19 September 2023

Diane

Today was a trip around the Amalfi Coast with a driver, Allesandro, who wasn’t channeling Mario Andretti like yesterday’s fellow. He pretty much had to be slower and more careful since the road was all switchbacks and curves in and out of the mountain as we drove higher and higher. Again, the people on scooters were just crazy weaving around and between the cars. They occupy an imaginary lane that extends about a foot on either side of the center line. The full-size buses and large vans (like the Mercedes vans that keep schlepping us around) can barely get by one another, and it’s even worse when there’s a line of cars parked on one side. Drivers can fold in their side view mirrors whenever they want/need to, which happens pretty often. I’m shocked that there aren’t more cars with their sides scraped and crumpled, or motorbikes that crash into one another head-on. All that said, everyone–drivers of all kinds and pedestrians, as well, have an irrational confidence that everything will be fine. They’re all very calm, even if we’re not.

The mountains go right down to the water, and the drop-offs are just amazing. The houses hang on the sides of the mountains in clusters that just step up and up. Our driver stopped at Positano, which probably was nice except that you couldn’t see anything for all the hordes of tourists. Then we went through Amalfi and on to Revello, where we had lunch and looked at all the terracing.

We actually passed on stopping in Amalfi because it was jammed with tourists (we’re certainly not like those people) and went back to Sorrento, where the shopping/tourists were a little calmer. Deb, Val, and I went shopping and kept running into a fake accordionist who was following us, I’m sure. We three decided to stop for a few minutes and sit. All of us ordered limoncello and were shocked to find it was a shot of seriously alcoholic lemony something-or-other. We quickly enjoyed it very much.

Dinner tonight was a 9, so we’re becoming very continental.