Amalfi: amore!

Susan has been fighting a sinus infection, so our stay in Salerno has been recuperative as well as relaxing. I could tell she was feeling better today; she was gushing over the beauty of the mountains and sea at Amalfi. With the guidance of the owner of our hotel and his desk manager, we took ship to the town of Amalfi, capital of one of the 4 maritime republics of renaissance Italy, the others being Veneto, Pisa and Genoa (where Marco Polo dictated the memoir of his adventures while in prison). The symbols of these 4 nations compose the jack of the Modern Italian navy. But I digress. On landing, the 3 of us pushed through the tourist crowds on a quest to find the Valle de Ferriere, where we had been assured by our host we would find a wonderful waterfall and the forests of paradise. After working our way through the town and past terraces of lemon groves, we spent an hour following the course of a fine mountain river, all the while climbing further and further into the gorge. We learned later that we were on a trail which runs the length of the peninsula, an enticement to return here sometime in the future to hike again. Instead of doubling back to our starting point, we trekked in to Pontone, a small hill town nestled above Amalfi, where we refreshed ourselves with lunch in the square, complete with prosseco. Replete, we descended the 900 steps of a shortcut, back to Amalfi and the cathedral of Sanna Andrea, a 9th Century basilica covered in mosaics and gold leaf and redolent with the aroma of incense. All in all, a very good day.