14th June 2012

Up bright and early to get packed for our 4.5 hour trip to the Amalfi coast, actually we’d started packing last night and were also updating the blogs before we put them on the Tumblr website, I kept checking the time on the computer as dinner was arranged at the farm for 8pm.. What I hadn’t considered was that it’s UK time on the computer, so at 8.45 we’re running down the road like loonies and despite explanations and apologies were greeted with a ‘certain stiffness’ from Mama. Ho-hum, in trouble again!

Back to the Amalfi trip - Man, was it hot! According to the temp gauge on the bike it reached 34C. So there were frequent stops for cold drinks until we eventually got onto Amalfi and I noticed that according to Dolly (sat-nav) it would take an hour to do 20 miles? Surely not..  then we ran into the traffic on the coast road - hundreds of nutters on scooters (each with his obvious desire for an exciting but very brief life), cars, buses, coaches, delivery vans, all infused with the unique Italian spirit of competition and absolute belief of immortality. The road itself is a switchback of blind twists, turns and tunnels that rarely allows higher than 2nd gear, to watch the locals at play explains the scarring on their vehicles!  Suffice to say that it took us almost 90 minutes..

The view from our bedroom patio doors.

The hotel was wonderful, perched on the rock with stone steps down to the crystal clear turquoise sea, our air-conditioned bedroom had a small but private patio with lemon trees almost growing through the French doors, Debs thought she was in heaven!

Who's a happy girl then?

After a shower we decided to descend the steps for a quick dip, it wasn’t until I found I was absent -mindedly counting that I realised that there were 212 of the damn things - No problem going down but the ascent was quite another matter.
After that a visit to a bar was essential.







To be truthful that was about it, we thoroughly chilled for the entire day, the hotel staff and service were superb, the food delicious ... but I wasn’t looking forward to the coast road tomorrow.