When I woke up at around 7:00 AM, it was partly cloudy. Today was another rest break day from having to get up really early. We had decided to do a hike called the Path of the Gods, if the weather was good. The forecast called for partly cloudy skies, but it was really more like mostly cloudy first thing in the morning. The Path of the Gods hike usually starts from a city that is nearer to the town of Amalfi, and ends near Positano in another town called Nocelle. We had read that we could start in Nocelle since it is nearest to Positano, and only an internal bus ride away, no delay prone long SITA bus trip required to go to Amalfi.
I ate some breakfast and had a coffee while Stephanie slept in a little bit more. I was able to process some photos and do a little catching up on college football scores.
The weather got a little cloudier as the morning went by, so we were in no rush to get outside, hoping for more sun for the hike we were planning. The weather started to improve some, and so we selected the 12:20 PM bus from Positano to Nocelle. We would have preferred a bus an hour earlier, but the hourly schedule skipped the 11:00 AM time slot for some reason That gave us time to get ready at a leisurely pace and to eat some lunch in. I headed to the shower and discovered we had no hot water. The instruction book at the apartment said we had a small electric hot water heater, and that was why we had been waiting between showers for the past few mornings, giving it time to recover. The instructions had made that recommendation because of the small tank size. Stephanie was up by this time and we tried to figure out what was wrong.
I tried to see if there was a breaker tripped, but everything was on in the electric panel. I went upstairs to the patio, we had seen something with a small vent stack on it behind a decorative fence. When I looked behind the fencing, it looked like an on-demand hot water heater, that was obviously on gas since it had the vent stack. The instruction book had some information about the gas for the unit, but it was in the section for the stove and oven, and we knew our stove/oven were electric. However, the instructions said to go downstairs and change over the gas tanks if the gas ran out for the stove, and also said the apartment was on propane tanks because there was no natural gas available.
I went outside and down a little side passageway next to our place that went to another door for a residence under us. I saw two propane tanks, and at first though they were for that unit since they were right next to their door. While I was there, one of the neighbors from another unit right by us was walking her dog, and came over to see what the problem was. She said the gauge was reading zero, and we needed to change the tanks. She was the neighbor that Angelo had told us was from the USA and very nice. Apparently, she knew these were the tanks for our unit, and I confirmed that by tracing the gas lines that went up the outside wall to our patio above. I shut off the old empty tank, and opened the valve for the other full tank, and there was now pressure on the gauge. I thanked her for her help, and went inside to see if we now had hot water. It took a few minutes, but the hot water was now operational, and we did indeed have a gas fueled on demand hot water system, not the small electric tank that was listed in the instruction book. I will be making a suggestion to the unit owner when we get back, it was obvious that the instruction book we had in this unit was not really for our unit, it was incorrect for the stove/oven, the gas location, and for the hot water system.
In thinking back, it had seemed like we had run the hot water tank out a couple of times taking showers the last couple of days, but now realize that the gas pressure was just getting low, and the on demand heater could not keep up as the gas pressure dwindled. But, it had seemed like the hot water system was per the instruction book, just a small electric tank that did not last long. We had sent a text about our hot water problem to Angelo, but by the time he responded, we had already figured it out. He did want a picture of the two propane tanks to verify which one was empty so he could get it changed out tomorrow.
We both got our showers, and the hot water never ran out, as would be the case with an on demand system, so long as gas was available!. After we got dressed, we had some lunch. We ate leftover pica pasta from the other night, as well as some cheese and ham. We needed to go ahead and eat these items since we leave here tomorrow and won’t be able to take them with us, so it was nice for them not to go to waste.
The bus stop we needed today was up the hill from our apartment, the same direction as we walk to go the our favorite restaurant, so we knew the route. We were not sure where this bus originated from in Positano, so we had no idea when it would arrive in relation to the 12:20 PM schedule. The schedules only show the departure time from the point of origin, which is the main bus stop down below near the church. We left about 12:10 PM to make sure we were there if it arrived close to the 12:20 PM schedule. It did not, and we really had not expected it to, but since these are hourly buses, we had too much at stake if we missed this one and had to wait another hour for the next one.
While we were waiting, we ran into Angelo, our property contact, and we chatted with him for a while. The bus arrived about 12:35 PM, and it was not terribly crowded, but there were no seats. It was a narrow and winding road up to Nocelle, much more narrow that any of the roads we had been on so far. This bus was larger than the other internal buses, so that made the ride even more harrowing. The driver had to constantly beep his horn as he approached blind corners. The ride up to Nocelle was only about 20 minutes, and we knew when we had arrived, it was the end of the road. There was a small parking lot and space for the bus to turn around. There was a large crowd of hikers there waiting to ride back to Positano. We had read that there was also a way to walk down to Positano by some steps, but we had heard there were around 1800 steps to go all the way down to the sea in Positano from here.
We got off the bus and followed the signs through the small town of Nocelle, and finally arrived at the beginning of the trail. The sun had come out a little more, so we were hoping for some good photos. The trail was pretty rough, and there were a lot of people hiking in the direction heading into Nocelle, and just a few going our direction. The trail had some pretty steep areas and it did not take long for us to get hot, and tired. We knew we would not do the entire trail, it is about 4 hours long, but had read about some people who went only as far as Praiano, the next town over.
Unfortunately, we did not know how long that was supposed to take, and we were worried we would get too tired if we went much further. There were some really steep areas we had to traverse if we continued onward.
We decided we had gone far enough, about 2 km from a sign we saw posted on the trail. The view so far had not been that spectacular, and it was sort of a hazy day, and the clouds were moving in again. We opted to turn around and just head back to Nocelle and ride the bus back into Positano, but take it all the way down into the town center instead of getting off at our stop.
Unfortunately, a bus was just pulling out when we arrived back at the bus stop, so we had about an hour’s wait for the next one. There was an empty private tour bus that had gotten stuck on a raised curb while trying to turn around, so all of the men waiting for the next public bus were trying to help push it off. The rear tires on one side were almost off the ground, so they were just spinning on that side. The poor bus driver was waiting on a tour group to return, so he had to get it unstuck. He got out his jack and raised the stuck side so he could place some concrete pieces under the tires to elevate the back end and also get some traction. He finally got it unstuck from the curb, but there was some damage to the fiberglass. At least that provided some distraction as we were waiting.
There was also a small snack truck there, and he sold bus tickets, at a price below the price on the bus, but more than we had paid at the Tabacchi shop for our tickets for the journey up. He was an entrepreneur, taking advantage of his location but also saving us a little on the fare. We purchased a Peroni Beer from him and drank it while waiting on the bus. By the time the bus arrived, there were quite a few people waiting, and forming a line is just not in the Italian mentality, it was first push. first shove to get on the bus. Both Stephanie and I initially got a seat, but I gave mine up to an older women who got on the bus after us.
This bus was smaller than the one we had ridden up on, so it was a calmer, less hectic, drive down. We had seen a person waiting at the bus stop that looked like Henrik Stenson, the PGA golfer from Sweden. We knew it was not really him, but we were next to him on the bus, and he started a conversation with us. Stephanie asked him where he was from and he said Sweden, which then made Stephanie ask if anyone had ever said he looked like Henrik. He said no, but he was on the bus with a friend who said her husband was actually related to Henrik. We talked a lot on the way down into Positano, and then some more as we all walked to the harbor. They were with a group who had done the hike, and the rest of the group decided to walk all the way down to Positano. They both had bad knees, we could see a scar from surgery on one of his knees, so they took the bus down together to get nearer to the bottom area of Positano. It was interesting to get their perspective on their country and taxes, they pay up to 52% income tax, but do get a lot of benefits. He said he was a conservative, so we had similar views on politics. They left us at the bottom of the walkway near the sea when they reunited with their friends. It had been a nice 30 minutes of conversation to share our different perspectives.
We went to our bar that serves the “to go” beers, and I had a Peroni draft, but today, Stephanie ordered a Peach Bellini. The Bellini ended up being a little pricey, but it was made with fresh peach puree. We enjoyed the refreshments on a bench near the beach, right in front of the Chez Black restaurant, one of the most famous in Positano. It started to drizzle a little after we were seated, but that ended after about 15 minutes. We both got another beer and just enjoyed people watching from our bench.
It was getting late, so we headed up to the Piazza for the main bus stop, which was really crowded. The first bus that came along was for Praiano, and most of the people got on that one. All the buses were running late because there had been an accident about 300 meters up the road. Finally our bus came along, and I had thought about using the restroom across the street, but had not acted quickly enough. It was a madhouse to push and shove to get on the bus, but we got on and it headed up the hill toward home. Then we came to a standstill. The traffic is just horrendous here on the weekends, and apparently even more so on Sunday evening. It was a long wait until we finally got to an intersection where we turned left, and got away from most of the traffic. I was just hoping we would not get delayed any more, I really needed to get rid of some of the Peroni beer I had consumed earlier.
We finally made it to our stop, and I headed up to the apartment, 56 steps above, to use the restroom while Stephanie went to the grocery store to get us a few items. I had left our door open so Stephanie could get in, and I heard her shortly after I arrived. The grocery had been closed, so she was not far behind me. We should have known it was closed on Sunday, we had already been down that road on this trip already.
We relaxed for a bit and did some packing before going to dinner at our favorite restaurant up the hill, Da’ Costantino. It had been such a zoo in town with all of the traffic, we had no intention of going back to the city center and fighting the traffic again to get home.
Since it was shortly after they opened, we got a nice table in the second row back from the windows overlooking Positano. We had already had the best view by the window once, so it was okay to be in the next row of tables over, we could still see the town from there. We ordered our usual liter of red house wine, a pizza, and a Calzone. It was all really good, and so relaxing to be out of the traffic and crowds. Once again, we enjoyed an after dinner Limoncello.
When we left, we said goodbye to the staff, and they appreciated us eating there as many times as we did. It was just so peaceful to eat there, it was not pretentious, just good home cooking and service.
We walked back down to our apartment and finished getting things ready for tomorrow when we leave. We spent some time upstairs on our balcony and enjoyed some wine there on our last night in Positano.
I worked on the blog post some before retiring for the night. Stephanie had already turned in, We have an early wake up call tomorrow at 6:45 AM. We will be taking a shuttle back to Naples Centrale Train Station, and need to meet the shuttle driver at the Bar Internazionale at about 8:35 AM.