Cliff Notes From Amalfi

Saturday, January 11, 2020
Amalfi, Campania, Italy
After breakfast, we caught a morning bus to one of the region's most spectacular locales: Amalfi.  When you daydream of southern Italy, with its blue sea, and its colorful, cliffside-hugging houses, you are imagining Amalfi. 
After the fall  of the Roman Empire, Amalfi became a lovely, prosperous trading seaport.  Its heyday was in the Middle Ages, when it became known for both its goods and mathematics. But a tsunami destroyed the town in the 14th century, and Amalfi was forgotten until rich Europeans began visiting on the Grand Tours of the 19th century.  Today, Amalfi is so beautiful and treasured (and overtouristed) that the entire town was named a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1997.
Getting to Amalfi in January is a bit more of a challenge than in summertime.  No ferries run between Sorrento and Amalfi in the winter, and due to landslides, the buses don't drive up the direct coastal route. Instead, visitors get a ninety-minute white-knuckle ride up and over the mountains, with multiple switchbacks and uber-narrow hairpin turns, often directly into blind oncoming traffic. As I looked out my window straight down into a deep ravine as we took a curve on at least half the wheels, I wasn't certain if I should vomit out of fear or motion sickness.  Probably both. 
We arrived in one piece, and were instantly stunned by Amalfi's beauty. White houses ramble down the cliffside, right up to the beach. Cafés line the seafront promenade. The sky and sea are a matching cerulean blue.  It's a living postcard.
We set off to explore the tiny town,  which took all of ten minutes.  Amalfi is pretty to look at, but there's not much to it.  The town square consists of a fountain, a Moorish cathedral, and innumerable shops selling lemon products, souvenirs, and gelato to tourists. In the offseason, many of the shops were shuttered for the winter,  and the majority of café patrons were locals. They seemed happy to socialize amongst themselves and gaze at the view, which is apparently the entirety of Amalfi winter activities.
We spent a few hours in town, enjoying  a bottle of wine, and even making the hike to the nearby town of Atrani. Once we determined we'd wrung as much fun as possible out of Amalfi, and fully amortized our 5€ bus tickets, we bravely boarded the bus for the (roller) coastal ride back to Sorrento. 

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