We were at the bus stop in the bay in good time to catch the
9.50am bus to the railway station, which was also where we were to catch the
bus to Amalfi. It didn't arrive. We enjoyed the now-familiar scenery in the
fishing port and across the bay to Mt Vesuvius, and then caught the 10.20am
bus. We had a routine trip to the
station.
By the time we arrived at the bus stop there was already a
long queue for the Amalfi bus. When we
got on we were lucky to get two of the few remaining seats. By the time the bus left Sorrento, the aisle
was packed with people who had to stand for the 90 minutes trip, an
uncomfortable experience. The distance
between Sorrento and Amalfi is not great (31km) but the terrain is terrifying! The very narrow road wriggled up and down, in
and out mercilessly. However, the bonus
was that the views were absolutely stunning.
Blue sky, blue sea, olive and lemon groves - picture postcard stuff. The driver was clearly very familiar with
this journey, signalling his presence to oncoming traffic at blind corners by
tooting his horn. The greater the number
of toots, the tighter the corner! We met
a Trafalgar tour bus on one very challenging corner, both drivers patiently
manoeuvred their buses to allow safe passage of both vehicles. We quickly decided the best thing to do was
to look at the scenery and not frighten ourselves with the scary road. About halfway to Amalfi is Positano, where
friends of our stayed just a year or two back. We were quite grateful not to
have chosen it as our destination. The bus stopped very high up the hill and
there didn't seem to be any easy way down the steep road to the town with
suitcases in tow! We were also both
thankful when we arrived at Amalfi. J
was feeling a bit seedy, unexpectedly so, as bus trips had never made her feel
ill before – but this was no ordinary bus trip.
We had a bite to eat near the bus stop, took in some fresh air, and had
a quick look around, not easy with suitcases.
Part 3: Sita tourist bus from Amalfi to Maiori
This was by far the best bit of the journey as we were in a
purpose-built sight seeing bus.
As you can see the middle bit of the bus was missing making
it easy to appreciate the view – and the open top meant we could enjoy ample
quantities of both sunshine and fresh air along the way. The trip took about 30 minutes, with roads as
twisty and tortuous as the others. In
stark contrast to the bus to Amalfi, there were only three passengers, the other
was a local. The tour guide rattled off
some instructions, gave us ear pieces so we could listen to a commentary in
English and then proceeded to ignore us completely. Incredibly, the tour guide (female) and the
driver (male) chatted amiably for the whole journey. Frequently, the driver looked at the guide
instead of the windy road, which was a bit scary. However, he still managed to toot at all the
tight corners and to complete the journey safely. At one point, we came around a corner to find
four cars coming towards us. The bus
came to a stop and waited until all the cars backed up and found places wide
enough to let the bus through – just run of the mill stuff for the locals,
apparently.
As we drove into Maiori we could see this was our kind of
beach! Two long sweeping curves of sand
and crystal clear water to swim in! We
could also see we would not have to do the mountain goat thing to get to our hotel,
or from the hotel to the beach. In fact,
it was just a 100m of flat footpath away - bliss!
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