The plan was to spend a day in and around Campagna before heading down to Brindisi and True Colors. Our choices were the Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum covered in volcanic ash by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 (that’s AD79 not 1979) or check out the Amalfi coast which could be on our sailing itinerary later this summer. Amalfi was the winner.
The Amalfi area has a coast road which qualifies as a “little scenic route”. In my experience these always have their thrills and tensions. i can think of driving around Lake Como, the Shafer Trail in Utah and a back road through the Austrian Alps all with the same “affection”. Amalfi is a worthy entrant on this list. The road twists and turns; it is barely wide enough for two cars; there are tour buses going in both directions which frequently have to back up to find a place to pass; people park on the side of the road cutting the width down even further. It is one of those routes where the driver has to “drive” and not do any sightseeing. It was hard to get out of second gear on this road - third is possible but you would be throwing yourselves round bends into oncoming traffic more often than you would like.
The towns are picturesque and the location and views are as spectacular as you would imagine. But you get the feeling that their reputation comes from a bygone era when mass tourism was not in full swing. Now the towns are over-run with tourists, their cars and their buses and all the shops and restaurants are geared at this market. What special charm they once had is sometimes difficult to uncover when you are close up.
On the Amalfi coast road what goes out must come back (or at least not without a detour) so we had round two of our battle with the traffic and the road engineers. It was later in the day and it seemed a little less frenetic than the morning drive - maybe we’re getting used to it. Lori says I’m starting to drive like an Italian; I think I need a few more years before I could claim that.
So I think we chalked Amalfi off the list of our sailing routes for this summer. It would have been a long way for comparatively little benefit.