Friday morning, we made our to Roma Termini, both super stressed about making all our connections in time… not realising it was the beginning of what was going to be an AMAZING day!

First we were worried about our taxi to the railway station. The night before we had tried to book a taxi from multiple places, one of them informing us that there was to be a public transport strike throughout Rome and because of that we weren’t able to book one. Not convinced, we kept trying and the only one that answered (Radio Taxi: +00 39 06 3570, calling from a UK phone) thankfully seemed to accept our booking. Still, we didn’t sleep too soundly that night wondering whether this supposed strike would affect our travel. However, the next morning our taxi did show up on time. Yay.

We got to Termini two hours before our train was due to depart because we needed to book a connecting train from Naples to Salerno. We’d been messaging Giovanni, the host for our Ravello Airbnb, asking what was the best way to get to Ravello and he told us to get to Salerno because from there we could get a ’Sita Bus’ to Amalfi, where he could then pick us up.

Travel Tip: If travelling to the Amalfi Coast by public transport, book your train to Salerno or Sorrento. The Sita buses to the coast do go from Naples, but they run more frequently from Salerno and Sorrento. The journey takes about 1hr30 from either place and costs roughly €3.40. Bargain!

Annoyingly, when we were planning the rest of our trip back in Bologna we couldn’t really find any reliable information on Sita buses online, so we hastily booked our train to Naples and hoped for the best. Spontaneity fail. Though, I think we both agree that we’re so glad we did, because our train journey from Rome to Naples was so entertaining! You know when you’re travelling, by train/plane/coach/whatever, and you end up having a huge conversation with the person next to/opposite you… both knowing you’ll never speak again but both enjoying each other’s company? Yeah, well that happened. We ended up befriending a guy called Luigi, who was travelling to Naples with his dad. He was such a character that he pretty much had our whole carriage’s attention as he proceeded to crack jokes and attempt conversations with anyone who would listen… with Issy serving as his Italian-English translator! It definitely helped us get through 3hr train journey with failing air conditioning.

Everybody’s new best mate, Luigi.

Despite the memorable journey, the train actually arrived at Naples later than intended so we ended up missing our connection. *cue panic* We thought we’d try the tourist information desk to find out our options, but they were anything but useful! We then went to the Trenitalia ticket office (the train line we’d booked our connection to Salerno with) and they informed us that we could just use our ticket to get on the next train to Salerno. They changed the time on our ticket and we were on our way again. *happy faces* This journey took about 40 minutes and even took us past Mt. Vesuvius which we weren’t expecting.

A wild Mount Vesuvius appears!

Once we arrived at Salerno we bought our tickets for the Sita Bus to Amalfi from the little tabacchi in the station. My gosh was that the most beautiful bus journey we’ve ever taken! The route pretty much followed the twisty, sometimes super narrow roads (mad skills!) that wound along the coast, giving us breathtaking views of the sea. May not be ideal for those who get travel sick, but I was definitely snapping photo’s the whole way!

We arrived in Amalfi a lot later than we’d told Giovanni, but he graciously waited for us and gave a lift to Ravello, which is about 20 minutes up in the hills from Amalfi. He even carried our REALLY HEAVY suitcase all the way down the steps to the house. Bless him!Continue reading “Issy and Ang go to Italy (Part 3) – The Amalfi Coast”