After Rome we headed for the hills above the Amalfi Coast to a little place called Furore. It was a hell of an adventure in itself just getting to the place. (Some people may not remember it as adventurous so much as tumultuous!). The fast train to Naples was the easy part. The two buses to a town near Furore proved to be a bit more challenging, with a detour that found us dropped off in the middle of god knows where , where no one spoke English and there was very little wifi and Google maps was as confused as we were. With a walk up a steep, windy, cobblestone road with suitcases in tow, we perched ourselves nervously by the side of the road and hoped like hell there’d be a bus come by at some point, and luckily it did. Then the bus trip of horror movies through narrow, winding and breathtakingly steep roads, we were at least headed in the right direction, but had no idea where to get off. Eventually we took a punt and luckily were only one bus stop shy of where we were to meet our Air BnB host. Then we had another long walk along winding roads and endless steps and supposedly amazing views that we couldn’t see for the storm clouds closing in. Our knees were about to give way by the time we arrived and we were too stuffed and somewhat traumatised to do anything. We were treated to a fantastic lightning show over the Tyrrhenian Sea and that somehow made it all worth while.
We had a recovery day and the next day tried to catch a bus into town. That didn’t work out so we checked Google Maps and decided to walk down to another bus stop rather than wait for ages for the next bus on this route. Sometimes Google Maps has been invaluable in getting us out of a tight spot, sometimes it’s led us right down the garden path. Or in this case, right down thousands of steep and uneven steps for a 3 hour trek to the next bus stop to Amalfi.
Luckily for us, it was an absolutely gorgeous day and a wonderful glimpse into the Italian lifestyle living on the side of a hill. Our knees haven’t really recovered and fortunately we figured out how to catch the closest bus the next day. And we are eternally gratefully we didn’t have to walk back up to get home!
