Salerno

Well, today was an interesting day; not what we had planned and not one I would care to repeat any time soon. As we left Cava de Tirreni this morning to drop our car off in Salerno, it was raining on and off, but was nothing to a couple of Portlanders used to rain. We did borrow an umbrella from the hotel and planned to stick to our original plan to do some sightseeing and shopping in Salerno followed by a visit to the Greek ruins in Paestum. If we had to do a little sightseeing in the rain, so be it. By the time we got to Salerno, it was raining heavily but, intrepid travelers that we are, we set off to see the city and the old town. We wandered through the old town a bit, but there weren't that many sights to see so we decided to make our way back to the train station and head to Paestum. Also, a majority of the shops were still closed, either because of the rain or because it was a holiday or because this is Italy and no one keeps to a set schedule.

When we tried to buy our train ticket to Paestum, we were told there was a strike and the ruins weren't open (this was the main reason we had decided to stay in the Salerno area, so we were a bit disappointed). Again, intrepid travellers that we are, we decided to head up the Amalfi coast to see the town of Ravello and perhaps visit Amalfi/Positano again. Well, to get to Ravello we had to first go to Amalfi and transfer buses. We stopped in Amalfi for some lunch and to do a little shopping. By the time we decided to head to Ravello, we were in the middle of a MAJOR downpour. We stood out in the rain for more than 30 minutes waiting for our bus, trying to stay somewhat dry under our borrowed umbrella (by this time we had scrapped the idea of visiting Ravello and just wanted to head back to the hotel and some dry clothes).

To make a long story short, our bus finally came, but broke down along the way so we had to wait for a second bus. By the time we got back to Salerno, it was @ 4:00 and we wanted to catch a 4:07 train to Cava de Tirreni. We got out to the track, but the train that was there wasn't going anywhere and no one knew where the 4:07 train was (again, you gotta love Italy!). One minute it was on the schedule on track 3T, the next it was gone with no indication that it had been cancelled or anything. The next train wasn't for another hour, so we bagged it and took a taxi back to the hotel. Needless to say, we didn't take a lot of pictures today, but here's a few (most from the window of the bus).

Hope you're all having better weather than we are here!