Our train ride through Rome and Naples was pretty uneventful, besides trying to grab lunch in a bustling Roma Termini train station. It took us the majority of yesterday to get to Positano but we were picked up at Napoli train station and driven to our phenomenal hotel in Positano, Hotel Gabrisa. I mean besides the super windy car sickness inducing roads along the amalfi coast, the views were and are absolutely spectacular. Leila showed us to our room and she made sure to tell us why the elevator didn’t go all the way up to the 3rd floor. “This building is 300 years old... older than the United States”... well, can’t really rebut that one...
Stairway to our room
We headed right to dinner at this great but pricey restaurant where our eyes were much bigger than our stomachs. Michael was overjoyed to see a vegan page in the menu and my mom and I got veal (100 day aged) to counter Michaels vegan choices. We were exhausted and stuffed last night and headed to bed pretty early to get ready for today’s hike.
Fried zucchini blossoms
Michaels vegan surprise
We were picked up at 9 and driven along a super windy and narrow coastal road to Agerola, the beginning of the Path of the Gods trail. The cities here in the Amalfi coast have such narrow roads, there is no buffer zone, no sidewalks, you just walk out the front door and there’s the street. Then there will be a basilica right next to a gas station. Along the way to Agerola we picked up Paolo, our guide. He is in his 50s, and grew up in the terraces farmland of Positano. He had so much first hand knowledge of the area and lamented how people stopped buying local and the taxes on farming were so high that many farmers left the area. He is one of 5 children, with he and his parents still managing their farm.
Legend says the gods ran down this path to where the sirens were tempting Ulysses. We stopped quite a few times to smell local flora, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and others. He is a specialist in funghi (mushrooms) and was looking for those along the route. Porcini mushrooms also native to the area. He was saying that the tomatoes from Campagna were the best in the world.
My favorite stops were to look at buildings that were hundreds of years old. Homes of shepherds who had goats roaming around the land, eating juniper. They would milk the goats and bring them on this trail down to the villages. There was a big cistern that they used to make concrete, next to a home that was still standing and pretty much intact considering how long it had been abandoned. There was a loft inside along with a well that was used to catch and store rainwater. The retaining walls all over were super impressive too.
The walk itself, called “path of the gods” was known as super dangerous until it was published as one of the top 10 hikes in the world in the early 2000s. Then the tourists started pouring in to go on the hike. It was absolutely beautiful but so foggy so we missed a lot of the views from above. Most of the hike was down rocky steps, through the woods or on single track trails along huge cliffs. The wildflowers were amazing as well.
After the long hike we headed to lunch at this family restaurant called La Tagliata. The family style food was amazing, with eggplant, peas, chick peas, spinach, and then 4 types of pasta: ravioli, one with pumpkin, manicotti, and gnocchi. Complete with a dessert tray and vino, and we were ready for a relaxing evening on the balcony.
I asked Paolo if Fattoria was a play on words for a trattoria that makes you fat. He said no, it’s a farm.
My mom and I topped off a bottle of wine and headed into town, which was down about 500 steps to la spiaggia (the beach). All of the buildings are nestled into the cliffs and there was a church in the middle of everything. After our twilight stroll through super overpriced shops, we headed back up to the hotel. Let me tell you the level of fitness required just to live here is crazy. Steps literally everywhere you go. Made for a nice deep sleep!
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