To the coast...

Woke up to a sunny day in Matera this morning and the builders were out at daybreak working on restoring the old houses, including our hotel. Time to leave the Browns until we meet again in Rome.  

 Luckily we needed to be moving reasonably early otherwise the noise would have been really annoying. After the crowds of tourists over the weekend, the place was reasonably deserted, which helped when we negotiated our way, by car, out of the old city. Before leaving the area, we drove to the opposite side of the gorge and looked back across to Matera. The view reinforced the amazing undertaking of the people who originally settled in the area, when they carved their homes into the rock face.

After leaving Matera we drove West on the motorway - lots of roadworks, but very few workers evident and some more crazy drivers. We passed villages perched on hilltops, lots of olive groves and industrial areas. The land was greener than we expected, but it is still early Spring.

Near Salerno we turned off and experienced driving some of the Amalfi Coast. The road wasn’t as scary as anticipated and there is a concrete wall along the cliff edge which was reassuring. The madness of Italian drivers was a whole other story. They seem to think that the white line is something that your straddle, rather than to help you keep in your lane. Thankfully there were very few tour buses on the road but the ones that were gave us some hair-raising moments. We drove as far as the Amalfi village and enjoyed briefly exploring the narrow alleys and steps that climb up the hillside. Gelato tasting once again - we are trying new flavours each time, fig was interesting. Seeing the lemon orchards perched on the cliff faces was amazing - we had a taste of the local Lemoncello which was rather nice.

Leaving the coast we drove to Cava de’ Tirreni, a town north of Salerno. We got lost as the GPS was trying to send us down a road that has now become a pedestrian only area. After a few tense moments, we managed to park the car and get some directions to the hotel. Once we had walked and located the hotel and the parking garage, it wasn’t nearly so overwhelming. The Hotel Victoria Maiorina is like a grand old lady, slightly the worse for wear, complete with its own ‘Jeeves”. We were upgraded to a suite so Ella is very happy to have her own room again. We had a challenge finding anything to eat, restaurants don’t seem to open until after 8.00 and we couldn’t find anything close by. Thankfully we managed to find someone who spoke English and some pizza. Even cheap Italian pizza is good.

Goodbye till Rome