Jackpot!

The alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered hearing rain during the night. We finished final packing and headed for the bus stop—about a 10 minute walk (dragging our suitcases over cobblestone says Maridee). We are first in line for the 8:20 bus to Amalfi. We met another couple from St. Louis who actually have a car, but they decided against driving to Amalfi and Positano for the day. The bus ticket only costs 2.30 Euro and can be used for round trip within 3 hours. That’s amazing—just 2.30 Euro for probably the most famous coastline drive in the world! It was a beautiful hour and a half drive to Amalfi. The Amalfi coast has stunning scenery, hill and harbor hugging towns, and historic ruins. The drive takes so long because it is filled with hairpin turns, one lane only roads, and many tourists! During the busy summer months they station police officers out in the narrowest areas to fold in the mirrors of the buses! It is a sheer 500 foot drop to the Mediterranean and it is beautiful. The bus drivers do a wonderful job and we get to sit and take in the beauty.

When we arrived in Amalfi town we changed buses and got on the bus bound for Salerno. It only took another 15-20 minutes and we arrived in Minori—our home for a week.


After a one hour wait on the beach we were met and taken to the apartment. To our surprise, it was the building immediately in front of us where we had been sitting for an hour. We entered and it is confirmed, there are 120 steps up to the apartment. Did we know that when we reserved the room? “How did we overlook this very important fact?” “Yes”, we told ourselves, we made a choice. There was one apartment on the first floor facing the city and one on the fourth floor with an ocean view. We aren’t sure how they calculated the floors since each floor is 30 feet high! But we made the choice to take this apartment and after several rest stops on the way up, we arrived (with one of our suitcases; we had to go back down for the other one!)

The apartment is beautiful! It looks brand new. It has a full kitchen, a living/dining room with a couch, a bedroom, and a bathroom. It is certainly the best we’ve had so far. But even better are the spectacular views. We have French (Italian?) doors in the bedroom and living room and two big windows in the kitchen that look directly out to the Mediterranean ocean. There is a roof of another apartment just below us, then the road, then a small park with benches, then a sandy and pebbly beach, then the ocean! We can see the mountain cliffs both directions. We can watch cars along the Amalfi drive. The views are simply breathtaking! The place is so nice that we have convinced ourselves that it is worth the 120 steps to get here. (We’ll check back with this statement later in the week!) These last two pictures are our views out the windows.


Minori is a very small town just below Amalfi. It isn’t a high tourist spot which is what we like about it. We had a wonderful lunch in one of the cafes downstairs, and discovered a patisserie right underneath us with all sorts of desserts. We may not want to go anywhere else to visit—we’ll see. We have spent a lot of time going and doing that this might be THE week where we actually just stay put and explore the town’s secrets. There is an old Roman Villa from the period of Agustus that is quite famous and we didn’t know about it. There is a church directly behind us (on our “catch our breath” stops up the 120 stairs, we can look out onto the church square) and chances are the bells will be ringing tomorrow! We have gotten quite used to them and look forward to the sound.

We are so happy to be here, another safe and sound experience. We wish each of you could be here with us. For now, pictures will have to do.

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