Travels and Thoughts
Photo of Amalfi which is known for its production of limoncello liqueur as the area is a known cultivator of lemons, known as sfusato amalfitano in Italian, which are grown in terraced gardens along the entire coast between February and October. These lemons are not like the supermarket lemons one can buy in America. They are longer and have a rind that has an intense lemon scent. We visited a limoncello plant in Amalfi where all klinds of limoncello were made.
Federico Fellini filmed some scenes of his movie Roma on the Amalfi Coast, and included shots of author Gore Vidal, who lived there at the time. The Amalfi Coast was also used for the 2017 American superhero film Wonder Woman as the Amazon island of Themyscira.
Top left: viewe of Amalfi. Top right: another view fromone of the hair-pin curves we traveled. Bottom Left: Statue of St Andrew, the brother of St. Peter who was martyred by crucifixion. He was bound, not nailed, on a cross shaped like an X. You can see it in the statue left. The church is said to have a relic from St. Andrew.
Above: St. Andrew's church in Amalfi.
Photo of our tour group on steps of St. Andrew's church. I'm in back with green shirt and white hat.
Photos can not capture the experience of taking the 22 mile Amalfi Coast ride! Above shows how sharp the turns were, and in this one, the driver can see around the corner!
Right: I sat on the right side of the bus looking over the edge of the abyss! To make a corner, the driver had to go right up to the barrier leaving part of the bus hanging over the edge!
Left: As we came around the corner, everyone was stopped and many were out of their vehicles. No traffic was coming the other way. We found out that a rock had landed on the road, and we had to wait until they could clear this small road!
Above: When I saw this, I wondered what was holding our road up? Right: our guide told us that the house with the green roof belonged to the captain who was responsible for a ferry capsizing because he came too close to the shore. Many died in that incident, and the captain is still serving time!
When we finally got back to safe territory, I joined many of my fellow travelers celebrating our delivery from almost certain destruction with some refreshing beer.
ps: The Dutch artist M.C. Escher produced a number of art works of the Amalfi coast. If you have seen his work, you can understand why the Amalfi coast would have been an inspiration for his work!
That evening, we had a delicious dinner after which we packed as we were leaving in the morning for Pompeii and then on to our final destination, Rome!