In an unusual and out of character moment, my husband surprised me with a little trip away to the Amalfi coast for my birthday! He would say, the less frequent these acts of romance are, the more impact they have! This trip in particular definitely made an impact!
We left on a Thursday morning and drove the hour and half or so past Naples and up and over the Sorrentine peninsula to our first stop, the town of Ravello. This fabulous little town is slightly less busy than it’s more well known counterparts due to it being perched high up the mountainside, above the hustle and bustle of the coast road and the town of Amalfi. Ravello is a cultural town, with many artists, musicians and writers having visited over the centuries. The most prestigious being Wagner who was awestruck by the beauty of Ravello and as such there is now an annual ‘Ravello Festival’ in his honour, where you can listen to opera singers, orchestral pieces and ballet over a few weeks each year; all with the most beautiful of backdrops!
We wandered the streets, visited Villa Rufolo which is a wonderful mix of crumbling buildings and 19th century exotic gardens with commanding views of the coast far below, and visited the Duomo off the main piazza. The most striking feature of this church was it’s mesmerising pulpit, made of six twisted columns, supported by marble lions and decorated with beautiful mosaics of birds, peacocks and dancing lions.
Lunch was a simple yet delicious seafood affair with an incredible view of the bright blue sky and the dark blue sea, with the green mountains rising high above. After which we moved on to where we were staying for three nights; the gorgeous town of Positano.
Positano is the jewel in the crown of the Amalfi coast. The town spills down the hillside, giving it’s well deserved nickname of the ‘vertical town.’ Many of it’s ‘streets’ are in fact windy staircases and narrow alleys that descend from the coast road at the top of the town, down to the sea front and beaches at the bottom. We left the car in one of the car parks that are seemingly crammed in to any tiny, spare space between the cliffs and the buildings, then headed on foot to the apartment. Mr BND had booked an amazing place called Casa Claudius, with the most breathtaking view. Set in to the cliffs, the living room, kitchen and bedroom were all lovely and cool and with it’s own garden and terrace it was a little haven in the bustling town of Positano.
Not for the unfit though! The 338 steps down to Fornillo beach were fine descending but a bit of a slog coming back up, particularly at night after an Italian feast and a bottle of wine! But it was a wonderful experience heading down to the small beach early on my birthday. When the beach front cafe’s were just waking up and shaking off the sand for the day ahead; with only a couple of locals for company; heading in to the crystal clear water and watching the sunrise over the headland, slowly basking the little bay and it’s watch tower in warm sunlight. It was a wonderful way to start the day and a truly special moment that I won’t ever forget. It was definitely worth the climb back up to the apartment.
During our stay we walked all over Positano, never tiring of exploring the cute little alleyways and steps. We also took a passenger ferry along the coast to the town of Amalfi, which despite being only a few miles down the road had a distinctly different feel. It felt much busier and more touristy than Positano. But a very pleasurable few hours were had exploring this town and eating pizza on the sea front.
Undoubtedly though, the highlight of the trip was walking the’ Sentiero degli Dei’ or the ‘Path of the Gods.’ Countryside walks don’t get any more scenic than this! The official route goes from Bomerano to Nocelle, two small villages 500 metres up the mountainside. The tourist websites recommend walking the route east to west for the best views and getting the bus back to the start. However, we decided to forgo the two hours on a sweaty bus and instead decided to do the path in both directions. First though we had to get up to Nocelle, the ‘end’ of the path. The 500 metre climb up was a series of energy sapping steps (which I soon lost count of) to the village of Montepertuso, where we then followed a steep road for a couple of miles to the village of Nocelle. This tiny little hill top village epitomises Italian life. Only accessed by road in recent times, villagers had to walk up the hundreds of steps to get to Nocelle making a big food shop a serious workout! We saw donkeys still being used to transport building materials to a building site at the top of the village.
The footpath itself begins just past a shack with an arch announcing the ‘Path of the Gods’ and then winds it’s way along the cliff side for 7km or so to the town of Bomerano. The scenery begun wild and rugged before becoming more agricultural with a lot of the hill side being terraced so crops could grow. The path dips in and out of woodland which provides some much needed relief from the hot sun, then pops out to round a rocky headland where the world seemingly opens up below and the beautiful view of the coastline and sea just takes your breath away. From that high up the boats down on the water were tiny little white dots far below and we truly felt we were on top of the world. At every twist and turn there is another spectacular view to drink in. Unfortunately, there had been some wild fires, so large swathes of the mountainside were a bleak, desolate expanse, the juxtaposition magnified even more so by the bright blue of the sea and sky. The path in these sections had no apparent edge and no trees or foliage to separate you from the sheer drop to the side; which resulted in a few leg-jellifying moments!
Upon reaching Bomerano we were welcomed by the view of a small restaurant where we wolfed down some much needed sustenance then turned round and headed back! The whole walk was 14 miles in total with about 4,000 feet of climbing, a feat of endurance the likes of which I hadn’t done for a long time! (Our route.) It was without doubt the most beautiful walk I’ve ever done though and I highly recommend doing the ‘Path of the Gods’ if you find yourself in this part of the world, but perhaps consider the bus option after all!
That evening we dined at Chez Black, a beautiful restaurant on the beach front in Positano, where the interior is decorated in the style of a vintage ship with lots of wood, mirrors and black and white photos of famous people adorning the walls. For once we didn’t feel bad about eating the full Italian shebang, (antipasti, primi, secondi and dolci) we’d decided we’d definitely earned it! Boy did it taste good! It was truly a birthday trip to remember and one that’ll be hard to top next year!
Brand New Day 
Wow! How beautiful, I feel I have some similar photos of Positano- just gorgeous! What a special surprise too. Xx
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