Convento di Cospiti

The Convento di Cospiti, a medieval monastery sits on a cusp of rock ('Cospiti' comes from the Italian for cusp) 600m above sea level and the town of Vettica, near Amalfi. A steep footpath winds up by massive limestone cliffs from there, but a less exhausting way first climbs, then traverses in from San Lazzaro, finally dropping steeply to the ruins.
It's a remarkable place for a monastery, perched between bands of vertical and overhanging cliffs, above and below. The monks seem to have sought maximum solitude.


The shortest path from San Lazzaro is also the most exciting way in. From the top of the cliff, at an electricity pylon (I swear someone must be offering the utility companies a bonus for spoiling the most photogenic tourist viewpoints) the path turns steeply leftwards, down a ramp splitting the cliff diagonally.

The path turns downwards. The monastery is out of sight below, on the steep slopes on the right of the picture.

Our path winds between a looming cliff and a vertiginous drop into a gully, below a pinnacle poised above the path. Once in the gully the path turns down it. Cables fastened to the rock provide a handrail as you creep downwards with a mere suggestion of steps, concreted or carved into the rock.

The exciting bit of the path with its shiny, new chain

Lastly, a more recent, shiny chain protects the final turn out of the gully onto the slightly less vertigo inducing slopes below which sit the monastery ruins.

The ruins with Amalfi and the Capo d'Orsa below

First mention of a religious building on this site comes from the 11th century and it was used continuously until it's gradual decline towards the end of the 18th century. In the 14th century it was a pilgrimage destination and from then until 17th century was it's heyday. early in the 17th century. Terracing indicates the growing of food and these precipitous gardens are also to be found in the large cliff encircled bay to the south west where a further ruined chapel sits on a bluff of rock. I guess that this must have been associated with the monastery.

There's a barrel-vaulted building under a ledge on which a wooden cross has been mounted and above that an old wall built at the edge of a cave which was a hermitage. A story mentions this as a retreat for the prospective Pope Sixtus IV for a couple of years in the fifteenth century.

Cliffs with the wooden cross and the Sixtus hermitage

Today it's a quiet spot. Last week I visited for the first time amidst spring flowers including an early blooming Italian orchid. It's also known as the Naked Man orchid called because each of it's petals is shaped like a human figure with arms and legs, joined to the central stem at the head. Between it's 'legs' is the telltale spike which gives away the gender.

Naked Man Orchid (the man's in the lowest petals)

Dung beetles in their labour of Sysiphus

The place is alive with lizards and above soared a Kestrel and then a Peregrine Falcon, which folded its wings and dived towards the cliff to a perch and, presumably its nest. Leaving I walked eastwards and climbed gently around the rocky bluffs to escape the encircling cliffs without any further scrambling.  This longer path is an alternative way in for those who prefer to be able to keep their hands in their pockets whilst walking.

Wood Anemones and Cyclamen on the path back to San Lazzaro

Luna d'Agerola and San Lazzaro

Time for a quick word about where I'm staying.
Agerola is a group of villages/towns around a valley 600m above the Amalfi coast, overlooking Conca dei Marini and the Gulf of Salerno. They are largely unspoiled by the synthetic tourist culture, invented by the more famous shoreline towns like Amalfi and Positano. They're further, vertically from the beach and the cruise ships.
Whilst leading hiking groups I've been staying at the agriturismo of Luna d'Agerola, hosted by the Acampora family, for 5 years - they're my Italian family.
The siblings, Ferdinando, Giovanna and Valentino do the daily running of the agriturismo whilst the oldest brother Pasquale is partially detached from the day to day running and  works a lot on his farm but he's strongly committed to wine making and maintaining the local food traditions, producing from salami to limoncello.

 

 

Valentino in the kitchen in Luna d'Agerola apron

The town of San Lazzaro is quite small and its piazza at the terminus of the bus route for Amalfi. You don't 'pass through' San Lazzaro because it's at the end of the road, perched atop huge limestone cliffs. I recommend a coffee or an ice cream in I Vizi del Generale, right on the piazza. (Thank you to Anna and Edwina for correcting my mis-translation that this was the 'face' of the General - it is the 'Vices'.) There's a new bar this year but I know where my loyalties lie. There's a story about the General in question but no time for that now.

I Vizi del Generale

I also love Da Gigino, the trattoria/pizzeria sitting unassuming along from the piazza. This serves the most excellent pizzas and other local food in a slightly eccentric style. Family run, Gigino and his wife are usually busy at the pizza oven whilst Massimo looks after  the customers.
San Lazzaro is a place which has seen a gentle increase in the number of visitors over the last few years. This may be set to continue as they redevelop the old Colonia Montana that sits at the highest point of the village into a 'University' to teach the regional traditions of food and culture. The renovation has been going on for months and will change the place - that's for sure.

View of terraces  from the Colonia Montana

Paestum

A couple of years ago I first heard of Paestum when two American clients, Ward and Warren, wanted to visit during their Amalfi Coast tour. Using local timetables I found that it was possible to make the 160 kilometre round trip and return by supper time.
Up 'til now I'd not done it myself but was impressed by what I read of Paestum's ruins and history I was keen to visit.Yesterday I set off on the journey south around the Gulf of Salerno. A bus from San Lazzaro to Amalfi then a change to a second bus from Amalfi, around the Capo d'Orso, to Salerno. From there I switched to a train and travelled on down the coast to Paestum.
Walking from the train station it's a kilometre down a local road, amongst other prospective tourists. I emerged from this road to see the ancient town of Paestum spread across the wide flat expanse of grass.

The temples of Hera and Apollo

A ticket costs 7 euros and grants access to the site and to the museum, where 5 euros buys a small book - all you need to know whilst on site. This was turning out to be a good day to visit; clear sunny skies but not too hot, fewer visitors than I would have expected and the southern Italian spring bursting around me. Wild flowers covered the meadows between the ruins which cover several square kilometres. As with Pompeii I had to remind myself of the scale, sophistication and complexity on the ancient classical world.

The temple of Athena

When the Greeks arrived here more than 2600 years ago the area's local inhabitants were the Enotri at the end of the Iron Age. It seems uncertain whether they were indigenous people or earlier migrants from what is now Greece. The new arrivals were here to stay and built a town Poseidonia after their Sea God, which only later was 'latinised' (can that really be a verb?) to Paistom.
There had been earlier settlements on that site but the greco-roman period for the next 1000 years is the one which is best represented on the site.  Most notable to an uneducated visitor like myself are the three huge temples, dedicated variously to Athena, Zeus and Hera (though it seems even these dedications are probabilities).
The site includes the forum, amphitheatre and large swimming pool, used in ritual. There are also extensive residential areas.

Swimming pool with a ramp at the far end to enter the water and a stone structure to support a wooden platform

 As with Pompeii, walking the paved wheel rutted streets brought home to me not only the age of the earliest remains but also the 1000 year duration - I wonder how many of our current buildings will be standing in the year 3000. Paestum was abandoned towards the end of the first millennium, it is thought, because of the arrival of malaria in the swamp-like terrain around.

A street between the forum and the residential district

I was interested to see how some buildings from early Poseidonia were overbuild in later developments by the Roman culture that superseded the Greek.
And, don't miss the museum, full of artefacts from the site, pottery and stone carvings and early fresco type paintings from the plasterwork. Most famous is the painting of a diver from a tomb which was excavated nearby.

(And I made it back in time for a pizza at da Gigino's in San Lazzaro.)

Agerola Again

April and I'm back on the Amalfi coast leading another walking holiday for Explore. It's my fifth year of doing this tour and it remains one of my favourites. Springtime is a good time to be here. Everything's blooming and lush by comparison with the summer.

Oranges

Wysteria pergola: house entrance on Capri

The climate in April is also more conducive to walking - it's possible to walk without sweltering and shrinking from the sun. These photographs were taken on a day trip to the island of Capri, away from the madding crowds of Capri town itself.

Looking from Villa Jovis back to the Sorrento peninsula and Vesuvius on the left.

Lake Como Doors

"Door,  barrier of wood, stone, metal, glass, paper, leaves, hides, or a combination of materials, installed to swing, fold, slide, or roll in order to close an opening to a room or building." Encyclopaedia Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/)

For several years I've been photographing doors wherever I travel - everyone has to have a hobby. Doors are a universal architectural feature essential wherever humans enclose spaces. Every culture and subculture develops its own functional and aesthetic rules for making doors, determined by the materials available and the cultural prestige of the buildings they serve.

On top of that I enjoy my own overlaid aesthetic of the photograph; the colours, the furniture around the door such as the house number, bolts for locking, handles, and even the things placed or parked or growing nearby.

So, here are 10 doors from the area around Lake Como.

Fine de la Guerra - Italy's end to WWII

The quiet towns on the shores of the northern end of Lake Como suddenly became centre stage as World War 2 came to its close in Europe.

Earlier, in 1943, the tide of war changed as the Allies landed in Sicily and pushed rapidly northwards, the Italian army unable to mount a strong defence. The Fascist Grand Council met and passed a resolution deposing Mussolini, known as Il Duce (The Leader), and replacing him as Head of the Armed Forces with the king, Victor Emanuel III. Just like that Mussolini was arrested and Italy swapped sides, joining the Allies. The government moved out of Rome, southwards, abandoning the north of Italy to the German occupiers.

A daring raid rescued Mussolini from his captors, who were holding him at the Campo Imperatore Hotel, high in the Gran Sasso mountains in Abruzzo. After a brief visit with Hitler in Germany Mussolini was returned to northern Italy as the puppet head of the newly invented fascist Italian Social Republic.

Less than 2 years later the last act was to play out. On 27^th April 1945 Mussolini fled,along with his mistress, Claretta Petacci, her brother and a few close supporters. They were heading northwards to reach Switzerland and joined a German convoy. Militias made up of disbanded Italian troops and local partisans were more or less in control of the southern alpine foothills through which the convoy had to travel as it moved northwards along the western shore of Lake Como. Briefly halted at Menaggio the convoy was allowed to proceed with the proviso that no Italians were part of the group.

Approaching Dongo the convoy was halted by a roadblock of boulders avalanched down by Partisans as the road passes on the lakeshore below an overhanging cliff.

Showing the road rounding the cliff. In the foreground is the harbour of Dongo.

This is the old road where the ambush took place. A modern day supporter has grafitti-ed a memorial on the left.

This time the convoy was carefully searched and a worn-out Mussolini was identified. All were arrested and taken the few hundred metres to Dongo harbour. A following car was also stopped and found to be carrying Petucci and her brother. Mussolini was spirited away to Germasino, a nearby town high above the lake, for safety.

The following day he was joined by Claretta and the two of them driven southwards down the lake shore to Mezzagra where a decision was quickly taken. Il Duce and his mistress were summarily shot.

Fifteen of the accompanying convoy were executed too on the harbour front at Dongo. I haven’t looked but they say that the steel railings still show evidence of the bullets fired. The bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were taken to Milan where they were displayed to the populace, hanging by their feet from the rusty canopy of a petrol station in Piazza Loreto.

Lago di Como

After a winter during which it seemed a chore to write up my blog I've begun my summer work with leading a new holiday for Explore. This shows where I am.

View north over Dongo to the Alps

From Menaggio with Wisteria in bloom

This is Lake Como in a town called Gravedona for three weeks before heading to Naples to do a week there. I've just completed the first week here with the first group ever to do this hiking holiday.

Pausing for a breather on the way up to Livo

 They were a great bunch of people who really took to the adventure of being the pioneer clients. We managed not to get lost and had a great time in perfect weather. The views are wonderful, the villages picturesque, the walks varied and the picnic lunches all consumed!

On the way to Sorico