If you think all there is to do in Positano is lay around on the beach, looking up at the pastel coloured buildings perched precariously off rocky cliffs while sipping on your Aperol Spritz, you’re wrong. Sure, the beach is nice, so is the Spritz, but the best view of Positano is way, way up higher and you’ll need your hiking shoes to get there.
Sentieri degli dei, Path of the Gods, is a pathway between Agerola, a small commune, perched up in the hills of the Amalfi coast, and Positano. Legend has it that the gods would come down from Olympus and use this path to reach the sirens who lived in the sea below, the very sirens who famously tried to seduce Ulysses with their singing in the ancient myth (why the gods wanted to reach the sirens I’ll leave to your imagination.).
It’s around a 7km hike with breathtaking views of the Amalfi coast some 500m above sea level. The local guide-book stated the hike was of medium difficulty and should take around four hours tops to complete. Lured by the legend and a desire to walk off all the pizza and gelato we had been consuming for the past two weeks, we decided to take on the mountain, sure that we would walk it in way less time (because we’re fit and healthy apparently…or so we thought).
The path can be walked from either Bomerano, a small village in Agerola, or Nocelle, which is closest to Positano. We chose Nocelle, and rather than take the 1700 steps from Positano to Nocelle (which you can do if you’re a Ninja Warrior, or just plain crazy), we took the SITA bus to get us there, a short 10 minute windy road up the hill. By the way, bus rides in the Amalfi coast are another experience altogether! How the bus drivers learn to manouvre those steep hairpin bends is mind boggling. Just don’t look down!
Once in Nocelle, we followed the signs (ceramic of course) and started our hike. Past houses and farms clinging to the side of hills, vines and staggered terraces along the hillside, and the ever-changing view below, it is quite an experience. The path is often flat and easy, but other times rocky, uneven and downright challenging. I found myself needing to stop and take a breath every now and then, which was a good thing because you need to stop and take in that amazing view. From up here you feel like you’re walking in the clouds, like you’re on top of the world. Just spectacular!
We were in Positano in April, so thankfully it wasn’t hot, but unfortunately on the day we decided to do the hike we had some rain. We had one umbrella between us (I left the other one in a restaurant in Sorrento) so at least a quarter of the hike was spent trying to stay dry (and avoid slipping up the rocky steps). I was a little wet, cold, and my legs were really starting to feel the climb. But my whining soon stopped when a group of hikers, the average age of around 70 (one woman I swear looked 90 – I actually couldn’t help but say to her “brava”, well done, as she walked past), donned in rain ponchos and smiling faces walked by, looking fit as fiddles. That was all the inspiration I needed to push on. Seriously, we were blown away by how many seniors were doing this hike, and seemingly doing it easily. Either I’m hopelessly unfit, or the Europeans (most were Italian, French or German) age much better than we do!
Anyhow, as you can see by the pictures, the views are just incredible. But what is equally amazing is that people actually live here. I know that sounds silly, but I am always in awe that for some people, views like these, even needing to walk this path to tend your farm, is just an every-day normality. We came across a gorgeous farm dog, herding the goats that lived on the farm. Little farm houses that are so precariously attached to the hillside they look like they surely will fall with veggie patches and terraced land, these are working farms. I wonder what they think of all the trekkers (and there were many) who walk through their land every day?
We also saw dilapidated stone buildings from ancient times, mysterious caves with pathways that made me wonder who every used them and why, and scraggy cliff faces that plunged to the sea that made me feel a little vertigo. It’s a long way down!
Towards the end of the path, we came across the Grotto del Biscotto, which is 524m above sea level. Named so because it looks like a type of biscuit bread (of course the Italians name everything after food!), a local specialty of the area. You can see old abandoned stone houses embedded into the rocky cliff. I wanted to walk down there, but I was feeling a little giddy by now because of my fear of heights (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that). I only feel uncomfortable when I sense I could sway one way and fall to my death, and that’s kinda the feeling I got standing here, so chose to just admire the view from where I was standing on the path.
Pretty weary by the end, we finally made it to the end of the path. We did it in under 3 hrs, so that felt good. I don’t know know why, but it became a bit of a challenge after seeing all those oldies doing it with ease. We could have stopped more to just sit and enjoy the views, but we walked fast in some places because it was raining. It was such a satisfying experience, a view that I will never forget as well as a challenging trek that was a welcome change from all the sitting around and eating we tend to do while on holidays (of which I am not complaining, but a little exercise never goes astray when overindulging).
At the end of the path, we saw a tile attached to a rock, displaying a poem originally penned by D.H. Lawrence, the famous writer, who was said to have walked this path when he lived in the nearby town of Ravello in the 1920’s.
“The great loop of the Amalfi coastline that looks towards the West, towards the Island of Capri, that precipitous coast, steamy hot, with the crystalline mountains where the gods of today are foresaken and you find a lost self again, Mediterranean, before you.”
The beauty of this place, the vista, the air, that feeling of nature and beauty, like you are looking down on the world was an incredible experience I will never forget. If you get a chance to visit this beautiful part of the world, pack a water bottle and some sturdy shoes, get away from the glitz and glamour of ritzy Positano for a few hours and see the Amalfi coast from a whole other perspective, worthy of the Gods themselves. Then just think of all the pizza and gelato you can eat when you’re done!
Leave a Reply