Salerno, Saturday 31 May, Day 38

We managed to be extremely efficient getting out of the Hotel early, and catching a bus just as we got to the stop, which meant that we got to Rome railway station more than an hour before our train departed. On a Saturday morning the station was packed both with people heading off somewhere, and a steady stream of other people whose role in life seemed to be to ask as many people as possible if they had a spare Euro. Some of them weren’t particularly polite about receiving a negative answer, and it was a relief to get on the train and be hurtled away from Rome at around 289 kilometres per hour. 

Under 2 hours later we were pulling onto Naples, then rolling past Vesuvius, then through a mighty long tunnel to emerge at Salerno. We headed off to walk to our hotel, which took us a bit longer than the GPS’s optimistic estimate of 28 minutes, due to us taking a few wrong choices at forks in the road, the steepness of the terrain, and the GPS’s inaccuracy. We missed our destination by about 200 metres today which caused us a bit of walking backwards and forwards.

After we checked in, we were feeling in serious need of lunch, and we set off to search for a restaurant recommended by the lady in our B & B.  Finding it however proved too hard for us in our enfeebled condition, so we stumbled into the first open restaurant we come across, and had one of the nicest meals of the trip so far. The food was great, and the Signora was lovely.

After what seems like weeks of blue skies and sunshine it started raining as we hit Naples, and as the day proceeded there were some mighty thunder storms over the mountains which ring the coast. Which gave us a perfect excuse to do not very much for the rest of the day.

The place we are staying has a magnificent view of the town, the port and the bay, and we spent the afternoon watching the lightning, listening to the rain pour down and the thunder reverberate off the mountains, enjoying the incredibly fragrant lemon blossom scented air, and, eventually, admiring the double rainbow over the nay which appeared near sunset.  Here is part of the view from our little terrace.

There is a lift we discovered, quite close to the B & B, so we caught that down to near sea level. (The lift, as is only right, has a siesta each day from 2.30 to 4.00pm)

After dinner we went for a walk along the sea front, admiring the crescent moon appearing over the mountains in one direction, and the huge electrical storm lighting up the sky far out to sea in the other. Found our way back to the lift through tiny winding streets, and managed to negotiate the rather bewildering series of locks to get back inside. So all good so far. We are very glad to be somewhere a bit quieter for a while. Lots to explore tomorrow.