We arrived in the town of  Maiori on September 11th just in time to meet the rest of the photography group.  There were fourteen of us plus our photography instructor, Alfio.   We had  a brief introduction and then enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner.  The food throughout the trip was wonderful- we had pizza, pasta and bread at almost every lunch and dinner and those were just the starters.  On our first full day of the workshop we all loaded up on our bus and took off for the town of Amalfi.

I thought I would include a picture of the hotel we stayed at during out workshop.  The hotel was located right across the street from the water.  We ended up eating several meals at the hotel which was a good thing as the food was consistently very good.  The dining room itself was very nice and a pleasure to eat in.   The rooms were also very clean.  People did complain because the air conditioning in the hotel seemed to shut off at midnight which I did not notice-probably because it was barely on in my room.  My only complaint was the mattress.  It was literally as hard as a rock which I never got used to.

This shot was taken across the street from the hotel just before we left for the day. People were just starting to arrive at the beach.   

This is a picture of the beach in the town of Amalfi.  It was before 11 am yet the beach is already very crowded.

When our group first arrived in Amalfi, we all walked to the end of the pier to take photos.  This shot gives a good view of the town with the famous Cathedral rising over the town.  We all made our way to the cathedral where we watched a wedding take place.  

It was actually difficult to take a picture without someone in the way-in this case an arm with a camera.   However, Alfio preferred us to take pictures with people in them as he thought they made for a better story.  Most of the group kept trying to take pictures without people in them which was almost hopeless in the touristy spots.  

People were everywhere in the town although we found as we got away from the center, many of the streets were actually deserted.   

People were enjoying sitting in the outside cafes everywhere I walked.

After visiting the church, I wandered around the center of town watching the people and looking for interesting things to photograph.  The Amalfi Coast is known for lemon "everything".  

Somehow this lucky fellow managed to find his own cafe.

I think I could publish a book of pictures on all of the laundry shots I took. 

After lunch, the group dispersed once again.  Actually we were pretty much independent for most of the workshop.  Because of the narrow alleyways,  different interests  and size of the group  it was easier to go off on our own or in small groups to photograph.  I met up with Pam and Doug climbing up the hills in town and we decided to keep climbing to see what we could find.  We walked by the back of a house and saw a neat outdoor oven.  

The three of us kept climbing, finding the trail leading out of the town up into  the hills.  This was a view we saw on the way up.   Needless to say there were no tourists in this area!  The highlight of the day was definitely hiking in  the mountains.  If I were ever to come back to this area, I would do a hiking trip trip from town to town.  

As we kept climbing we came to a great view overlooking the town of Amalfi.  You can see the famous Duomo or Cathedral in the distance.  Fortunately the day was fairly cloudy which kept us a little cooler in spite of the heat and humidity which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Although the hills were quite steep we found a stone path that made a great trail up the mountain.  We had no idea where we were going but were thoroughly enjoying the hike.   Pam did remind us that we had to get back to town by 4.30 but we hated to turn around so we kept on going.

Here is a close up shot of the trail we were following.  You can see that someone left a water bottle on the side of the trail.  

Another view of a town.

We ended up hiking up to the next town before heading back to meet up with the group.  The hike back was much faster so we had enough time to stop for a drink once we returned to Amalfi.

This shot was taken of Amalfi on the way back.  By now the clouds had dispersed and it was a beautiful sunny day.  

We finally made it back to the beach where we were meeting everyone.  You can see the crowd on the pier.  They were watching a German film crew using a remote control helicopter to film a boat.  

A shot of the crowded beach.  We really liked all of the colourful umbrellas.   

One last picture of the town of Amalfi.  

This shot was taken from the bus on the way back to the hotel in Maiori.  I was sitting in the bus watching this beautiful scenery, wishing we could stop  and someone suggested that I take the pictures from the bus.  

One last shot of the beautiful Amalfi coast taken from the bus.