Day 11: Amalfi Coast and Salerno

Today we had a full day off until the evening to do as we wished in Salerno. I was not really impressed by Salerno in itself so I kind of wanted to do something other than see the sights around town. There was talk of renting a sailboat and taking a cruise with a few people at a time learning how to work the sails under Susanna and Dr. Gardner and some people were thinking about renting some fishing tackle but, surprisingly, I elected instead to take a ferry ride to a beach town down the coast called Positano. At 11 euros each way it was not the cheapest trip, but as you will see it was completely worth it.

Me and four other guys from Glee Club had originally wanted to go to the island of Capri, but it was not going to work with our schedule for the evening as we had to be back by 5:00PM dressed in our tour polos. So instead we hopped on a 9:40 ferry along the coast and got off at the second stop an hour later. When we were pulling into the harbor of Positano I could not believe my eyes. Along the trip we had seen some nice cliffs and wooded coastlines with little communities carved out in the sheer rock but at Positano I felt like we wer in the Caribbean. We hopped off the ferry and walked along the open beachfront shops and restaurants for a little while until we got to the beachfront. The private beach costed 13 euros and included a beach umbrella, chair, and showering facilities, but the public beach was free and, being college kids, we opted for that one. It was right next to the fenced off private beach so it was really not a problem at all and was absolutely awesome.

The black sand was veeerry hot on our feet but because we had our towels we could bear it until we had to run to the water. When we did get into the water it was unbelievable. Like Salerno, the depth increased very quickly as you went out but about 20 feet from shore, at 25 or so feet of depth, I could see straight to the bottom. I was fascinated with how clear it was despite being about as choppy as a normal beach and with a high amount of boat traffic I would have thought that the water would have been at least cloudy. However, the incredible clarity continued until it was about thirty feet deep and I just couldn’t see the bottom anymore. I really wanted to buy a mask to go check out the clarity from underwater but they were 19 euros minimum on the beach and I was not that desperate. Unfortunately, the water was much too salty to open my eyes underwater (much saltier than the beaches at home) so I just had to be content with the trick I learned from Bear Grylls on television where you hold your hands tightly to your head and exhale enough air to create a pocket to see through while underwater. Here are some pictures for you to get an idea about just what we were looking at on the Amalfi Coast.








After we had spent about 2 hours on the beach (just enough time for me to get a bit burnt…) we walked inland for a little bit to check out the shops and the local vendors. Over the steep, upward-slanting paths vines and flowering plants were supported on lattices and it gave the whole area a beautiful smelling cloud, not to mention a great sight to see. When we reached the top of the market I saw the lemons that Grandma Fabian has told me about during her trip to Italy many years ago and I had to get one. As you can see from the picture, the lemons are about the size of two huge softballs put together. This giant fruit can only grow due to the great number of nutrients deposited in the soil from the volcanic eruptions. I brought the lemon back to dinner and was able to give everyone in the choir of over 70 lemon slices for their water and even some extra to squeeze onto their green beans.





After heading back on the 1:30PM ferry and taking a beautiful nap, we got dressed in our black polos, ate dinner, and went back to the same church for our participation in the choir festival. We had learned two French pieces, one Latin piece, and the Italian National Anthem to perform with 7 other Italian choirs and as an added twist, we got to sing the French pieces as a march from the center of town up to the church. We were about 250 strong and it was kind of fun to be able to see the reactions of all the people in the street. Unfortunately, it was a lot of vocal strain and I had to carefully monitor my singing so I didn’t blow out my throat for the concert.




Then we got to the top of the hill, finally, with our parade and each choir had to do a very short set. Our waiting room was up about four flights of stairs so some of us were directed to the elevator and we jumped in. However, we apparently ignored the 6 people/480 Kg limit sign (about 1000lbs) and when we had 7 American-sized gentlemen inside, our elevator incidentally stopped working. We ended up escaping, but we had to push the emergency call button and wait about 10 minutes for the technician to arrive.



After we escaped, we got to do our concert and we really had a nice time with the other choirs. It would have been nice to interact with them a bit more, but that was unavoidable. I got to speak to a few people and I got to help some of the guys say hi to some of the attractive Italian girls they were fawning over, but for me, it was just polite conversation.