Exploring the Amalfi Coast - Charming Towns and Specialties of EAT-aly

 

Pozzouli

Pozzuoli was our first experience of small towns near Naples.  After our tour took us to Roman ruins, we had time to explore the town - which was full of families enjoying the holiday, visiting the skating rink and the Christmas craft market and enjoying the view of the bay.

The narrow streets had a lot of arches, designed to keep the build in g s standing in an earthquake.

We took a walk with the guides to visit Rione Terra, a hilltop neighborhood that had been partially destroyed by an earthquake 40 years ago. The city was encouraging rebuilding. turning it into a high end residential and shopping. It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of modern high end shops and apartments with ancient buildings underneath. 

 

A Day in the Life in Pozzouli

Outside of the town of Pozzuoli, we visited a small family-owned vineyard and agribusiness. As we have seen elsewhere, small farmers need to pursue several different avenues to make a living. This farm was primarily a winery, but they also intercropped the vines with vegetables and herbs, as well as fruit trees, and potatoes. They also had a few cabins for vacationers and a restaurant. This winery had been in the family for well over a hundred years, having belonged to the owner's grandfather. There was a lot of ancient tools and equipment on the property.  

Sorrento

We loved visiting the town of Sorrento.  Its picturesque location on a cliff helped us to understand the cliff approaches to Pompeii and Herculaneum, and why these locations were so popular for early romans to set up protected communities on the coast.

This was a much more touristy town than the others we had seen so far - the narrow streets were lined with shops selling high end artisanal products, as well as bottles of limoncello in every shape you would want to imagine.

We enjoyed exploring the cathedral and sampling some of the wonderful culinary specialties of the town (and nearby Capri Island)

We also took a taxi up into the hills to join our home-hosted lunch.  We enjoyed homemade pizza, prosciutto, limoncello and tiramisu!

Salerno

Salerno is the biggest town on the Amalfi coast (and not officially part of the World Heritage Site).  For us the highlight of this town was being there on New Years eve.  Not only is Salerno famous for its Christmas light displays (suspended over every square and alley, but the New Years crowd was huge and friendly.  We had a great time walking through the narrow streets and packed squares with Italians eager to ring in a new Year.

We also really enjoyed seeing the Cathedral, which had a strong Moorish influence, and the most amazing stone inlay work in the large crypt.

Amalfi

On New Years Day, we saw the Amalfi Coast from several perspectives.  To see the charming villages from the sea, we took a boat from the pier in Salerno.  the ride helped us to see how small and isolated each village is, in between mountain valleys, and spangled with Roman forts and warehouses along the coast. 

After a tour of the sleepy town (at least on New Years Day) of Amalfi, and enjoying some delicious local pastry specialties, we returned to Salerno by the road.  The perspective was very different - seeing the lemon groves, the narrow windy roads, the busy downtowns.  we really enjoyed both modes of transport.  And then we had one more pass at the coast, in our cruise boat, heading back towards the bay of Naples, and passing Positano and the Li Galli Islands.  Beautiful!