D43 Italy - Praiano / Walk of the Gods

So quite a few months back I was at Nespresso Emporium buying more coffee pods, when I got chatting to the girl making my free coffee. The coffee was piping hot and I was the only one there, so had to engage in some small talk. It turned out that she was Italian, and after mentioning our pending trip to the Amalfi coast, suggested a hike for us to do - Il Sentiero degli Dei, or ‘The Walk of the Gods’. I drank my coffee, thanked her for the suggestion and thought little more of it.

Now let’s fast forward to us arriving on the Amalfi coastline - I had booked us into pretty Praiano, knowing that it sat directly below the Walk of the Gods route, between its starting point in Bomerano (accessibly from near Amalfi) and and its end in Nocelle (a mere 1500 steps uphill from Positano). So naturally, we had to walk at least part of it...

Rising early to beat the heat, we had decided to walk directly uphill, past a Basilica to a trail connection about a 1/3 of the way along from Bomerano. This shortened the walk slightly, but our entry point is when all the views west toward Positano and Capri become present. So we essentially got to see the best bits! We just had to first walk up stairs for an hour to reach the trail. After ten minutes of starting, and still in Praiano, we both needed to stop and have a breather. It seems the non stop travel is starting to wear us both down a bit - or perhaps it’s simply the extreme heat. Either way, once we got over our initial hurdle and became warmed up, the rest of the hike was a breeze.

We tracked along the trail, high above the alluring azure waters of the Amalfi coast, curving in and out of rocky faces and diving cliff gullies. We passed stumpy tough and silvery oak trees, admired the spiked blue flowers of native Eryngium and savoured the smell of Rosmarinus and wild fennel as we brushed passed it with our dust covered walking shoes. It was a walk of beauty affording wonderful views of this historic coastline.

A few hours later, we reached the town of Nocelle where a middle aged man in the little piazza in front of the local church approached Kate. While I was in the loo, I’m told he said a few words in Italian then jiggled a set of keys in front of her as he gestured towards the church. As I came out of the bathroom I caught up as he unlocked the little church and we entered, with him poking our arms as a signal of ‘come, follow me’. We walked in, and he flicked on the lights from the main power board. It was a gorgous little church, very well kept. He pointed out paintings of St Francis of Assisi, Ave Maria, Jesus and a statue of seeming significance, embedded in an alcove in the wall behind a perspex screen. This he explained slowly to us in a mixture of Italian and pigeon English, was a statue of Madonna which had its centenary in 2010. It clearly took pride of place there in the middle of the church. Further hand gesturing saw us move into the vestry (or similar) where he showed us a book - it was about 10cm thick and included snippets of the church’s history over the past decade. This appeared to be a personal project of his, recording key events over the years of his involvement (we believe he is the priest, but can’t be sure! All we know is, his name is Pasqual). He gave us a printed copy of a photo of the Madonna statue with blue all around it. This he explained was in fact a ‘naturale’ photograph - they had taken the 1910 statue outside in 2010 to photograph it amongst the sea and sky. The photo is amazing, as the sun and sky merge in a haze at an indecipherable horizon. It looks photoshopped, but it’s not. It’s naturale. On the back of one of these cards was a prayer and on the other was a hymn, to which he proceeded to sing out loud an entire verse! It was a magical moment, and hilarious all at the same time.

We left feeling humbled, with our photos of the Madonna, and a few little pewter pins with the Madonna and Jesus on each side.

1500 steps (who’s counted them, I’m not sure...) later, we arrived at the main road about 1km from Positano. As the bus whooshed straight past us, we decided to walk into town, ducking in between cars and walking quickly over the bridges as all modes of transport approached us at frightening speeds.

Positano was ‘good from far, but far from good’... in my opinion. Busy, overpopulated by people with more money than sense and full of tourists including the large groups following umbrellas and other devices. It was here we walked the main street, then took some time to call home. Technology has come a long way compared to my first European trip over a decade ago, when the internet was hard to come by and I collected rolls of film full of photos. Now, we’re up to 5000+ photos on one memory card and can video call home at any time. I wonder where we’ll be in another ten years time?

We headed back to Praiano for a quiet afternoon of sunbathing, writing this journal, scrapbooking and other life admin. We drank a beer and a few premixed Aperol spritzes on the balcony before dinner, which we enjoyed at the Pizzeria I found last night. And what a dinner it was. Old Italian men serving and cooking, no fuss or a white coat in sight. A delicious eye fillet steak for me, cooked over coals directly from the wood fire pizza oven - just perfect after last nights epic fail. Katey ate some really nice spaghetti alla vongole, and capped off the meal with a limoncello. We left with happy bellies and content minds. Tomorrow, we begin the first of three travel days to reach our next major destination - Turkey.Read more