Friday 7th October
Heading onwards towards Sicily, my next stop is Salerno at one end of the Amalfi coast.
A long travel day, particularly to Rome in an elderly Intercity train for 5 hours. At Rome I rushed to buy. panini, just in time to catch the Frecchiarosso train to Salerno – at last some high speed travel. They serve free coffee and biscuits which I mistakenly decline! The hotel Plaza, Salerno, is right by the station, a typical city centre hotel that’s seen better days. I walked a short distance to the harbour to be greeted by a blood red sunset, an unexpected treat.
The hotel reception recommended Binari 2 restaurant 2 minutes away, but by 8.30 they had no customers, so I went to the restaurant next door Zero Healthy, a sort of 1 plate or bowl meal restaurant. The meal took ages to arrive as they mixed up the order! I would never tried this before, but it was delicious and the staff friendly. I was definitely their oldest customer but that didn’t matter!
Saturday 8th October
Another busy travel day. Local train from Salerno to Naples where I changed for the local Circumversuviana train to Sorrento. This is the way. to visit Pompei but not today! The Circumversuviana have just introduced a tourist train, the Campagne Express, air conditioned, cleaned of all graffiti and especially faster than the usual service. However, it still had plastic seats, but was otherwise a pleasant experience especially the air conditioning!. On the journey we passed an extraordinary number of Breakers yards!
Next up, the SITA bus to Amalfi, a hair raising 2 hour ride, with constant hair pin bends, the road hugging the coast on high cliffs a sheer drop above the sea. Being a scheduled bus, people got on and off, many standing passengers, not great Health and Safety exprience with the sharp bends and sudden braking.
I was lucky on arrival at Amalfi at 16.00 there was a ferry in 15 minutes to Salerno. This was a very pleasant ride on a warm Autumn day getting back to Salerno at 17.10
At Zero Healthy, the manager remembered me, I said l hoped it wouldn’t take as long as last night!
Sunday 9th October
A relaxing stroll over from the hotel to the station just 2 minutes away from the Plaza hotel for the 6 hour Intercity train trip to Catania, Sicily. The highlight for any rail enthusiast is shunting the train aboard the ferry to Messina. A nice lady opposite offered me a cereal bar after I’d sanitised my hands! When the.train was on the ferry she kindly showed me the way back from the ferry upper landing.
After a walk through some of the dodgier streets of Catania, had a warm welcome from the owner of the Centrum hotel. He took in my laundry, advised about Mt Etna expeditions as well as the recommended restaurants. He really went out of his way to be friendly and helpful. Advised the local delicacy Granita (finely ground ice and sugar with flavourings) and brioche, a Sicilian speciality.
It’s beginning to dawn on me the return of tourism is very welcome after the pandemic!
