Geoff and Rita's Trip to Malta and Southern Italy, 2017

We certainly put a lot of activity into our last day here.  In the afternoon we added a 20 minute passenger ferry ride from Amalfi to Positano and spent a few hours exploring the other main attraction along the Amalfi Coast.  Today Positano is the better know of the two places but has grown from a poor little fishing village to a hot tourist destination only over the past 65 years; thanks mainly to John Steinbeck publishing his essay about Positano in the May 1953 edition of Harpers Bazaar.  Looking back at Amalfi as we head out of the harbor for Positano  Just before docking at the pier in Positano  The lanes are narrow and steep as almost all of Positano is built on the side of cliffs  Can't imagine how you navigate these narrow streets during high season The spectacular view of Positano and the Med from the balcony of the five star hotel, Le Sirenuse.  Unfortunately the clouds started to roll in and the temperature dropped...

Amalfi is located at the mouth of a deep ravine and surrounded by the sea and mountains.  First mentioned in the 6th century, it was always considered a major maritime power until a tsunami in 1343 destroyed the port and lower town from which it never recovered.   Amalfi is a beautiful seaside town that has been a popular tourist destination since the early 1800's but it started attracting international tourists in the early 1900's when it became popular with the British upper classes.  And it has not looked back since. Amalfi is about a 10 minute walk from Atrani, and the difference in crowds is astounding.  While Atrani was very quiet and peaceful, Amalfi was humming with thousands of day trippers and their guides pocking into every corner of the town.  We walked to onto one of several piers to look back at the houses stacked up upon one another as they made their way up the side of the cliffs. Looking at old town with Mt.Cerreto in the backg...

Today we are going to take the 50 minute walk from Ravello down to the seaside town of Atrani, the second smallest town in Italy, and then onto the main town on the Amalfi Coast, Amali.  The route we are taking is the one that locals used before the construction of the main road in 1935 and parts of it are not in the best of shape.  However, we made it down without incident.  This was a longer walk than our previous one and were not prepared to hike back up, especially after spending a few hours exploring Amalfi and so we took the public bus, which was a unique experience in its own right as it navigated its way back up the very narrow and windy road to Ravello.  All in all it was a very nice day out exploring.  On the way down were lots of lemon orchards and houses, all with spectacular views of the Med.  The iconic St. Mary Magdalene Bell Tower guiding us down the last remaining steps into Atrani   Originally built in 1...

Villa Cimbroni is a magnificent estate that dates back to the 12th century and sits amid 15 acres of parkland on top of a hill offering spectacular views of the Med and Amalfi Coast.  At the end of the 19th century, the buildings and land lay abandoned until purchased in 1904 by Englishman Lord Grimthorpe who was determined to bring it back to its former greatness and make it "the finest place in the world".  It was purchased in 1960 by the current owners who originally made it their home.  Today it is a hotel and public gardens allowing the "common masses"  to have paid access to this amazing place.  Rita enjoying the warm sunshine on our balcony while waiting for the laundry to dry before we head into Ravello and onto Villa Cimbroni. Villa Cimbroni was originally built in the 12th century and has gone through several restorations The villa Cimbroni is now a 5 star hotel with a Michelin star restaurant.  Unfortunately the flowers were not yet ...

Woke up to being in the clouds this morning and very cool.  The weather was supposed to break later in the day so we decided to head out on one of the several famous walks that can be taken from Ravello to the several seaside towns that are below it.  We headed down towards the town of Minori which is the coastal town we can see below from our balcony (but not this morning).   Before the roads were built the only way to access the seaside towns along the Almalfi Coast was via a network of steep, stone-step walkways   This was the view from our balcony this morning.  Could not see the towns below or the Med All the walks start from the Piazza Duomo, the main plaza in Ravello.  The start of our walk takes us through the towns medieval walls   It started clearing up as we passed the little 13th century delle' Annunziata Church which sits on the side of a cliff and is located on the grounds of the Villa Rufolo  ...

Ravello was founded in the 5th century as a shelter against Barbarian invasions which marked the end of the Roman Empire.  Between the 9th and 12th centuries it was an important trading power within the maritime Republic of Amalfi.  In 1086 Pope Victor lll separated Ravello from Amalfi making it a Duchy answerable to the Holy See.  In the 12th century the population was 25,000 and most of its major palaces and churches were built during these wealthy times.  In 1137 the Duchy was attacked and destroyed by the Republic of Pisa.  After this a demographic and economic decline set in and it never recovered to its former glory.  Today the population is around 3,000 permanent residents and the town is almost entirely dedicated to tourism. We are about a 10 minute walk from the town center (1,355 steps) which is quite easy on the way down as we are apartment is higher up the mountain than the town.  But it is a slog to come back up, especially after a l...

We had a very memorable two weeks in Puglia and you know you loved the place when you do not want to leave when your time is up.  But leave we must as we had booked an apartment for five nights in Ravello on the Amalfi Coast.  Its not a short hop as we are leaving the Adriatic and crossing over to the Med.  Our TomTom told us it was 380km (236mi) and would take just over 4 hours.  We left the relatively flat Puglia valleys filled with olive groves and headed over a rugged mountain pass and halfway down the other side before coming to rest in Ravello.  We were surrounded by Lemon orchards and buildings all perched on the sides of the Lattari Mountains.  The mountain portion of the trip was a white knuckle drive with hairpin roads so narrow in some spots that police stop traffic one way to allow vehicles to come from the other direction.  But once you arrive you quickly realize the views were well worth the heart pounding aggravation.   R...

 It was overcast today and so we decided to go underground and take a two hour guided tour of the Castellana Grotto, which is considered to be the most important and impressive cave complex in Italy.  I booked the 12:00 English speaking tour on their website and arrived 45 minutes before the tour started only to find out that I misread the information and the tour started at 11:00.  So we took the Italian tour at 12:00.  No matter, it was an unbelievable experience and we had an English brochure to help explain what we were seeing. In 1938 the Provincial Tourist Board of Bari wanted to see if there were caves in their jurisdiction that could be turned into tourist attractions and hired a cave specialist to check-out the area.  He found La Grave (The Deep) thanks to a natural "skylight" in the ceiling and dropped 60m (197ft) to the floor of this massive cave.  He not only found "Le Grave" but an entire underground maze that is 3.4km (2miles) in leng...

Matera is truly an amazing site.  The ancient town grew up on one slope of the rocky ravine known locally as "La Gravina".  The original part of Matera is known as "Sassi di Matera" as Sassi means stone in Italian and is the name given to the cave dwellings humans have been living in for over 9,000 years.  This makes Matera the 3rd oldest inhabited town in the world behind Aleppo and Jericho.  These Sassi homes were dug into the soft limestone rock and many are little more than caves.  In the 3rd century BC Romans created a town on the upper reaches of the Gravina Gorge and subsequent conquerors have left there architectural mark over the centuries.  It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and even though its not easy to reach, well worth a visit.   Looking across the Gravina gorge at the ancient town of Matera A closer look at the side of the gorge and you can see thousands of caves perforating the cliffs up towards the town. Up to 11 peo...