno to Amalfi is hard to properly describe. It was built hundreds of years ago, and made just wide enough for maybe 1-1/2 or 2 Fiats or chariots to pass each other. Somehow, the bus drivers manage to twist the properties of space and time and get two full-size city busses to pass each other. A ride in one of these busses is even harder to descibe. If you've ever ridden the Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, it's just like riding that for an hour and 15 minutes straight, but with speeding busses coming towards you and lots of cursing in Italian. The only difference between the Hulk and the road to Amalfi is that you don't feel every turn brings certain death when riding the Hulk. The Hulk also has fewer inversions and less cursing in any language. After 45 minutes, we didn't want to go to Positano. In fact, if Positano was anything less the Disney World, New York City, and a surprise birthday party all wrapped up in one, it couldn't possibly be worth this journey.

After arriving in Amalfi, we evacuated the bus to wait for the next bus from Amalfi to Positano. When that bus arrived, it was clear a few folks getting off had lost their lunches in transit. The road from Amalfi to Positano was similar, but narrower than the last, but somehow, less terrifying. Forty minutes later we hopped off the bus in Amalfi, lunch intact, and started the long but beautiful walk (the picture above) down into Positano to Villa Flavia Gioia, just above the beach. We were shown to our room which looked out on the church square at the bottom of the town and had a perfect view of the beach and the Sea. It was now 6PM, and a gentle Italy-induced calm washed over both of us. Suddenly, we couldn't even remember the horrors of the Sita Bus. We freshened up, wandered to the beach, found a tranquil restaurant built in a castle-like building, polished off a bottle of local San Rocco wine with a terrific dinner, and walked on the beach before retiring for the night. It seems the trip here was worth it ... although neither of us is inclined to step on a bus or leave this town any time soon. If we never return and you never hear from us again, you know where to find us.

Ciao.
Brent & Nancy