I had the strangest experience today. Scary, because I’d been stupid and underprepared, and exhilarating… because I’d been stupid and underprepared. I descended the cliffs from San Lazzaro, where we were staying, to Amalfi, along Sentiero dell’Antica Repubblica (the Path of the Ancient Republic). We drove there the other day, around 20 miles via winding roads, but I was told that the steps reduce that to a small number of miles and it would take 100 minutes to walk. I do love a challenge, so I wanted to see how fast I could run it.
I figured I’d run for an hour total including the steps and dodging traffic on the road into Amalfi, then that would give me 90 minutes to get back and get up the steps. I knew it could be nightfall before the end so I took my headtorch. One of the wiser safety decisions I’ve ever made.
Getting down the steps was a doddle. I lost count at 1,500 steps down, I’m told it’s 4,000 but I don’t think that’s right. Maybe 2,000 down and 2,000 up, that could be it. Anyway, although some were broken they were largely complete and much more recent than their title suggests, so I was safely down the 2,000 feet in 25 minutes and down to the Amalfi beach in 40 minutes. Sorted. I stuck to my hour plan, so ran through Amalfi and out the other side, through Castiglione and almost to San Cosma before turning back for my 90 minute return. Or so it was planned.
What I didn’t bank on was ascending the wrong set of steps on the way back, twice. The truth is, one set of steps looked pretty much exactly like another – to my, the untrained, eye – and I thought I knew the direction I needed to head (up!) so I stubbornly stuck to that plan. I kept climbing, always looking up to see where I was going and seeing a wall, beyond which I thought would be a road that I could run to San Lazzaro, family, and dinner. There were no steps any more, just a series of rough paths and higgledy piles of rock. I’d get over the wall, or through it where a gate was available, and beyond that would be a climb over some rocks and yet another wall. It was all getting a bit weird, and it was only after I’d done this six or seven times that I realised where I was standing. I was on a terrace.
The beauty of the Amalfi coast is enhanced by ancient agricultural terraces, that look like this:
People farm the slopes using these terraces, which are large channels dug into the rock where crops are grown. When you’re looking at these from your car, or standing and marvelling at the view, they look utterly magical. Timeless. Wonderful.
When you’re standing in one, unaware of the way either up or back down, realising that each of these terrace drops to the next by around 10 feet, and the sea is several hundred feet below you, with sunset approaching, they are fucking terrifying.
I remember clearly saying out loud to myself “You could be in trouble here,” and I think that galvanised my senses and I decided to try to find the path back down. That was a sensible decision but it was really tough – I kept choosing a path that ended in serious brambles or some other dead-end, and having to turn back to try a different fork. My legs were getting torn to shreds and the sun was going down. I passed a very large aloe at one point and then found a few steps that I recognised. I went down them as fast as I dared. I got back to the road, relieved, and ran west towards San Lazzaro and therefore, surely to the correct steps. There they were. Excellent. I got up them double-quick, only to find that they fizzled out into trail again. I scouted around to find some trail, and spotted something that looked like steps – but east. I ran along there for a while, and found… the aloe. I couldn’t tell for sure if it was the same one, but the sun was now seriously setting and I could hear duelling banjoes playing in my head, so I retraced my steps, switched on my headtorch, and bolted down the steps.
I found a house on these steps and knocked on the door, half-blinding a small child with the awesome beam of my Nao, before her dad appeared and I explained in my basic Italian that I was lost and looked for the steps to San Lazzaro. He pointed back up the steps, left, then up again, then left, and continue doing this until I reached the target. I thanked him and gave it a try. I eventually found my way to the original trail, and then just had the simple task of climbing 1,500 or so steps , and around 1,500 feet of climb in 1.5 miles, to reach San Lazzaro. That was a bloody good workout I can tell you! For those of you who know the North Downs Way 100, Detling should be pretty simple now I know I can get up these!
As you’ll see from the trail here, it was indeed the same aloe plant that I found from a different direction, and I did ascend the wrong steps twice. Next time I’ll take much greater precautions, as I would not have liked to have been negotiating my way around those terraces in the dark.
Total recorded ascent was 3,200 feet, but my watch crashed at one point for a few uphill/downhill minutes, so there’s a few more to be added in. About 12 miles, 2 hours 40 mins. Not the greatest of GUCR preps but about the best I’m going to get around here.
We’re off to a relatively flat Rome tomorrow, hoping to get some decent (rather than descent) miles in.