Day 1 Saturday 16th June (Bexleyheath to San Lazzaro via Naples)

Only a week had passed and we were off again. The trip by train from Bexleyheath to Gatwick airport took just over an hour with only one change at London Bridge and cost us £5.30 each, our Freedom Passes taking care of the rest of the cost.
Gatwick was extremely busy today so after checking in our luggage, now all automated, we spent our waiting time looking around the shops, eating our home made sandwiches and having a coffee. We boarded the flight at Gate 24, found our chosen seats at the very rear of the aircraft, an Airbus A319, and then began a period of inactivity out on the side of the taxi way, French air traffic controllers were on strike yet again this weekend so our planned take off time of 2.45pm was unfortunately delayed by 50 minutes meaning that we took off at 3.35pm. We climbed bumping through the the low cloud cover to our cruising altitude.
After a comfortable flight we landed approximately half an hour late at 6.50pm local time in Naples.
As we were first off the back of the aircraft, we were at the very front of the queue for passport control who were really not that interested in checking our credentials so we passed through extremely quickly and waited by the baggage carousel. Our luggage duly collected we walked outside into the concourse and were met by Anna, our tour guide for the next week. She introduced herself and asked us to go outside and meet her colleague Mateo. We waited whilst all of our group gathered together, 11 in total and then walked to the bus which would take us to our hotel or agriturismo high up in the hills. The driver did not spare the horses and after driving south for a while along the toll road or autostrada, to give it its correct name, turned off and began driving along narrower roads with hairpin corners all  the time getting higher and higher above sea level. Initially the views were nothing to write home about or even a blog about. Yes we saw Mount Vesuvius but it was rather misty and, we thought, not that impressive. Yes we looked out over the city of Naples disappearing below us, a city which sprawled out hugging an area around the bay and yes, as we climbed higher into the rich agricultural land full of green trees, vines and market garden areas the surroundings became more pleasing on the eye and the houses changed from drab concrete grey to the cream coloured walls and orange/red tiled roofs of the Mediterranean styled buildings that we were anticipating and hoping for.
Finally we drove through the small town of San Lazzaro and up a short lane to our accommodation. We were immediately greeted by the owners of the agriturismo Luna d’Agerola named after the area we were staying in. This farm B & B consisted of 2 main buildings. 3 of us, us included were shown to our rooms in one building (Casa) whilst the other 8 were to be housed in the main larger building. On first inspection our room looked comfortable, was large, clean, had a balcony and was fully enough equipped for us.
We dropped our luggage and made our way to the dining area situated in the other building where we were served a delicious 3 course meal, penne pasta in tomato sauce, a platter of pickled, smoked and fried vegetables with cheese and a slice of cream gateaux all accompanied by 2 complimentary bottles of home made red wine. After a general introduction from Anna and Mateo we spent the meal introducing ourselves and chatting to the rest of our group.
Finally to bed at 10.45pm

Day 2 (Sunday 17th June – Ridge walk with views of Mount Vesuvius)

Breakfast was served at 8am and consisted of the usual continental style assortment of cheese, meat, fruit, bread, cakes, yogurt, fruit juice, tea and coffee and wherever possible sourced from the local area rather than brought in from supermarkets or wholesalers, this is one of the stipulations required of an agritourismo establishment before it is awarded a license.
After a brief introduction to the area, its history and geography in order for us to be able to put things into context, we set off for our first walk graded as moderate and due to last about 6 hours. Armed with plenty of water, a roll and an apple for lunch we set off.
The first 20 minutes or so saw us walking along a quiet road and then without much warning we turned off and immediately started ascending steeply up a concrete surfaced road that many a car would have had a problem getting up. As we climbed the sun began to get hotter in the cloudy sky and we soon began to enter a more forested area. The predominant tree was sweet chestnut and was grown to eventually be used for poles for pergolas to support vines and for the fruit of the sweet chestnut which would be picked and used as flour or for flavourings. There was evidence of this as poles were stacked in piles all over the place.

Underfoot the going was dry and rocky with pumice scattered liberally round and about, the pumice which was actually the result of the Volcanic eruptions which took place in 79AD and destroyed Pompeii – unbelievable. Next, and quite by chance, along the path we met a man searching for porcini mushrooms, he had already managed to pick 3 when we came across him. We walked on again steeply up a rough, narrow, rocky limestone track to our lunch stop and highest point of the day at around 1,000m above sea level this place affording good views of the Agerola Plain, the Bay of Sorrento, The Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius all be they rather hazy.

It’s at this point I should clarify the part Vesuvius played in the destruction of Pompeii, it didn’t. Pompeii was destroyed by another unnamed volcano.
We watched the good variety of butterflies (marbled whites, fritillaries, skippers, large & small whites, clouded yellows, blues and browns)

and the lizards which loved the warm sun in this exposed location and after about half an hour set off again.

We then found ourselves walking down a rocky narrow track ending nearby to an entrance into the National Park all the time spotting signs of hunting along the way, used shotgun cartridges. It was here that Anna explained about the hunting of wild boar, deer and birds which takes place in certain areas of Italy and under license for 2 months of the year. Hunters aren’t usually successful preferring to drink wine and have ‘a good time’ rather than spend their time truly patiently tracking and hunting.
Next was a 40 minute rocky stepped descent.

The steps, having seen better days were, in places, difficult to negotiate but with the help of walking poles we all managed and regrouped at the bottom for a short rest.

We were now on the final, long and tedious road section of the walk which wound its way from the hamlet of Santa Maria very circuitously following the contours of the hills until we reached the small town of San Lazzaro.

Our final port of call was one of the two bars situated in the Main Street, I use the term loosely, of the town where Maggie and I had a cappuccino freddo each (an iced coffee) quickly followed by an ice cream each. We were hot and dry and they were both very welcome. A 10 minute walk back to our accommodation saw us relaxing in the cool of the late afternoon. A good excursion for the first day, 10.25 miles covered with 444m of ascent. Then at 6pm the claps of thunder boomed out above us and the rain poured down, thankfully we were all inside in the dry. No wonder everything here grows so abundantly. A lovely evening meal completed a very good day.

Day 3 Monday 18th June (Walk to Amalfi)

Today was one of those days which was gradually going to go downhill – or so we were told at our briefing this morning!
Breakfast was at 8am and was a quick one as those of us who had chosen to make their own pizzas for dinner tonight needed to make their way to Pasquale’s house to make the dough and had to do so by 8.30am
6 of us made our way to the building beside the casa and joined some other tourists and Pasquale, the 4th sibling in the family, his daughter and son to mix our own flour, water, salt and yeast so that this dough would have enough time to proof during the day and be ready for this evening when we could add our topping(s) and then cook the finished article. The process of making the dough took no longer than 10mins and we were soon back ready to leave for our day’s walk graded as easy, for me it was far from easy.
We left at around 9am and quite soon found ourselves at the top of our first flight of stone ‘steps,’ many of which were smooth, well used and therefore broken in places and with steep risers. Poles out we began our descent.

There were hundreds, or so it seemed, of steps in this first section but we did manage to stop and regroup a couple of times, once where a monorail used for transporting fruit and vegetables up and down the steep slopes crossed our path and again when we reached a road. It was extremely hot and we were exposed to the sun for the majority of our descent, we were very sweaty and our knees hurt from the relentless stepping down. We strolled along the road for a while until we came to a roadside café which not only provided us with some welcome shade but where we bought drinks to quench our thirst. We followed the road for a time passing through a tunnel whilst always being aware of the Italian traffic!!!

The scenery was quite spectacular in places with cultivated terraces and rows of houses seemingly perched onto the sides of the cliffs. The green of the vegetation contrasted with the stark white of the buildings and provided us with numerous photo opportunities.

A few more sets of steps and yet more road and then some narrow alleyways saw us passing a ‘good morning’ with some of the locals as they went about their business and then having covered 5.4 miles arrived at around 12.30pm in Amalfi, the lemon capital of Italy and selling all manner of things relating to the humble lemon: Limoncello, lemon soap, lemon perfume, ceramic lemons, lemon pasta, lemon rice, lemon ice cream, the list goes on and on. It was extremely busy here with all the trappings of a popular Italian resort, shops, restaurants, hotels, cars and buses and people coming and going. After following Anna through the town square next to the Cathedral

we made our way up some steps and along an alley to a very nice restaurant tucked away from the main roads. Our lunch was delicious, gnocchi for Maggie and Pasta with mussels and beans for me.
When lunch was over and the rain shower passing overhead had stopped some of us made our way to the town beach where we swam in the sea and cooled off.
There really wasn’t much that we wanted to see in the town centre so we made our way to the area where the public buses were to be found and patiently waited for our bus back to San Lazzaro. As we had been told by Anna, the drivers keep everyone waiting till the last minute before revealing their route and destinations and when finally it was clear to us which one in the row of buses was ours we, along with 50 other people, rushed towards it, no queuing here then, it was every man, woman and child for themselves. My South East London transport tactics came in to play and I managed to squeeze in quickly and bag a seat for me and one for Maggie. Unfortunately others weren’t so lucky and had to stand for the majority of the 1 hour sick making twisting and turning, starting and stopping journey back up the switchback road to our final destination, the town centre in San Lazzaro. Rain was still in the air so we dropped in to the local café, sat under shelter on the pavement edge and had a coffee and a tea. After a while we strolled back and freshened up ready for our evening meal at Pasquale’s.
At around 8pm we walked the few metres to the restaurant next door, flattened our pizza dough so it resembled a pizza base and chose the toppings. It was then put into a traditional pizza oven, baked and served to us with a green salad and a glass of wine. For us it was far too much to eat particularly as we’d eaten a rather large lunch, nevertheless…..We spent the rest of the evening chatting and with one eye on the T.V. as England were playing their first match of the World Cup so we teased the Italians about their team failing to qualify and because we shared our table with some Germans we teased them about their team being beaten by Mexico in their first match. At the time it was one all between England and Tunisia but thank goodness we discovered in the morning that England had won 2-1 otherwise we’d have never lived it down.
At the end of another busy day we walked back to our room for a well deserved sleep as tomorrow we would be getting up at 5.30am.

Day 4 Tuesday 19th June (Capri)

As I mentioned yesterday, today we awoke very early at 5.30am as breakfast was at 6am in time for us to walk to the town square in order to catch the 7am bus to Amalfi.
I really don’t like the road neither up nor down, for me it had too many hairpin bends and stops and starts so by the time we arrived I’d had quite sufficient, 10minutes more and that would have pushed me over the next edge although not literally.
We had time to kill before catching the ferry so had a coffee and tea in a local café in the town square.
At 8.30am we met up on the quayside and boarded our ferry which eventually left at 9am. The coastline was stunning from start to finish and surely remains the very best way to view this area in order to appreciate both its natural and man made splendour. The shear cliffs drop straight into the azure blue sea and wherever possible are built upon. The pastel coloured houses, hotels, churches etc cling precariously to the cliff face and are often clustered together and seldom solitary. All this makes for quite a breathtaking panorama and, once again, a photographer’s dream.
We stopped only once, at Positano, to take on more passengers and were again on our way leaving behind us a wake of white foaming water which contrasted beautifully with the colour of the sea. We passed boats of all colours, shapes and sizes ranging from smaller yachts and motor launches to cruise ships worth millions and cargo vessels, car ferries and liners going about their business, their white lines like chalk marks across a blackboard. As we left the tip of the peninsula we crossed open water and caught our first clear view of Capri. No sooner had we got within 100 metres of the island than the captain decided he would show us some of the coast before docking in the harbour. To our great surprise he steered our boat first through a sea arch then up to the harbour (Marina Piccola) reserved solely for the rich and famous, Capri is well known for its celebrity inhabitants.

The boat was then turned around and we headed to the main harbour (Marina Grande) and docked. All the passengers quickly disembarked and everyone walked along the quay to the promenade and its cafes, restaurants and shops. It was very busy there and would get even busier in the afternoon when the cruise liners disgorged their passengers, Capri is firmly on the cruise ship itinerary.
Anna gave us a quick briefing and we all followed her up the steps to Umberto Square where we were informed of the available options open to us. We chose to walk the 6 miles or so up to the remains of Tiberius’ Villa at one end of this small island.

It was extremely hot 37C and there was a lot of uphill involvement, steps and ramps, hence the only type of bicycle here being of the electric variety, nevertheless we made it through and along the extremely narrow alleyways and paths until we came to the ticket office. Our €6 each paid for our tickets we entered the ruins for a look around with our first port of call the edge of a vertical drop into the sea hundreds of metres below where Tiberius would throw people off if they refused to please him, he was a pervert and apparently had some very strange desires and requests of women, men and children- many of whom died.
The views from here were good

but boy was it hot and by now we were also quite tired, the two don’t really go together so we made our descent and turned left at a crossroads to pay a visit to the viewing area where we could get close to some sea arches (typical of limestone scenery). More steps and steep terrain but it was worth the 40minute round trip.

Eventually and after having walked 8 miles, we wended our way back via a stop for a cold drink to the Main Street where we window shopped for 10minutes then back to the harbour where we bought a decoration for the Christmas tree before meeting up with the rest of the group.
We boarded our boat for the return leg of our journey (22 miles) and sat on the open top deck where the cool breeze kept us mildly refreshed.
Again we stopped for a few moments at Positano before arriving back in a Amalfi and boarding our private and therefore quicker and only very slightly more comfortable coach back to our accommodation.
After a very quick shower and change of clothes we met at 7.15pm for our evening meal. We ate pasta and vegetable sauce, a cold plate of delicious home made cheese made from the milk from Pasquale’s own cow (rather similar to mozzarella in looks but even tastier) with tomatoes, sliced potatoes and rocket and finished with a fruit and cream gateaux. The end of a long, hot and tiring day saw us in bed around 9.30pm for a well deserved sleep.

Day 5 Wednesday 20th June (walking in the Ferriere Natural Park to Amalfi)

Today’s walk was graded moderate and started with a tough climb up a steep lane out of our village to get us up on the ridge line above so there was no warm up for our muscles, it was full on from the start. But the views at the top down on to the coastline in the distance even though being a bit hazy were beautiful, you could see for miles.
We were now in open countryside walking upon narrow paths lined with bracken, all manner of grasses and wild flowers. The butterflies were abundant and we added to the list of species seen, swallowtails, cleopatras, coppers as well as all the others previously spotted.

As we walked on we followed the contours around the hills sometimes dropping into small valleys and then up again to get back on track. The paths varied underfoot from bare earth to loose rock and even old and eroded limestone pavement and at times we found ourselves in small wooded areas of oak and beech trees. We made regular water stops and had plenty of opportunities to take photographs. At around 11.30pm we stopped for a break where Anna made espresso coffee for anyone who wanted it and in addition provided a schnapps like drink to follow, I declined. We walked on towards the gorge and after an hour in a small open glade sat down on a rough stone wall to have lunch.
We next scrambled across loose scree around and below some limestone cliffs and made quite a steep descent into the Ferriere Valley so called because of the iron deposits found in the rocks around and about. This was the valley situated directly behind Amalfi, a valley every part of which was highly cultivated and we were told a place where cotton was processed to make extremely high quality paper so much so that even the Vatican chose to this day to use this paper for its documents.

Eventually we arrived at a small village leading down into Amalfi town where we stopped a ‘Gerry’s Bar’ where we each drank a refreshing and very welcomed glass of lemon soda.
700 or so more steps and after having walked 8 miles saw us reach the Main Street in Amalfi and a walk to the town beach soon saw me cooling off in the sea ahh!
A quick change and we were drinking Capucino Freddo in a seafront Bar.
Just like yesterday but a lot earlier, 4.30pm we were picked up by our private bus and driven along that dreaded winding road back to the Luna d’Agerola. In the evening we all along with some of the other visitors opted to move to Pasquale’s for an evening of wine and food. We were first directed to the cellars below the restaurant where meat was hanging and curing and the wine was either fermenting or resting having already been bottled.

After a brief talk and tasting session about the wine and it’s origins we returned to the restaurant and along with a number of other tourists were treated to a variety of courses of food where the wine flowed freely. The evening was finished off with Limoncello, fennel liquor and blackberry liquor. We were now ready for bed. Goodnight.

Day 6 Thursday 21st June (Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius)

Today, our free day saw us opting to go and visit the ruins of Pompeii and its neighbouring dormant volcano, Mount Vesuvius, both must sees if you are visiting this locality. Following breakfast we, 9 of us took a private bus for the 1 hour winding journey down from San Lazzaro, high up in the hills almost to sea level and the area close to Naples, a sea of buildings and roads as far as you could see. Our first stop saw us being dropped off right beside the ticket office of Pompeii, this would also serve as our pick up point some 3 hours later. We paid our €15 entrance fee along with hundreds of other tourists from the multi national crowd we were now a part of. We passed through the entrance barrier and after walking through an archway along a Roman pavement we were inside the remains of this ancient, almost 2,000 year old city, destroyed by a catastrophic volcanic eruption in 79 AD and still being excavated from the piles of volcanic ash it had once been buried and hidden under.

There were the remains hundreds of buildings, shops, villas, palaces, courtyards, bathing areas etc, all the necessary trappings of an enormous city sufficient to support a huge population. We knew to look for the ruts made in the roads by the once constant wearing of wagon wheels, the frescoes which adorned the walls of the rich and famous, the eerie remains of the dead who could not escape the deadly poisonous fumes which had caught them completely unawares and the arena most recently made famous by Pink Floyd having performed within it.

Our 3 hours passed quickly but we both agreed that we had done the place justice and had seen a lot of what was there. There was, however, much more to see and even more to be discovered by archaeologists in the future, remains large and small still buried below mounds of ash.
At 12.45pm we boarded the coach and were driven for about 30minutes to base and then up the lower slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Our driver parked a little way down from the ticket office where we bought our tickets €10 each and began the fairly steep 1.5 mile walk to the crater rim. It was hot and dusty but along with many other tourists we eventually reached our destination and were not disappointed with the views both into the crater and of the surrounding area over which Vesuvius stands above.

You could easily identify Capri and the peninsula upon which San Lazzaro in Agerola is situated even though everything was surrounded in a haze. We walked as far as we could and then simply turned around and retraced our steps getting back to the bus for a 3.25pm departure.
We suffered the winding road back to San Lazzaro and both promptly lay down and fell asleep. Exercise and heat = fatigue.

By the time we woke up it was a bit of a rush to get ready for dinner but we made it. Tonight we had risotto followed by stuffed red pepper with chocolate pie for dessert, all in all a very nice meal.
Bed soon followed.

Day 7 Friday 24th June (The walk of the Gods from Bomerano to Positano)

An early breakfast saw us setting off to walk to the town square to catch the 8 o’clock bus to Bomerano, a town just 15 minutes away and at the start of this the most picturesque walking trail in Europe. A fact borne out by the number of people we encountered along its route.
The trail proper started unsurprisingly with some steps then we were on a single track pathway which led us under the limestone cliffs above and into the clouds which meant that we could see very little and considering this walk was all about the views this was a little annoying to say the least.

Luckily we didn’t have to wait long for the clouds to lift and all was soon revealed to us.

We moved from earth track to gravel and to loose large rocks and very rough natural steps which all led us up and down through wooded areas and across rough scrubland high above the sea far below. Every now and again we stopped to take in the views noticing in particular the many boats in the sea, the houses clinging to the rocks below with the rugged coastline and Capri in the distance. Sometimes the path was quite exposed with a serious drop away on the left with nothing to protect us at others there were old wooden fences which seemed to offer little if any protection. We followed Mateo who knew exactly which path to take at which junction and at one point walked up to a shepherd’s hut where we sampled some bread and cheese which had been left for any walkers who might be passing by and who might need some food, what a nice gesture, of course we left some money as payment. We rejoined the track and came to a very small landslide requiring us to make a slight detour which we did without incident. From here we came across some steeper sections of rock which we carefully negotiated and then eventually arrived at Nocelle where we had a break for lunch and I bought a granita of orange and lemon, it was sharp and gave me brain freeze. Finally the steps, 800 of them down to the road leading into Positano were negotiated.

They were steep, boring, repetitive to say the least but eventually and after some huffing and puffing we reached the road. 20 minutes and 7.25 miles later and we, along with hundreds of other tourists were in Positano passing the chic shops and beautiful people that this town is most famous for. We decided to go for a swim on the public beach, a minuscule area set to one side where the shingle was so hot it was nigh on impossible to walk to the water’s edge barefoot. Somehow I did it and was soon cooling myself off in the sea. Next it was Maggie’s turn and she was unphased by the ‘walking over hot coals.’ Following our swim we wandered around for a while, had a drink, did some window shopping, had a quick look inside the Cathedral, bought a gelato and then made our way slowly back to our meeting place managing to buy 3 small decorative olive bowls on the way.

Our final walk took us just 5 minutes out of town where we would pick up our bus. Unfortunately it had been involved in an accident so after waiting 20 minutes they sent another one. Again the unpleasant winding road was used to return us to our accommodation where we showered and freshened up before dinner. It was Friday so fish was on the menu, it wasn’t the sort of fish we liked so……….
We said our thanks to Anna and presented her with a tip and also gave our hosts a tip for being so welcoming and caring.
We were in bed for 9.30pm.

Day 8 Saturday 23rd June (Visit to Bomerano, Naples to Home)

After a leisurely breakfast followed by some last minute packing we eventually left our room at 8.45am leaving our luggage along with everyone else’s in a spare room near the dining room. Along with Christine we then caught the bus to Bomerano, the town where we had started our walk the previous day. This town was quiet and had a few shops which we spent a short while looking around, I bought a Buff decorated with a map of the local area. The buildings here were quite modern with large gardens full of very healthy looking plants. We popped into a street café for a drink and then slowly wended our way back to San Lazzaro, a walk of about 2.5 miles. There was a cool breeze which was very welcomed.
Next we decided to have lunch and did so with some of the members of our group. Lunch was delicious and we all agreed that it was quite nice to be able to select our meals from the menu rather than have an organised meal without any choice of what we were to eat.
Lunch completed it was time to return to the Luna and a change of clothes ready for our bus transfer to Naples airport.
We left our accommodation at around 4.30pm and our very considerate and careful driver delivered us safely to the entrance of the airport. Everyone had to queue up to check in at the desk even though some had already checked in online, that’s the way that things were done here, and after we’d got our boarding passes we went through passport check and security and walked into the departure lounge. We bought some bottles of spirit to take home with us and soon it was time for us to make our way to the Gate.
After only a few minutes we were on the shuttle bus and then walking up the steps to our seats in the rear of the aircraft. There was a very slight delay but at 7.20pm we took off and slowly made height whilst Vesuvius slipped away on our right hand side.

Our flight took us over Switzerland and Northern Europe before passing over some easily recognisable landmarks of southern England and we landed in Gatwick ahead of time at about 8.55pm local time. We passed through passport control remarkably quickly, collected our bags, said our goodbyes and were met by Sophie and Ollie who drove us home without a hitch.