candy towns
Updated: Oct 25, 2019
9.6.2018 - 14.6.2018
The Amalfi Coast, Italy
Stacked towns, scattered lemon trees, expensive beach umbrellas and a never ending coastline. My Italian summer dreams had come true.
Salerno
A girl can dream, but realistically a first year high school graduate traveling europe for 10 weeks is not going to be able to afford $300 a night accomodation in Positano, Amalfi or Sorento. With small towns and cities dotted all around the Amalfi coast there are plenty of places that are within quick and easy reach of these dreamy destinations. Our solution - a cozy little airbnb in the city of Salerno.
Salerno is a much more 'budget friendly' city, that via ferry, is 30 minutes from Amalfi, and an hour from Positano. It made for a perfect base giving us the chance to still live la dolce vita without breaking the bank :')
Fitting the Amalfi uniform, the streets are lined with colourful houses and cobbled streets. Whilst we didn't spend much time around the city itself, our early morning walks to either the ferry port or bus stop were made even better by the sound of piano accordions playing and the smell of freshly baked pastries wafting through the streets.
It was at around this time (6 weeks in) that I was starting to miss our Aussie breakfast - that I now realise how much I take for granted. I was literally dreaming of eggs, avo and sourdough. I looked everywhere and nothing came close to my cravings. Italians seemed to only have three things for breakfast: coffee, pastry and cigarettes.
p.s. we're still on the hunt for a big bowl of spaghetti. Who would've thought pizza is more of a thing in Italy than pasta?
Amalfi
Whilst the photos look magical, getting there was an absolute mission - a five and a half hour mission.
Welcome to The Amalfi. They don’t run off bus timetables, they're based 'around' times, and only if you're lucky they'll stop to pick you up.
Our first day was a test, or character building as my dad would say. It was a Sunday and the only two morning busses to Amalfi were at 9am and 11:30am. We hailed the 9am and the man smirked as he drove past with an overflowing bus. Hearts heavy, we patiently waited. It hit 11:50am and the same thing happened. Sorry what?...
We resorted to catching the pricy 1:15pm ferry from the neighbouring town Centara (I'm not even going to start with how we got there), to Amalfi.
I have no doubt I would’ve spoken higher of Amalfi, if the journey there wasn’t so difficult. I mean it was a cute little town but much to our disapointment it also occurred as we stepped off the ferry that all of the photos Pinterest had taught us were Amalfi, were actually taken in Positano.
All in all, once the frustration wore off, we enjoyed the short time we had there on the less touristy side of town, people watching, swimming and bumming in the sun.
Positano
Our newly developed trust issues with the bus system in Salerno bought us to better decide a ferry would be the way to get to Positano. And now, I can confirm it was definitely worth sacrificing those extra euros that would go towards my daily gelato.
From a distance the famous Amalfi could easily be mistaken as favelas. In the best rugged ways, there is so much beauty and detail. Defying gravity, taking you to a surreal place, no photos can capture the feeling of awe it brings in real life.
Positano's untouched beauty and Italian charm left me with no words. It felt like time stopped as I was bobbing on my back listening to the little waves crash onto the small black rocks, with what would have to be one of the most beautiful views in the world, the candy towns.
I will never forget this beautiful pocket of the world,
Ahhh - malfi Coast, I will be back x