Ravello and Amalfi (the town)

Tuesday we hiked down from Pontone, a bit below Ravello, where we are staying for the next two nights, to the town of Amalfi, which was once the trading capital of the Amalfi coast, and then back up to Ravello.  Our walk is called the Path of the Mills, because Amalfi was once famous for its rag paper, and there are several ruins of paper mills along the river, some dating from the 9th century.  The invention of wood pulp paper in, I believe, the 19th century led to the (almost) end of the Amalfi paper industry.  We visited a paper museum, which still makes some rag paper for special clients, including the Vatican, as this mill is one of the few sources of true, unchemically treated rag paper.

We walked all the way back to Ravello, through woods, roads and lots of steps (steps will continue to be a theme of this trip)

This is Amalfi from above, as we walked down.

This is the entrance to an old paper mill.

This building is the ruins of the drying room of an old paper mill, where the sheets were left to dry on long beams.

A view of Amalfi from lower down, showing the (rather small) harbor, but also the way it is built into the hill.

M. C. Escher, the artist, spent time in Amalfi.  If you know his work, you can see the influence of the tower at the top of this photo in one of his pictures.

One of many absolutely gorgeous wisteria plants.  I'm being photobombed by our guide, Vincenzo.

 We had dinner at a place that has local "home cooking" grandma style, where I think I got food poisoning, but that's a tale for another day.