Coastal weekend: Amalfi and the Mountain

Saturday
June 12, 2004

Waking up on the beach was more pleasant for some than others. I was sleeping close to the cliff near the sidewalk--remember the bag of water?? Some others forgot that the tide came in and the water rose significantly in the morning when the sun comes up and had a wet wakeup call when they found that perhaps their sleeping bags were a bit too close to the edge of the water. Oops.

By 8 a.m. my 'sleeping line' as I had previously called it had been awoken by the yelps coming from the line of sleepers close to the water as their feet were covered with the freezing cold seawater. We decided that going back to sleep was pointless and got up and packed up our stuff. Promptly deciding that our destination for the day would be Amalfi--a small town south of Sorrento about a 1 hour boat ride away, we didn't realize that the boat we wanted to get on was hidden behind a large ferry that left at about the same time our boat was scheduled to leave. So there we were--sleepies in our eyes and bedhead hair, sporting moneybelts and swimsuits--looking around helplessly for the boat we were to catch at 7:58 a.m. for Amalfi. The large ferry pulled out of the dock at about 7:57 a.m. and we were a good 3 minute walk away from our much smaller boat that had been hidden behind the ferry, as I previously said. When we figured out that the small boat the was just pulling up its walkway to the dock was in fact our boat, all 5 of us took off sprinting down the dock, backpacks and cameras bouncing against our bodies. All the workers on the boat and on the dock stopped dead in their tracks to watch the funny American's make every possible effort to make the boat that was already ready to leave. Luckily, we were let on the boat and let the sea-air cool our sweat for about an hour until we arrived at our destination. Oh how I love Italian transportation....not.

Amalfi was beautiful...absolutely amazing. We walked around the town for a short time, going in one church and observing the ocean from every possible angle. When we heard there were lounge chairs, showers, and toilets WITH SEATS for 5 euro for the entire day, we all decided that the purchase would be well worth our money. So while we set up camp on the private beach, the one friend in our group that decided against the lounges set up his beach towell on the other side of the fence. I won't bore you with each of the details of our day (such as I sat in my lounge chair and looked at the water, then got in the water, then sat on my lounge chair), but I will just tell you that it was wonderful and relaxing and amazing. The sea water was clear and warm and the view of the town from the water was fantastic.

My wonderful day at the beach was kind of interrupted when I found that my beached-whale state had accidentally turned into a beached-lobster state. Yup, I got a pretty bad sunburn. Oops...I think I missed a few spots. It wouldn't have been so bad, but when i found out that we had a 1 hour INTENSE hike up a MOUNTAIN, my burn suddenly didn't feel so great.

After returning from Amalfi to Sorrento, we got on another boat taking us back to Amalfi and started our intense hike up the mountain. The intro to the hike was about a 1/2 mile hike up these ridiculous stairs that took us to Annacapri, a smaller town at a higher elevation than Capri. I decided that whomever built those stairs is NOT my favorite person...they need to either decide on an incline or regular stairs, not 5-foot stairs on an incline becuase they get annoying (if this doesn't make any sense, don't worry about it...it is just me venting my anger at the stair builders). Our hike started and took about an hour to get to the top of the mountain. I guess we climbed about 2000 feet with all our gear (backpacks, sleeping bags, etc.). The middle of the hike was the most intense, partial rock climbing included. The last leg, however, was amazing. We were walking through narrow wildflower trials...the wildflowers growing to shoulder level and the path being adjacent to a cliff hundreds of feet above the sea.

We camped that night at the ancient monestary that was at the top of the hill. Some people laid their sleeping bags on the roofs of old buildings, others inside--I chose the sky as my ceiling. I ate dinner with friends around what used to be an alter and as we watched the scarlet sunset, I realized how much God has blessed me with this trip and with the people on this trip. He has provided safety, comfort, a temporary home, and most of all wonderful company :) Man, I think I like that guy!! The whole group sat around a campfire that night. Even though marshmallows and graham crackers aren't available in Italy, it was still wonderful to be in God's great outdoors, away from the smoke and car exhaust, and enjoying a real campfire. Later that night I went off by myself and looked out at the ocean and the city below for awhile...it was beautiful. I feel asleep watching the stars :)