On September 8th, I was fortunate enough to vacation on the Amalfi Coast for two weeks.   Ever since I saw the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, I have wanted to come to this area.   The Amalfi Coast is a stretch of coastline on the southern coast in Southern Italy.  The only land route to the Amalfi Coast is the 40 kilometres road which runs along the coastline from the town of Vietri suf Mare in the east to Positano in the west.  Thirteen municpalities are located on the Amalfi Coast, many of them centered around tourism which I can attest too since it was busy everywhere.  

I flew Air Canada  from Toronto to Frankfurt, Germany.    There I  met friends, Pam and Doug  and we continued on to Naples, Italy flying on Lufthansa .  We were very lucky since Lufthansa had a 24 hour strike the day before I left.  The airport in Frankfurt was very busy.  I found I had to leave the secured area, then re-enter and go through passport control and then through security again.  There were long lineups  everywhere and it wasn't that easy to find my way through the airport to get where I needed to go.      We arrived in safely in Naples and then found out there was no bus to Salerno from the airport  because it was Sunday.  So we took a very crowded airport bus to the train station in town.    Fortunately Pam knew some Italian so once we got to the station she went to the  Kiosk to purchase the train tickets so we were able to avoid  a rather long line-up.   We were lucky in that the hotel in Salerno was across the street from the train station so at least that part was easy.  By the time we arrived at the hotel it was around 4 PM local time.  Irene and Barry (Pam's sister and brother-in-law) were waiting for us in the lobby and wondered what had taken us so long.     It sure was good to  finally arrive and be able to  unload all of the luggage.   We ended up going for a walk before finally finding a place to eat dinner.  We were all hungry by 5.30 or so but the restaurants don't really open until 7.30 or 8.00 PM.  Luckily Barry found us a place where we could get some delicious panini sandwiches.  I think we managed to stay awake until 9 PM or so.

Here is a map of the Amalfi Coast- we ended up visiting a lot of these towns during out two week stay.  You can see the train route we took from Napoli (Naples) to Salerno.  

Here is a photo of the Hotel Plaza where we stayed in Salerno.  The hotel was very comfortable and clean with a great lobby area downstairs.

I included this picture to show you a view of Salerno as  we walked down to the water on the first day.  It was great that Barry and Irene had been here for a few days so they were able to act as tour guides.  Even better was that Barry could understand and speak Italian which came in very handy over the next two weeks.  

There were these large boulders protecting the shore  in many places along the coast.  I liked this photo in black and white for its moody look.  

While we were walking down to the docks we checked out the "beach" area where people were swimming, fishing and just enjoying the beautiful day.  This is where we got a ferry the next day for our Amalfi  Coast cruise.  

After dinner we walked back to the hotel along the waterfront.  We stopped to watch a children's  puppet show for a little while which was fun although I didn't understand a word of it.   The sun was just setting and I liked this view of the water.  

On our first full day in Italy, we walked  all over the town, including the Duomo which was the old town area.  There were so many narrow roads and alleyways with apartments everywhere.  It was very different experience  being in a country where there is so much history and beautiful old buildings.   As expected apart from the staff in the restaurants and hotels there were few English speaking Italians.   

This photo shows typical apartments.  There was laundry hanging out to dry everywhere we went.  

A typical street scene in Salerno.    

 We explored many alleyways and narrow streets in the town trying to get away from the touristy spots and get a sense of how the Italians lived.    I found Salerno to be a little more commercial and less touristy than some of the other towns we visited.  

We walked to the II Giardino della Minerva hoping to take a tour since Barry and Irene had told us how nice it was.  The garden is enclosed behind the ancient city walls.   This is as close as we got to it  because the garden is closed to the public on Mondays.   

Another street scene.  You can see that there are a number of people on the streets during the day but nothing like the evenings where it seemed everyone was out enjoying the restaurants and cafes.  In Italy, the shops close from about 1 to 4 in the afternoon but then open again until 8 or 9.  

The streets were very clean in Salerno.   

In the afternoon, we decided to take a ferry boat ride along the Amalfi Coast.  The ferry took us to Positano with a short stop in the town of Amalfi.   The boat ride was terrific- a great way to get an introduction to the area and keep cool.  Pam and I actually sat next to  an English couple who were staying at the hotel where the photography workshop was being held.  They gave the hotel, town  and food a glowing review.  We actually ran into them several times over the next few days.  

After dinner we all walked over to the pier to take some night shots.  You can barely see the fisherman to the right  in the photo.

Here is my panoramic night view shot of the town.  In the background you can see the lights of the  Castello di Arechi.   The 7th century castle is located on the Bonadies Mountain, 300 metres above sea level.  

The next morning Pam, Doug and I took a taxi to the Castle.  We hiked up to it and were rewarded with this view of Salerno.

A view looking the other way.

We went for a hike up to the castle itself.  

And then we climbed even higher so we could see the castle from a better viewpoint.

One more view from the top.  After spending an hour or so hiking and walking around the castle we had planned to walk back to the city.  We found out that this wasn't possible as the walking route was now closed and the regular road was too dangerous to walk along.  So our backup plan was to take a bus from the castle.   After speaking to staff at the castle we were told that we could get a ten o'clock bus back to town.  Well that bus never showed up.  Some one else said it would come around 10.30 or so ( you have to remember we are in Italy).  We ended up waiting until 11 before finding someone in the parking lot who called a cab for us which seemed to take a long time to come.  Unfortunately  because of our location outside of town you have to pay a round trip car fare.   We think there might have been some kind of work to rule action in the town which prevented city transportation  but we never saw any other sign of it.  This was the only time in Italy where I had any kind of delay including all of the ferries, trains, buses and planes that I took over the two week period. 

We had arranged for a van to get us in the late afternoon and take us to Maiori  where the photography workshop was starting that evening.   So I had time to for a walk  after our late  lunch.  I really liked this building in particular.

I walked down to the water and watched some fisherman before heading back to the hotel to wait for our van.