Spiaggia San Francesco

After the longest drive ever which to our total amazement went relatively smoothly (only minor meltdowns) we hit the Amalfi coast.

We arrive in Sorrento and hit rush hour (after a few days here we realise every hour is rush hour!), after a while in a tunnel (not great for my claustrophobia) we eventually find our campsite on the edge of town.

Obviously the first thing the children spot is the park! A pretty safe one too thank goodness!
We get a place in a little shady spot and the whole site is set on the cliff side so there’s lots of climbing up and down to get anywhere.

We heck out the swimming pool and follow the sign for beach. It’s more of a rock outcrop at the bottom of the cliff but the sea looks good and Nic obvsioualy jumps straight in (even though he has no dry clothes with him!). After a lovely bbq dinner, the children just about make t to sleep in time for some amazing fireworks to start over Sorrento. Luckily neither of them wakes and we both get to see the display...but wonder if this will happen every night?!

We decide to get the bus to Sorrento on our first day. A lovely town set on top of the cliffs, great views of Vesuvious, Naples and beyond but very busy and touristy. We find a beautiful rose garden, and the views down from the sheer edges of the cliffs are brilliant - coen still likes to test us though, threading his foot through the rails to see if his sandal might fall off and fall 100m down never to be seen again.

It’s only 10.30 but we’ve been in Italy long enough to want a pizza for a snack, the only place to get one at this time of morning is an English pub and we find some ice cream to top it off. We find a piazza to eat while the children take up their favourite pastimem of chasing pigeons which always entertains the locals.

It is getting pretty hot so we want to get out of the town before Amelia melts, after a brief sprint we make it to the bus in time and head back through the Sorrento traffic to the campsite.

We get back in tome for another sea swim (children couldn’t be tempted in even after us donning their wetsuits and life jackets and lugging a hold-all (?!?!) full of Amelia’s soft toys down to see the sea) but they enjoy a splash in he swimming oool instead.

The following day we catch the local bus from Sorrento around the coast to Positano and Amalfi. We get tickets and wait in a very hot queue, the first bus has standing rolom only so the driver suggests we get the next. The next we get seats but can’t believe how many people are packed into the coaches, the aisles and steps all full of people. This is the coast we’d been warned not to drive along in the Moho. And it doesn’t take long for us to see why. The roads are fairly narrow, extremely bendy and so busy. Mainly with buses. Carrying tourists back and forth. There’s a lot of horn beeping much to Coen’s delight, although the heat and windy roads soon send him to sleep. It doesn’t seem we have to go for but it does take a long time on these roads, having to stop at every bend to check what’s coming.

We arrive in Positano (where there is no parking at all, thank goodness we took the bus) and get some amazing views over the town and coast, although with Coen still asleep in my arms, I’m thinking this could get a bit hot, but luckily he wakes at the top of the hill. We wind down the tiny paths lined with little boutique shops and art galleries and come out at the bottom on a beach. This is one of the hottest days we’ve had so far and the dark sand is making it feel hotter. We roam around the town tucked so tightly against the cliff that it’s hard to imagine why people settled here originally. The buildings climb up the cliffs, and are coloured different shades, with some beautiful churches and temple like buildings set amongst them, it’s very picturesque. We want to make it across to Amalfi as well so make our way back up the narrow paths (with Amelia hunting out every bit of shade...thank goodness it hasn’t been so hot so far in our trip, she melts at the first sight if there isn’t a pool or sea to jump into).

We wait for what seems ages in the piping heat, luckily we squeeze the children into shade under the busy bus shelter and after watching the dramatic driving close up for a while, finally the bus pulls up, and we shimmy along the windy, narrow, crazy roads to reach Amalfi - witnessing a City Sightseeing bus crash into the protruding cliff along the way.

Amalfi seems slightly larger, still set in the cliffs, but with a larger port, little streets shooting back into the cliffs, and along the beach front and we find food - the children’s favourite squid rings (although Coen has a paddy as he wants to hold them - at 8euros for a tiny cone full, that’s not happening), some good pasta and amazing italian cream cake.

We get some great views back over the town and cliffs, as well as the beautiful yachts that’s have docked here as we walk around the port walls and then head back to a very long queue for the bus. The first one eventually fills, but again there is only standing room so we wait for the next one and head back. It is busy and warm and windy on the hour and a half journey back, and Coen thinks it’s time for another nap. We manage to get off a stop early to reach our campsite sooner but this does involve a rather hair-raising walk back along the road narrow, windy road.

After another lovely bbq, we pack up ready to reach Pompei in the morning...Read more