The Path of the Gods

We set out to hike the famous Path of the Gods (Sentiero degli Dei) this morning at 8:30 AM, not sure what to expect.  One guidebook labeled it "extremely difficult".  The Italian advertisements considered it moderately challenging, but then again, they were catering to Italians who are used to mountain goat-like existence, given their preponderance for walking up and down the hills of their home towns.  The first part of the hike, per my guidebook (Walking in Italy) was about 3 miles long, climbing out of Positano and to the very top of the steep hill behind the town. The first  hour and a half of the hike was supposed to take you to the Church of Santa Maria (churches fill every nook and cranny in this country) and then the next one and one-half hours send the hikers through a forest of pines, over to a hill with an odd arch/tunnel/hole through the top part of it, and then down to the tiny hamlet of Monte Pertuso.  Using a map provided by hotel, we started out at 8 AM, following directions to the trail head provided by the concierge.  We soon realized that we had missed the whole first section of the hike I've described above, because the concierge's route had us climb just under 2000 stairs to get to the center of Monte Pertuso directly, instead of ascending up and then down the huge hill behind the town.  We were very upset about this, since we wanted the full experience of the trail.  However,  in Monte Pertuso, we met an Australian couple who had taken the bus there that morning, and were planning on hiking the trail in the same direction as us.  They told us they had tried to do the whole trail yesterday, following the path as laid out in our guidebook, and it had taken them nearly 6 hours just to do the first 3 mile stretch.  Part of their problem involved getting lost for 1 1/2 hours, and then getting rescued and redirected by a local hiking guide, but they also said the trail was incredibly steep and difficult.  After talking with them for a while, we were pretty happy we had selected the "cheeseburger and fries" route outlined by our concierge rather than attempting the guidebook version. 

The "Oh Shit" moment -- we round the corner thinking we are nearly at the street in Monte Pertuso, but instead, another zillion stairs.  There were 1,740 total from Positano to Monte Pertuso

Now you're talking.  This is just what we needed after reaching Monte Pertuso

Leaving Monte Pertuso we continued to climb up a steep road with gradients of 20% or more in some places.  We wound around the coastline and had some spectacular views out to sea as we twisted and turned up the hill.

Finally we reached an old bridge over an enormous, forested chasm in the hillside, and we were able to get off the roadway and begin our walk on the "Path of the Gods".  Climbing high and low, past small streams and up over boulders we made our way for another mile or so to the very small town of Nocelle - you know the town is small when it only has one church.  We followed our book's instructions to go past the shrine to Mary and turn left at the water fountain, and then we departed from civilization for a while and began the wilderness part of the walk, through arid but beautiful landscapes and hillsides covered with an assortment of wildflowers.  Of course, I had to take pictures of them all, because similarly to the walk to the zipline a few days earlier, they provided a reasonable excuse to stop walking/crawling/climbing for at least a minute or two. 

If there were no wildflowers in sight, I stalled by taking pictures of the exquisite coastline, and when that was obscured by trees, rocks, or clouds, I found lizards to photograph.  In fact, this hike could easily be renamed "Walk of the Lizards" since they were so prevalent.

As the sun rose higher in the sky and hills became even steeper, I began to imagine ways to make little harnesses for the lizards so they could help haul me up the trail.  Fatigue was starting to set in as I began to think it would be fun to write a book about all the flora and fauna of the trail.  We saw lots of tracks and I had read there were weasels, porcupines, goats, and an assortment of other various mammals in the area.  I wondered whether it would discourage potential buyers if I included a chapter on "Dung of the Path of the Gods", since there seemed to be a fair amount of it everywhere.  I think delirious hikers like me might be interested in knowing the differences between weasel dung and goat dung, but maybe that's just a personality quirk I have. 

Finally we reached the top of the hill overlooking the town of Praeno, and my guidebook assured me there was not much left.  We passed through a very beautiful saddle in the hills, where rock-walled homes were set above terrace after terrace of grapevines and gardens.  Fantastico!  Especially because they provided more photo-opportunities (i.e., rest stops).  We could now see up the coast to Capri, and down the coast to Amalfi, and the end of the trail -- the town of Bomerano -- was in sight as well. 

Along the final stretch, we walked on the edge of ancient, eroded sheer cliff walls that had numerous cliff-dwellings and caves carved into them.  It was amazing to imaging people living there in some past era.  We reached the end of the trail, and walked into town to the catch the bus down to Amalfi, a distance of 6 kilometers.  We found the SITA bus stop and waited there for about 10 minutes. Then we tried to read the timetable to determine when the next bus would come, and realized we needed to buy tickets in advance. Oops!  Asking around, we learned that several shops sold them, but they were all closed for siesta and would not open until maybe 2:30 or 3 PM - over an hour or more away.  "How about a taxi?" "No problem, if you want to pay 40 Euro!"  Yikes!  We are hungry and exhausted since we hadn't had breakfast or lunch, but 40 Euro is about 55 USD, to go only 6 kilometers.  We then found a local guy and negotiated a lower price, and finally made it into Amalfi by 2 PM.  Too tired to shop or sightsee, we had gelato and beer (my first gelato on this entire vacation, amazingly) and booked a ticket on the ferry back to Positano. 
Walking up the hill from the port to our hotel was a breeze after what we'd just finished, and we found ourselves actually pushing the slow-poke Italians out of our way. Since it was our last afternoon in Positano, we shopped all the way up the hill and bought a variety of gifts to bring home.  Originally we had only planned to stay two nights in Positano, but had added a third after checking in.  This morning, we had to vacate our room, and the hotel moved our things to our new room.  When we arrived, we were pleased to see our new quarters were twice as spacious as our first room, having both a bedroom and a sitting room, plus lounge chairs on the balcony in addition to the little cafe table and chairs.  The bathroom is also larger and is thoughtfully equipped with the Italian Life Alert pull cord.

Pretty floor tile in our new room

We quickly showered then went down to the spa where Bobbio (sounds like Fabio) got a massage, and I had a spa manicure. I wanted a massage but had no money left after shopping this afternoon.  Bob came back to the room in his spa slippers, robe, and little pair of complimentary paper g-string underwear provided by the spa.  Would love to share pictures but that could be a marriage-ending decision.  We are now getting ready to have dinner at Da Vincenzo, a highly rated restaurant up the road from our hotel (we are into walking UP today).  More on the food later!