Amalfi Atrani Pontone Amalfi Walk

July 14th

today it seemed early on that the temperature had dropped somewhat...it seemed so... but it turned out not to have at all... if anything it was hotter by a few degrees... i had already decided to head to Amalfi or Positano and decided at the last moment at the dock to buy a ticket for Amalfi... no plans... just a different day... i had looked at maps of the trails set out by Giustino Fortunato back in the 1800s but i certainly was not equipped for any hiking at all... left my hiking shoes back in Lanciano... but i did have the intention to walk from Amalfi to Atrani at some point if only to take a photo of the town from the road just as i had about 30 years ago... as i had suspected and especially in the middle of july Amalfi is one huge pile of tourists tourist buses shops and shop keepers who could care less what language one speaks where they are from or what they sell as long as they can sell something and then something more... and pretty much its the usual effect that tourism has everywhere in the world... where at first people sell the products made by them or artisans of the area things that reflect the history culture and adaptive character of the populations of the area eventually everyone everywhere ends up selling the same things on which the name has been changed to match that of the place where it's being sold... the people who sell the goods no longer make them... the goods themselves have lost any link whatsoever to the land place culture and people and so the only thing that counts is how much it is and how many can be sold... in any case that's what Amalfi seems now although not completely almost... so after a quick tour of the square and up and down the stairs of the duomo reminiscent of the steps of a Central American pyramid... after resisting the invitation to try the best babba in and around Napoli (i thought i'd try one on the way to the boat at the end of the day)...i decided to walk to Atrani...a couple of hundred yards down the road from Amalfi... on the way there just before the tunnel i found another tunnel a new tunnel with no real indication as to where it might be going... turns out that it's a 5 story parking lot that has been dug into the mountain and the long long tunnel is the pedestrian walkway that takes folks to different levels of the lot... quite something... so i continued toward Atrani and there i was facing that photograph of the square and the church tower from the street above... snapped a few shots and then headed down to the main square via a small stairway... quaint small pleasant not crowded at all... Amalfi's little sister completely ignored by tourists and the inhabitants seem to like it that way... which is of course great and unusual... i did notice that there were a few "rooms for rent" signs and a couple or restaurants that appear to be fairly recent and higher scale than what a fishing village might usually have... so i walked up and up and through a few little streets finding a dead end now and then but generally making my way up the narrow streets and staircases... through underpasses and across small courtyards... up and up until i reached an opening where one old woman was at a fountain washing her feet talking loudly to another woman who was invisible her voice coming from behind a garden wall or window somewhere but she was nowhere to be seen...

i stopped there in the shade after saying buongiorno and just waited for her to finish so i could get a drink from the fountain spouting water that comes through the mountains through the rock and is everywhere here... she obviously saw my drenched shirt and the sweat flowing over my face so she asked if i'd like to get a drink... but i told her to finish that i could wait... and as i waited and she finished washing her feet we talked about how nice it is to have the gardenss and orchards to have fresh fruit and vegetables to eat... all organic no poisons she said... and she offered me one of the areas huge lemons thick thick rind huge golden lemons... she said i could eat it on my way up the mountain... that i should keep going up... i asked about the terraced lands about who owns them and works them... seems still some sort of "commons" type of situation although not completely... the land belongs to everyone and it has been parceled out for generations... all lemons oranges grapes and small vegetable plots... further up people gather their wood... it is a park and it is protected so im not quite sure how that works... i also asked about some of the towers and other ruins around what looked to be a church... she told me that i could walk up to those through trails and paths and that i should do that and go also to the next town Pontone because her niece has a restaurant and she would take good care of me with good food and good cooking... all natural local things good things... just tell her that zi' Assunta sent you and she'll treat you well... and if you want pizza she also makes pizza for pranzo...it's not a problem... so she headed down and i headed up...into the unknown... not knowing where or how far this town was... i did see one town at the top of the mountain but that couldn't be it... it seemed too far too high... i asked zi' Assunta if i would be ok with my flip flops... to which she said of course... you're young... site giovene...

the path up mostly steps with flat parts now and then is beautiful as it cuts close to the walls of the narrow valley that cuts up from the sea... the houses have been built up the sides of the valley and as one goes up it's obvious that rock falls and other problems have caused some inhabitations to be abandoned... one of these disasters in this area as in others in the south has been emigration.... but the valley is lush beautifully lush and the branches of the lemon trees are heavy with fruit... beautiful fruit beautiful color beautiful scent... i realize that before the road up was cut... yes there is a road now don't know when it was built and that is how everyone seems to get up to the towns up top... Ravello Pontone and others... but i realize that all the Grand Tourists all the artists and writers who came continuously to these places walked up these ancient paths and steps...smelled the lemons and the hot air laden with other smells of fig trees and laurel... it's that particular smell of the southern italian countryside of this part of the southern countryside that is indelibly etched into my brain that i recognize at first whiff from when i was a child... at a certain point i spot tiles set onto the path wall... one pointing in the direction from which i had just arrived... Atrani... and one pointing down to the left... Pontone... glad to see that it was heading downhill i took the Pontone path accompanied by the sound of flowing water... as i moved down i could hear and then see the water coming down the mountain... then i spotted an old man and a younger man down the path by a bridge... the old man yelling at the young man who soon came to stand by the old man and the four large cases of lemons that he was standing over... the old man too frail to lift even lemon must have been telling the younger man to hurry up and get these lemons up the hill... i had seen four other such cases stacked up the path from where i had come... each case must have weight well over 150 pounds and the man loaded one up on his back and started to walk up the path with it toward me... heavy heavy cases in this heat uphill... three more waited for him below...he must have taken too long a break to spark the older man's ire... i watched from above waiting for the argument or scolding to end before heading down... then as the man started making his way up carrying the heavy load... i reached the stream running fast and water falling down a high wall the underneath the bridge a stone bridge of uncertain age... as i make my way over it and down the other side i walk by the old man thin and struggling to stand using a stick to help himself yet plenty of energy to let loose on the other one... i say buongiorno and ask if this is the path to Pontone... he repeats the name twice as a way of saying yes... Pontone Pontone... i walk past him and along the path that now begins to turn upward again... this is where the real ascent begins with a set of steps up the mountain that seem to be as old as the mountain itself... they wind their way up through the woods and on either side the lemon groves continue to emerge behind the other vegetation... up and up and up and up and up and up... i must have thought of turning back a hundred times... breathing hard and sweating harder i begin to doubt if i can keep going... the town is way above me still looking impossible to reach and then it disappears every now and then making it even harder to understand if i am making any progress... and finally it seems as if it's close... i sit to rest once twice three times and take photographs of myself hardly believing how absolutely wet my clothing is... i set off again and reach a fork... i go left but soon reach a sign reading Amalfi so i turn back and go the other way.... another fork... i go left and reach a dead end... i go back and finally reach the town the main road that now winds up the mountain to reach it... i talk briefly to a man who asks me where i've come from popping out of the woods like that... they probably don't see many people come up that way any more... i tell him and he seems surprised... Atrani... i ask about restaurants and he sends me up into the town toward the main square... i find a couple of restaurants and decide on the Trattoria L'antico Borgo... Cucina tipica della nonna i guess is what does it... that and a great terrace overlooking the Amalfi valley where i go to sit at a table.... the space is shared with the local elementary school which i am told is closed because there are no children left in town... emigration... all the families with children have left for elsewhere...

out of the lunch offerings i choose the homemade fusilli with a nice sauce of mozzarella and eggplant... a big bottle of water... and then a three dessert sampling... a sfogliata a torta della nonna with cream and an incredible sort of lemon curd cream and ladyfinger almost a lemon zest tiramisu'.... incredible... made from the lemons that surround us... fresh tasty excellent could have had more... capped it with a nice espresso and a their own limoncello offered at the end... now they sell gallons and gallons of limoncello everywhere but who knows how diluted or real it might be if it in fact it has any lemons in it... this is like biting into that lemon that zi' Assunta gave me all over again...

after a well deserved rest i head up the town again... more steps more paths going up the very steep walls of the valley to the remains of the San Eustachio church that loom over the whole town and valley... i pass a sign that tells me that i am now in sector C of the park of the Lettari Mountains... Giustino Fortunato again...

i finally head down toward Amalfi so far off down and out on the coast... tougher going down the endless steps than up almost... i can feel my legs my knees straining under the pressure of descent... a completely different path less wild... just as interesting though and just as brimming with history for all the feet that have stepped down along these steps as well... the constant sound of water follows me down... endless rushing water and collection pools... down along the valley the famous paper makers of Amalfi still use this water in their paper making....and then down into the town where it seems that people part to let me through since i must look otherworldly dripping in sweat with shirt and pants that are obviously wet... a group of girls sitting on the sidewalks watches me walk by and one of them says poverino poor fellow...

i walk into Amalfi feeling good about the day a day that started without a plan and that almost became a dreadful wasting time away to wait for the next boat back to Salerno... i stop to get a lemon sorbetto covered with fresh fruit and sit to enjoy it in the shade... the boat will leave soon and i stop at the fountain in front of the Duomo to fill my bottle... the fresh wonderful water that comes rushing down from the mountains...

i ride the boat back looking up to see the town up above Atrani that was a complete surprise and a pleasant one... the sun is still hot but the breeze from the moving boat and the events of the day make it bearable...