Sorrento

Here are just a few of the problems we had attempting to bike from Pompeii to Sorrento:

• It was cold and windy in all directions.
• The GPS shut off on its own.  When it came back to life, it rerouted us back to Naples.  Mark didn't notice for four miles.
• Mark got a flat tire (the first of many).  He pumped up the tire on the side of the road, but it didn't stay full.  He tried to patch it, but failed (his patch kit was full of dried-out glue). For some reason, he couldn't find his spare.  It was hidden at the bottom of one of Leaf's panniers.
• All the delays (extra packing time in Pompeii, flat tire, going the wrong direction, being forced to walk up steep hills) meant night was coming.

Mark and Leaf coming up STEEEEP driveway

We were outside a little town called Torre Del Greco when Mark gave up patching his tire  We walked to a restaurant and asked a woman about a taxi that would carry bikes.  "This is impossible."  How about a bus?  "This is also impossible."  We felt doomed and considered looking for a nearby hotel until the lady said, "There is a train." A what?  "A train."  Here, in the middle of nowhere?  "Si, the station down the street.  It goes to Sorrento."  It does!  Perfecto. How soon?  "Soon."  Soon?  "Soon." Okay, soon.  Perfecto. We're going. Thank you, signora.  Grazie!  "Prego."

The station was (amazingly) only a few blocks away, but the platform was elevated at least 30 steps, covered in graffiti and looking like something out of a zombie movie.  A shady character with facial tattoos, buzzed hair, a leather jacket, and smoking a cigarette was up on the platform. "Go ask him when the next train comes," said Mark.  "Me?" said Monet.  "Yeah, you're cuter than me. I'll stay down here with Leaf and the bikes. What's the worse that can happen?"  Monet nodded. "Right."  So she ran up the steps and started talking with the guy.  He didn't speak English, but Monet used pidgin Spanish to figure out the train would come in five minutes.  "Five minutes!" she yelled down.  "Five minutes!  Oh crap."  So we had five minutes to get three extremely heavy bikes onto an elevated train platform.  It was like a game show contest. Mark carried two of them up (Leaf's and his own).  And the shady character (who wasn't shady at all) carried the third, Monet's bike loaded with panniers.  What a nice guy! Once on the train, he even told us what station to get off at.

By the time we reached Sorrento, it was dark and miserably cold and we called the farm where we were staying and asked them to pick us up.  "No problemo."  We were met at the station by Peppino and Kaylee.  Below is a photo we later took in their kitchen.  Peppino turned out to be a master of fitting bicycles into small cars.

The next morning, this was our view

Vesuvius and the Naples Bay

The farm was an old olive oil farm.  They had a bad year because it didn't get cold enough for a good crop.  Also, it was very hard to sell olive oil now.  Much of the business was controlled by certain families and many small farms were bought up by the church or by corporations, and they had strict rules on what could be considered real Italian olive oil.  We tasted some of the farm's olive oil.  It was very fresh and light, much better than what we get at home. Peppino could only shake his head and laugh.

We stayed for two days and three nights at Peppino's farm.  They cooked for us.  All the food was local and the dishes were homemade.  We ate together on New Years and they shared their family with us.  (The fireworks across the Bay of Naples were incredible). They had dogs and cats.  We felt very safe and at home.

Leaf devouring the delicious rations of our hosts.

The yolks were the color of a beautiful sunset

It wasn't hard to capture Leaf with a smile on his face here.

One day it even snowed.

We reached -8C and the lowest anyone had seen previously was -4C.  We were cold but happy.

Monet's Mileage Count:

• We went maybe 11 miles before we gave up biking.
• Train Torre del Greco to Sorrento Train station 24.5 miles
• Pepino fit our bikes in his car! Train Station to Sorrento Agriturisimo approx 3 miles

Travel Tip:

To find cool farms to stay at in Italy, check out, http://www.agriturismo.net.  All the cool stay-at-farms are not on this site, but many are.

Next:

Walking to Positano and water demons on the Amalfi Coast.

Sorrento to Positano Hike for Pizza

Day one on the farm:

Monet had signed the crew up for a cooking class at 4pm in Positano.  It was supposed to be only 7 km from the farm, over the hill to Positano; a straight shot down the Amalfi Coast (which isn't that straight). Because of severe headwinds and icy roads, we decided to walk it and take a taxi or bus back. This would not only get us to our cooking class, but allow us to scout out the first leg of the Amalfi Coast and see how treacherous the cycling would be.  We planned to bike towards Salerno after New Years.  Below is a map and some views from our walk (notice the awesome views, the less-than-awesome shoulder and the epic drop-offs).

Positano seems so close, yet so far. . . See it in the distance?

The walk took longer than anticipated, of course.  Just getting over the hill added another 2 km.  And then we had to add another 2 km waking through Positano.  It seemed impossible for us to stay on schedule. Monet called the cooking class and told them we would be a little late. The sun was starting to set and water demons were rising out of the sea.

Unfortunately, we were rushing through town so fast, we didn't get any good photos of Positano.  The town is very touristy but beautiful, built into the cliffs.  Our cooking class was also very touristy, but fun and we got to eat everything we made.

  At the end of the class, we took the bus back to Sorrento, but got off at the wrong stop and walked some more in the cold before calling Peppino to come save us again (gah!).

Day two on the farm:

It snowed, so we weren't too excited to leave the farm.  That said, Mark decided he needed to find a bike shop.  He wanted another spare inner tube and a better patch kit.  He also wanted a completely new tire, but only if it was cheap.  Why spend more money on a rental?

Here was the technical issue according to Mark (feel free to skip this part): "My back tire was worn and a thin metal wire was deeply embedded in the treads.  I didn't have good tools and I couldn't remove it without destroying the tire, so I filed it down with the lame thumb file you get in patch kits and put tape over it, hoping it wouldn't pop another tube. Oh, and not only that, the tire was now slightly out of true and I didn't have a spoke wrench, so I was forced to severely loosen the brakes.  Fun!"

So on the day it snowed, after spending a few hours patching the tire with mostly dried-out rubber cement and tweaking the brakes so they worked sort-of-okay, Mark left the crew at the farm and cycled into town. Unfortunately, it was New Years Eve and most of the businesses in Sorrento were closed.  By the time Mark reached the one bike shop (in Piano di Sorrento) that was supposed to be open, it was repose and the shop had just closed. "Repose" is the Italian version of a siesta, lasting from 1 to 4 pm (or sometimes 1 to 5 pm. . . or 1 to 6 pm. . . or 1 to 7 pm. . . etc.) and it's the bane of all tourists who want to get something done in the afternoon.

"Repose!  Curse the repose!"  Mark shakes fist.

Monet's Mileage Count:

• Hike Sorrento to Positano 9 miles 
• Bus positano to sorrento 9 miles (got off at wrong stop, Peppino saves day)

Travel Tip:

Beware of the repose. . . 

Next: Biking on the Amalfi in 2015

Amalfi Coast Bike Adventure

The next day, we got a late start (again!).  Peppino was nice enough to help us pack our bikes. We said goodbye to him and Kaylee, the dogs, the cats, and the farm. It was sad.

As for the bikes, Mark was riding on a patched tire with no spare and a loose rear brake. Also, Leaf happened to perfectly drop his bike, damaging his front brake, rendering it useless.  Boy, we needed a bike shop. But we had two days to get on a train in Salerno, so no lolly-gagging. That said, riding on one brake (Leaf and Mark) certainly made the hairpin turns and steep descents of the Amalfi Coast more interesting.  Below are a few examples of guard rails.  On the other side, 200+ feet drops.

Riding on the Amalfi Coast actually turned out to be a lot of fun.  Because it wasn't tourist season, the traffic wasn't too bad and most Italian drivers had a pretty good awareness of cyclist.  Cycling actually felt safer than walking because we were going with the flow of traffic.  We stopped a few times to take pictures, but it was hard to capture how incredible the scenery was. It was especially fun riding through the little towns on the way.

Riding Strategy. . .

Monet rode in front because it was a straight shot (well, straight-ish) and so she not only didn't have to watch a GPS, but also not watch Leaf zip around those precarious turns. Mark and Leaf rode behind, a bit slower. Mark tended to ride further out in the street ("So a car would get me first!") and was constantly generating scenarios in his head where he had to dive over the cliff trying to save Leaf.  Eventually, Leaf learned to keep a pretty straight line and Mark stopped stressing so much. Leaf only bounced his panniers off the guard wall a few times and dropped his bike once (luckily he was going slow and landed in the street with no cars around).

Amalfi (the town)

When we stopped at the actual town of Amalfi it was getting cold and almost dinner time.  We decided to stay for the night and push on to Salerno the next morning. Almalfi is a very old city-state naval trading town, built into a small canyon going into the cliffs.  It was touristy (many Italians come down from Northern Italy for the holidays), but also very beautiful. 

A very strange New Years parade

Leaf trying to decide what to have for a healthy snack

Monet's Mileage Count:

Sorrento to Amalfi 18 miles. We actually started seeing cyclist-- Italians slicked out in racing gear with skinny tires. They all seemed happy to see us and yelled, "Ciao!" when they rode past.

Oh, and there were some hills (see below):

Travel Tip:

When looking for Gelato using a GPS, be careful with these old twisting and turning stone cities.  The GPS may send you over a bridge or smack into a wall.  

Next: Into Salerno and missing our train. . .