Day One.....A REALLY LONG DAY!


Well, our first day of of hiking has finally arrived.  The weather looks great albeit a bit hotter than we'd like with anticipated temperatures in the 90s.

As with every hike....how to find the starting point...not usually as easy as you think and after a few missed starts and a bit of local help, we located the Abbey that was our starting point and we were off!

We are ready to go!


An ancient wash house in our village


The Abbey that was our Trail Head








Our starting point from the village, a little above sea level but not too high.  Watch how our elevation progresses from the pictures later in this post.

We were climbing mostly through Chestnut forests today.


We encountered several memorials along the way,








Starting to climb and Don looking back at Salerno








Many statues, carvings and even stations of the cross as we made our way to our morning destination, Maria d' Avocatta, a church, high in the cliffs and inaccessible by vehicle.





Great views of the Amalfi Coast from up high





After 3 hours of steady uphill climbing we reach our morning destination


The views from Maria d' Avocatta, high in the cliffs above the Amalfi Coast





Don....how could you!


Below is a view of our trek for the afternoon as we were to make our way towards our next B&B for tonight.  Our path takes us down the other side of the mountains along ridges towards Foce Tramonti.   This was described as the most difficult part of the Alta Via hike as the paths were very narrow, many overgrown with occasional cliff hugging to pass the narrow parts.  Here, despite the heat we were regretting our shorts as our legs took a beating from the bramble and overgrown vegetation along the paths.  We also had to be very careful of our footing as the overgrown vegetation obscured the narrow paths along the cliffs in many spots.  Navigation was also a real challenge in this area as the paths were not well marked and it was easy to miss way markers and get on the wrong path,  We had a few missteps and ended up arriving fairly late to our B&B tonight.





When we did arrive however, filthy and sweaty with our scarred legs, we of course found a local bar to replenish our fluids. . . . Ahhhh, nothing like a large, cold Peroni at the end of a long hike.


At the end of the day we looked more like coal miners than hikers as we longed for a shower, a nightcap and a clean bed!



A view from our B&B in Tramonti after a long first day!  Time to rest and get ready for tomorrow!


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