After Naples, and before returning to England, we stayed several nights in Amalfi. The Amalfi coast is stunning walking territory. This is the view back along the Valle dei Mulini (Valley of the Mills) towards Amalfi and the Tyrrhenian Sea ...
The landscape was luscious with vineyards and lemon orchards. A stepped, steeply-ascending path led through the hamlets of Chiarito and Pontone, which sweltered in the hot sunshine. After some brief road walking I joined another, more obscure path, which curved round the base of the limestone bluff upon which the elegantly fashionable village of Ravello is built. I climbed to this strange shelter wedged in the lee of the cliff ...
Unseen creatures scuttled in the undergrowth, and black snakes - possibly western whip snakes - shot across the path. This is looking across to the village of Scala ...
A final push up yet more steps and I emerged in Ravello near the monastery of Santa Chiara. I'd met not a single person on my walk. Most visitors to Ravello take the sweaty, jam-packed bus on a circuitous route up the ridge. I know which way I prefer. Here's the view from Ravello's Villa Rufolo, a shot no doubt duplicated by a million other photographers ...
And this is looking out to sea from the belvedere at the Villa Cimbrone, the end point of Ravello's ridge ...
