Salerno and the Amalfi Coast Death Hike

On this rainy day in Rome (which seems to be the case more times than not), I am going to catch up on this here blog. I’m going to take you back about a week or so, so let’s go! (It’s slightly lengthy in detail—I apologize in advance!)

                It all began on a Friday morning, around 7 in the AM. Tommy (1 of my 7 roommates) and I needed to leave about 20-30 minutes early from our apartment to meet Brighid (another MU student) in Campo dei Fiori where her apartment is located so we could make a 45-minute trek to Termini train station (that’s a run-on sentence, that is). Phew! (Intake deep breath…and go…) So, after determinedly walking to the train station, we caught our train with a few minutes to spare.  The train ride to Salerno from Rome is approximately 3 hours. After about a 30-minute struggle to keep my eyes open, watching the countryside pass by, I gave into sleep. Next thing I knew, I was being shaken awake and being told to hurry because we were at our stop. Having no idea what was going on, I quickly got my few things together and followed my friends. As we stood on the platform, me, still very disoriented, asked where we were. They both just looked at me and laughed. Everything that followed during that day was pretty uneventful—we walked along the coast and wasted time waiting to check into our hostel, grabbed some gelato, and discovered that not all pizza in Italy is good pizza…one discovery I’d like to not discover again, thank you very much.

                Having had very little sleep that entire first week, the three of us slept like babies that first night (well over 12 hours actually). When we finally got up the next morning, we caught a bus to the Amalfi Coast, which is a very interesting bus ride to take. Let’s just say that with the very narrow roads along the coast coupled with the Italian drivers driving along it, it was exciting. Haha!

                I want to stop here for a moment and explain what we’re about to do and why we were doing it at all. Tommy is a bit of an outdoorsman. He leads hiking trips for kids in Colorado during the summer. He brought us to the Amalfi Coast to go hiking through the mountains. I think the word adventure would definitely define this experience as a whole…

                We began our ascent sometime in the early afternoon. It took a little pointing in the right direction from locals to set us on our way, but once we got to it up, up, up we went. The going was easy at first, nothing past the expected soreness in our legs, but as we kept going, we started feeling the exhaustion slowly set in. I’m not sure how many stairs the first leg of the race was, but it was over 700 if I recall correctly.

                At the top of this back and forth, this way and that, winding stairwell, we found ourselves in a tiny town. We rested for a very brief time and were off again. At this point, I was thinking, “Gee, if that was how this hike is going to be, this’ll be nothing!” Ha! Silly me.

                We followed the red and white trail marks through this little, mountain-dwelling town and found ourselves climbing higher and higher on a forest path. It was exciting to watch as the little town we had started the journey in became smaller and smaller—first due to the elevation, next due to the distance inland we were traveling. From time to time, we would cross little downhill water flows (not quite streams, but big enough to get your shoes wet), or other random elements that make you feel like you are some character in a book or movie, set out on an adventure.

That day, we crossed all sorts of paths…narrow, rocky, slippery, tree bough paths across small bodies of water (although Brighid fell in at this one); my heart was racing from more than the simple exercise, the mere thrill and excitement (not necessarily pleasant) from some of the things we did made sure of that. (There are some details here that I’m going to leave out for the sake of certain people, but just know that there were some points when either myself or one of my companions had to face some obstacles and get over them really fast because of the setting sun. For example, have you ever had that dream when you are running up a hill or stairs and you seem to be unable to make any progress, you just keep struggling with your current position? Yeah, that dream was one of my experiences…it’s scarier in real life!)

                By the time we found our way back to a town, just north of where we started, the sun was setting. Luckily, for us, we were able to follow the ever-winding road down to the coast (with the help of some really random staircases that cut the distance significantly). Long story short (and I know it hasn’t been short, sorry), we made it back to where we started the long day at and caught a bus back to Salerno where we passed out as soon as we got to our hostel.

It's Been One Week...

I’ve been in Italia for a full week now (even though it feels like it’s been much longer because of a lack of certain things…such as a routine). I don’t want to bore anyone with the details of what I’ve seen so far so I’ll sum it all up in a list: St. Peter’s Basilica (inside and out), the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon (inside and out), Spanish Steps, Coliseum (story to follow), Roman Forum, and the Termini (the train station…I know, exciting!).  All of these sites were fascinating to finally see in person.  A picture may speak a thousand words, but there is nothing like experiencing the real thing.  I saw the majority of these things for only a few moments each because the rain or the cold or the effin’ umbrella peddlers set us on the move again. I will definitely re-visit these places so I can fully take them in and enjoy their existence and history in person, but not until another day…hey, I’ve got some time, right?

So, the first time I saw the Coliseum was actually quite on accident. Let’s just say we kind of stumbled upon it—not a bad thing to stumble upon! A friend and I were trying to find our way back to our apartments from the Spanish Steps, and me, being the guy, knew exactly where we were going (built in GPS, right?). Anyway, one wrong turn and we were…let’s not say lost because it implies we didn’t know where we were and I knew we were somewhere in Rome the whole time—problem solved…we were on an adventure!  Long story short, as we started arguing over the possible fact that my internal GPS was broken (or defective), we looked to our left and gosh darnit, Mike had found the Coliseum! It was the craziest thing and my friend was so grateful in the end that I had known exactly where we were going and didn’t want to ruin the surprise. You’re welcome!

JUST A FEW OBSERVATIONS THAT I’VE MADE THUS FAR…

-Girls like to ask for directions when they are clearly not necessary

-Traffic in Italy sucks. Result: crossing streets in Italy sucks.

-Many Italians know some English, however limited, it’s there.

-Power randomly goes off in apartments

-Pizza IS a food group

-When an Italian man asks you your opinion on Italian women…DO NOT respond that they’re not that bad…the male will become upset, if not offended

Bienvenuti a Roma!

So, I made it safely to my final destination of Rome! After months of dreaming and anticipating, I'm finally here! It's still very surreal to me, but I'm sure it'll sink in by morning when  I start walking around the city in the daylight. I'm thrilled to say that I'm in Rome tonight after the many delays in Chicago (can't say the weather is missed) and then the 4 hour or so layover in Munich. It was just tiring and confusing because they switched my airline carrier and then almost wouldn't let me board the plane to Rome because whoever printed out my boarding pass didn't make sure that there was a ticket number on it (apparently this is a vital piece of information when boarding a plane...who knew?).

Anywho, once in Rome our worries were cast aside when we were (thank God) picked up by a shuttle sent by the university and taken to our apartments (we thought we would miss this service with all the delays we encountered). The ride to our apartments was interesting to put it lightly. Let's just say, a lot of people think driving in a city like Chicago is bad...Chicago is a walk in the park in comparison. I couldn't help but laugh though at the ridiculousness of the driving style though, because as far as anyone is concerned, traffic laws are mere suggestions. Dinner tonight gave me a chance to try my first authentic italian pizza and the language a bit. Delicious pretty much sums it up into one word. It was entertaining though to attempt to order such a simple item of food and to still have so much difficulty--I knew what I was trying to say...I guess I'll have to work at it a bit more though to get past the grazie's and ciao's...