Amalfi Coast: Bomerano

Monday April 7th.

Today we said goodbye to Atrani and L'argine Fiorito.

The goal was to hike to Amalfi and then take the bus from Amalfi to Praiano. The day after this we were staying in Praiano, so we had the perk of locating our Inn for the next night while on the way to the one for this evening. We were staying that night in Bomerano, which is a village on the plateau way above Praiano, so after waiting forever for the bus we finally were on our way. We passed Costa Diva in Praiano, noted it's location and then got off the bus at the church of San Gennaro. Gorgeous:

We began the hike, which was off to a rocky (literally) start going up more steep steps, but also rocky because we had no clue where we were. Eventually we made it high enough up on the road (which went in switchback formation) to where we could kind of tell where we were. There was this spot where the road ended, and a tiny trail continued onwards but it didn't match the trail description from our book. To make matters more serious, there was a male donkey tied to a post at this trailhead spot, the men who need him were working below.


This donkey did not like us standing there when he couldn't fully see us. He tore at his tether and the ground. Mad.

We decided to see where this little trail took us, and sure enough there was an older Italian man coming down with a walking stick and he asked where we were going. He communicated that we were going the right way. He warned us in Italian that there were many steps in front of us. Was that a mischievous twinkle in his eye? Surely we got the idea by now we would encounter lots of steps no matter where we hiked.


The views of Praiano below, San Gennaro church getting smaller and smaller:

We were on the opposite side of the trail for the walk of the Gods, so we could see some people doing that hike as we were going up ours.


We made it to the upper part of town, with this Piazza of Constantinople (church of San Marco):

Our trail led us up eventually to the caves in the side of the mountain:

Getting there!

Caves!


There was one cave that we both tried to go into, but we had our packs on and the cave narrowed so much we didn't even have room to turn around, but were forced to walk out the way we entered, facing forward. Feeling claustrophobic yet?

It was 1 o' clock when we finally started to see houses. We walked behind them and entered an alleyway which eventually led into the main square of Bomerano in Agerola.

How to describe it? So far we had been staying in seaside villages which scaled the mountains and clung to them. When we reached Bomerano I realized how strange it was that the town was mostly flat. It doesn't take long for me to get used to things, I suppose. It was bizarre to look out and see small rolling hills and trees in the distance. Super weird.

The town was pretty quiet. I led us on the main road to our hotel Due Torri.

There was only one woman in the whole place. She brought us to our room, which I was pleased to see had a nice big bathtub.
We then wandered back down towards the town square to find lunch. It was 2pm and we had not eaten since Atrani.

'L'angolo dei sapori' was the restaurant we stumbled upon.

I ordered risotto with mushrooms and "fish with crazy water" the crazy water has been featured on many a menu. It's like a lemony herb sauce with garlic that comes with grilled fish. Why it's called 'acqua pazza' I don't know:

Max ordered some sort of pasta and steak. There was a tv up in the corner that was playing soccer (boring) but then started playing the Simpsons in Italian and it was hilarious. It was also funny to watch the two kids (children of the owner of the restaurant) who were hanging out and helping as they watched the Simpsons. They laughed so hard! And hearing the Italian voices was hilarious for us too. 

There were Italian and also German couples eating and watching the Simpsons as well. I could tell they were not impressed, and made me feel pretty childish for cracking up. Eh, whatever. Nothing beats Bart Simpson's Italian overdub, in my humble opinion.

The meal was delicious and satisfying. After a walk back to the hotel I sat and read my book.

For dinner we ate at the hotel, Due Torri, because their restaurant was supposed to be good. This hotel caters primarily to British people via Exodus hiking tours.
We met some exodus people in Switzerland and Max talked at length with one of them in Switzerland. He was a nice tour leader. But staying in a hotel populated by large British groups of 20+ People can be a little experience-ruining. At the restaurant, they were so consumed with the task of serving long medieval style tables of adults and children that I think our little party of two got left by the wayside a little bit. There was only like 1 waiter for the whole place! I had risotto again (could never get sick of it) and a salad. We opted out of dessert but were given tiramisu anyway because one of the large groups was given a whole sheet pan of it and didn't eat all the slices. Score! The people were all so friendly that we didn't mind putting up with the rowdy groups next to us.