Alta Via 2019

So, today we are making our way closer to the end of the peninsula.  We are heading for the villages of Torca and St. Agata where we will bunk into our last Agriturismo,  Le Tore.  Another picture perfect day today.  Although it was hot today, it was not as humid as previous days.  We experienced high winds last night which kept us up for most of the night as the shutters at our B&B were continually banging against the walls,  but they also swept away a lot of the humidity. We were prepared for a difficult hike today as the trail guidance warned us of many tricky spots along the way.  In fact, it was quite straightforward with only one difficult to find area.  We made it to our destination in a little over 6 hours, with an nice lunch stop at a castle and a terrific Gelato stop in the village of Colli di Fontanelle.   This evening, our Agriturismo prepared a great 3 course dinner of ingredients all from their farm, even the w...

Today is another rest day, yeahhh!  We planned an extra day here since our village was perched directly above Positano with direct access to the village via a trail . . . . a very steep trail. Positano is of course, one of the most picturesque and well known villages along the Amalfi coast so we were expecting some heavy tourist activity there as well as some good shopping and restaurants.  We were right on all counts.  Immediately upon arrival in town, the girls found a great shop and had bags of new clothes on their arms before their first coffee stop.  After a brief tour up and down the stairs of the many alleys, we eventually found ourselves a nice restaurant overlooking the sea and settled in for a nice lunch of pasta, salad, water and wine.  Life is good in Positano. We decided on a taxi back up the hill to our B&B where we showered, had aperitivo and dinner on the terrace and enjoyed another great dinner watching the sunset.  Into bed earl...

Today we set off from our hotel in Mt. Faito to the highest point in the Ala Via, Mt. San Michele at 1444 meters.  As high as that sounds, we have been climbing for several days now and Mt. Faito is already pretty high, so our ascent today was around 600 m.  After reaching the summit, we then had to descend 950 meters to our Agriturismo in Santa Maria al Castello, a small village set in the hills just above Positano. The hike up to Mt. San Michele took us through a variety of rocky ridges with spectacular views and shady forests with well worn paths.  The temperature reached the 90's today so we had packed liters of water and needed every drop of it again.  We slowly made our way to the summit reaching it just after noon, in time for a well-earned lunch and the most spectacular 360 views of the entire Amalfi Coast. After lunch, we started the huge descent down towards Positano.  The path was tricky in spots with loose rocks and gravel.  We had a couple...