Day 3 Amalfi

[Susan Umberger]

Friday September 27
A day filled with waiting for busses that never came, or when they came, were too full.  I think the SITA bus service expected the tourist season to end before it really did.  The traffic was packed, dense, really bad.  We walked to Amalfi to get the bus since there was a better chance of getting on one to Ravello there, but teen students from foreign countries jumped the line and mobbed the bus we'd been waiting for for an hour.  So, thoroughly put out we walked to the taxi stand and met four other put out tourists, and split the cost of a taxi to Ravello (50E) with them.  At last, we were on our way!  And it was air conditioned!
We visited Villa Rufolo and Villa Cimbrone--both sites are spectacular.  The gardens, if you love gardens, are unbelievable.  The art in the gardens is too...I will post some pics with the blog.  We also shopped a bit.  This was in preparation to go back home, (we did get on a jam packed bus for that, but had a great, funny,singing driver, who instructed me to say"oh my God!!" on every tight hairpin turn with precipitous drops!!) get refreshed, and then go back to Ravello for the Ravello Concert Society show that night at Villa Rufolo.  We again waited an hour and fifteen minutes for the bus, nervous that our dinner reservation would not be held.  On Rosa's excellent advice, we had booked a meal at Cumpa Cosima in Ravello.  
What a charming trattoria it turned out to be!  We split Caprese salad (it was huge) and then Rhea had a mixed sampler of pastas of the house, while I had Osso Buco  with potatoes.  It was a wonderful meal, topped off with tiramisu and machiatto.
The concert was great, two very talented classical guitarist from the Neapolitan School of 700, playing beautiful instruments.  Rhea is a luthier, so he is always very interested in guitars and how they are made across the world.  SITA did perform as promised after the concert, there was a bus waiting at 11:30.  We talked to a charming Swedish couple about guitars and music on the way back, as well as a nice American pair of ladies who were fun to converse with.
All in all, a fun, exhausting day!  It ended at 1AM watching the moon rise above the mountain above Maiori.  It literally popped up over the mountain across the little bay.  What could be better?