Tom`s travels: Amalfi Coast Boat Trip (05/08/2016)

We decided to take a boat trip from Salerno, along the Amalfi coast, as the weather looked very nice and we were hoping to go without having to take our car along the narrow and winding roads of that area. We left the house quite early and headed along the Lungomare Trieste where we decided to rent the boat. We took a slow but cheap Gozzo, which used to be the typical fishing boat of the area, and now serves as a typical cheap but manageable rental boat. We all then boarded the vehicle and left the coast of Salerno heading west towards our destination. We passed by the towns of Vietri Sul Mare with its impressive houses right above the cliffs, Raito and Cetara (all of which I had previously visited on foot). Then continuing on we went past the village of Erchie with its tower and stone mine and went around the cape an uninhabited and probably the best part of the whole Amalfi coast. Here the cliff are really impressive, reaching almost a few hundred meters, and there are no towns apart from some sporadic medieval Saracen towers that once guarded the way from pirate attacks. We spotted a sea cave and decided to stop our boat and explore it; after swimming for a while and reaching the cave we found out it went all the way inside the rock and the end wasn't really visible, so we decided to head further in through the partial darkness and find out how long it actually was. My brother wasn't really sure and told me to stop three quarters of the way; he was kind of right as the place was getting really dark and the current quite strong so we decided not to risk hurting ourselves. While heading out we spotted a small boat trying to get in the cave and we waved it off saying it wasn't legal to enter with a vehicle (apparently most people don't care and continue to do so resulting in a foul gas smell and not crystal clear water inside the cave). Once out we swam along the cliff side looking at the many fish and plants dotting this side of the sea and we were quite amazed yet scared too by the depth the cliff actually went down underwater. After getting back on the boat we pulled the anchor up and moved on, reaching and passing the towns of Maiori, Minori, Atrani, Amalfi and Ravello on top of a high plateau. We then reached another cape, where the small village of Conca dei Marini is located; we found a perfect small bay where we anchored out boat and decided to take another swim. We took our snorkeling masks and decided to explore the waters around it; the water was amazing and crystal clear and we spotted so many different types of fish and several starfish too, one of which we took up to take a picture of and then swam to put it back. After a refreshing swim we got back on boat and started to head back home as the whole 27km journey would take around two hours. In fact about two hours later we were in Salerno, where we left our boat at the boat rental and headed home to take a shower and relax after this awesome day.