The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
May 8 - The Road to Amalfi
Most of the trip down the A1 was basically your boring superhighway. Traffic zips along at 110-130 (65-75) with the occasional Mercedes blasting past at over 100 mph! As I mentioned in an earlier note, the left lane is strictly for passing -- hand out there and you will suddenly be the hood ornament on some German car driven by an impatient Italian!
You hear horror stories about the road along the Amalfi Coast ... and I can tell you know they are all true! The road itself in an engineering miracle, clinging to the side of the cliffs, twisting and turning through some of the most spectacular views in the world. The problem is that it is narrow with hairpin turns ... and lots of large tour busses! The photos above are not sequential, they are just a few of the busses we had to share the road with on the drive from Salerno to Amalfi ... and that is considered the widest section of the road! The busses are so large and some of the turns so tight, that they need the full width of the road to make the turns, obviously something that is not going to happen with traffic going the other way, so there are flaggers stationed on both sides of the really tight turns. They communicate by radio and stop oncoming traffic so the big boys can get through. Before this system, it was every man for himself, a sure recipe for disaster (and crushed Fiats!)
This area is famous for "lemons as big as your head." They are not quite that large, but if you look at this roadside vendor's head compared to the size of the lemons he is selling ...
The town of Amalfi, once a world powerhouse along with Venice, has clearly seen better days. The coastline is spectacular, of course, but the town itself is elegantly decaying. The whole place desperately needs a fresh coat of paint! The coast road does come through town at water level, something that has helped it stay a major destination and the point of embarkation for ferries to Capri, Positano and other local sites.
Our hotel is well-located ... if you can locate it! All there is to point the way is a tiny sign on a non-descript stone stairway off the main street, which was clogged with day-tripping tourists when we arrived! Up the stairs and around the corner is the Hotel Floridiana, not a particularly Italian-sounding place, but clean, well-kept, reasonably priced and only a few steps from the main square.
© 2007 Restaurant Doctor
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