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Monday 27 March 2017

Easter Saturday Village Walk

If you are in the Massa Lubrense area on  Saturday 15th April and like walking, I highly recommend that you join us on the traditional Easter Saturday walk, the Camminata fra i Casali. It is an excellent opportunity  to enjoy the lanes, paths and villages of this area away from mass tourism and what's more it is completely free!
Giovanni Visetti, well-known cartographer and ex walking guide, is the man behind what was originally the Camminata dei 23 Casali (the walk of the 23 villages) which this year reaches its 22nd edition, returning after a pause of a couple of years.
This year the walk is a loop, starting and ending in Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi, with a short coffee break in Termini and a longer stop for lunch or sandwiches in Massa Lubrense. The walk lasts all day, commencing probably at  10.00 a.m. (the precise time will be published later to coincide with arrival  of the local bus from Sorrento) and ending at around 17.00. However if you do not have the time or the energy to do it all, you can easily stop/start in Termini or  Massa Lubrense using the local bus service.
This year's itinerary of around 14km, (slightly shorter than previous editions), takes you through the villages and the countryside along routes rarely used  nowadays even by the locals. It is often panoramic, but also includes places of  historical, architectural and anthropological interest such as Sant'Agata, the washhouse at Canale, the village of Monticchio, the mill at Santa Maria (if accessible), Torrione, Quartiere, Vescovado and  Cerriglio in Massa Lubrense. There will be numerous opportunities to take photos.
Although the walk is entirely along municipal thoroughfares, many of these are pleasant country tracks or paved lanes. Hopefully it will include the stretch from the chapel at via Sant'Anna to the centre of Santa Maria, blocked for over 20 years by a landslide, and which follows the banks of the Rio Grande dell'Annunziata. 
By walking from Sant'Agata via Termini and Massa Vescovado, participants will be able to get food and drinks along the way or even have time for a quick meal in one of the local restaurants in Massa. 
This year's Camminata, organised by the local council (Comune) of Massa Lubrense, will be co-ordinated and led by expert excursionists (FREE - Free Ramblers, Escursionisti Epicurei of which SorrentoAmalfiWalkWithUs is part).
Further details will be published nearer to the time, so keep an eye open and come along!












Saturday 11 March 2017

Jeranto and the first wild orchids

Taking advantage of a free Saturday morning, the bright sunshine and crystal-clear sky, I left my house to clean itself and took myself off to the Bay of Jeranto on a mission. I hoped to find the first wild orchids of the season.
The hike down to the bay was a delight. The
strong wind had cleared the skies and the views were spectacular.  Spring was definitely in the air with flowers galore to distract me along the way and the lizards were out in force.
I walked down through the grounds of the FAI, past the few buildings and onto the open scrubland of the erstwhile quarry. Rather than following the official path overlooking the sea, I cut in towards the rocks, vaguely remembering where I had found the orchids in previous years. 
It looked very much that I was too early. I could see the first signs of the plants pushing up through the ground, but they were still very, very small and nowhere near to flowering. However there were  a couple of surprises along the way:
a rather long black snake (biscia) that crossed in front of me and slithered into the rocks (sadly I wasn't quick enough to get a photograph) and several bushes of bright blue lithodora that I had never realised were there. I began to think that I would have to be content with these and come back in a few weeks' time.
Never one to give up, I continued searching and all of a sudden found what I was looking for: a bee orchid in full flower. A dozen photos later I carried on my quest and found some more. More photos.
Pretty satisfied, I reached the end of the clearing, admired the views of Capri and Punta Campanella, before zig-zagging my way back through the bright yellow bushes of euphorbia in the vain hope of finding a few more.









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