Path of the Gods!
I won't even lie, when I was looking at booking this part of my trip I wasn't 100% set on Amalfi and the simple name of this hike was part of what tipped me over the edge because of how epic it sounds.
The Path of the Gods (or in Italian Il Sentiero Degli Dei) is aptly named due to its location and honestly breathtaking views.
It is high up above the clouds and you take a bus to get there. It is about 7.8km or just under 5 miles and is supposed to take 4.5 hours according to everyone that I talked to. The idea is to start early and then end your day in Positano with time to spare. We had that great idea as well and were prepared however my friend needed to drop her bags off at her new hostel in Positano first. She was to bus there, then text me and we were to meet together in the starting town of the hike Bomerano. Well... As it turns out the bus to Bomerano leaves from Amalfi so she actually had to go from Amafli to Positano and back again at which point we both got on th bus to Bomerano together. We ended up starting this hike at about 1pm which meant we would be walking in the heat of the day.
I don't think people recognize properly how much of travel is waiting. I mean I was ready to go at like 9am and I think I waited bored in the hostel for my friend for like 2 hours and then we waited more once we were together to catch the correct bus to Bomerano. It is something I think that is too taken for granted.
Anyway, the path itself was indeed beautiful and breathtaking and we did that classic thing where a large group starts out around the same time then each smaller group ends up going their own pace until you are all reasonably separated. If you take a break the people behind you catch up and if the people in front of you take a break you catch up. And then there are those weirdly fast people who just overtake everyone.
One of the groups behind us was a group of people our age and they were 5-8 people and thankfully a bit slower than us but they had someone there with a portable speaker and were playing music the entire way. I honestly think that is such a waste of good scenery and distracts you from the real beauty of what you're doing... I was glad to be far enough ahead of them to not hear or see them.
The hike was beautiful and luckily we were high enough up in the clouds that we didn't actually get too much sun as we were kind of in the clouds. The views were still magnificent though. We had lunch up somewhere midway in the path and eventually made it to Positano. We had to walk all the way around Positano though because we had to stop by Rica's hostel and then Finally made it down to the beach where I immediately passed out until the sun went down.
We had a funny moment with a middle aged lady at the beach. Her daughter (maybe 6?) was balancing rocks on her sleeping husband so we exchanged a good laugh with her which later made her comfortable enough to make a comment about some girls taking photos on the beach. She said how funny it was how they take so many photos and how she see's it all over. I turned to Rica (out of this lady's ear shot) and was like "that's us" then we turned back and she goes "I think its quite vain" at which we just kinda laughed and smiled and turned back around and didn't talk to that lady again. Out of earshot I again said "still us" and also "she's pretty judgementle" like of course they're taking a million photos, we're in one of the most beautiful places on earth and they want to have nice memories and share with their friends. I don't know why, the lady really struck me as funny/strange.
It was a beautiful and nice night though. We grabbed dinner and then I caught the last SITA bus home. SITA is the busses around here and it stands for Bus Italia specifically the middle letters. buSITAlia.