Amalfi

Heading South to my next job, I followed the coast road South from Rome, avoiding the hills where one is obliged to carry snow chains after Nov 11th, and expecting a beautiful and picturesque drive.
The sea washes virtually to the feet of the snow covered mountains running parallel to the coast, with cheap concrete houses cascading down their sides like a boulder slope to the road and railway line. Thin beaches, often volcanic black, abut the train escarpment, with shattered bamboo scattered over over them in an unattractive mosaic. The odd stray dog can be found chewing on discarded plastic bottles.
Once the Normans ran the place and their castles can be seen (but not visited in Winter,) incorporated into the towns. Many (closed) pizza restaurants and abandoned beach cafes.
Once Amalfi was famous for it's paper exports. Now they let the waves carry their paper away to the rest of Europe.
What can I say? In Winter; wet, cloudy, cold and closed. In Summer the narrow roads are impassable, the beaches covered in greasy bodies with a thin film of Ambre Solaire or Coppertone scumming the water dampening down the waves.Read more