I first saw the name on a large, hand-painted, ceramic map of the Sorrentine Pennisula. Not far from our village of Sant' Antaga was a little place called... "Crapolla." I wondered if it was a joke, but a quick search on Wikipedia confirmed that there is in fact such a place. The more I read, the more I wanted to actually go and visit the beautiful secluded cove of Crapolla on the Amalfi Coast. Yesterday was the designated day for Crapolla, and Leroy and I gathered our hiking gear and headed by foot from our apartment to the start of the trail in nearby Torca.
Torca is a tiny hamlet with a town square next to a church. Across the street, we followed the sign toward Crapolla and were soon descending rapidly down a concrete path with high walls punctuated by gates leading into homes and fruit orchards. The concrete path quickly became a just-as-steep dirt trail. Every once in a while, we would pass a home and wonder how people could live so far from a navigable street. We finally emerged in a grassy meadow with a breathtaking view of the sea, still far below us. The sun came out from behind the clouds, and we were were overwhelmed with the beauty of the colorful wildflowers everywhere. Green lizards scampered away from the trail as we approached, and we saw (and carefully avoided) a long, black snake.
Crapolla is a small cove on the Amalfi Coast that sits at the end of a very steep ravine stretching inland. We followed the beginnings of the ravine through the meadow and a forest for awhile and then found ourselves at the top of a tall, steep incline that sloped down to the ultramarine blue of the Mediterranean. Off to our left, we could see a medieval stone tower that was used to defend against the Saracen attacks. Beneath us was a stairway with seven hundred tall, stone steps leading to the cove. Going down was easy! Three quarters of the way down, we stopped at St. Peter's Church, a small, stone chapel built on top of the ruins of an eleventh century monastery. We ate our picnic lunch there and chatted with a family visiting from San Francisco.
Back on the stairs, we arrived before long in Crapolla. It is essentially a very small fishing village that has been abandoned by residents and is awaiting archaeological exploration and restoration. There is evidence of early Roman occupation among the cave houses and stone villas that remain. The cove itself is very beautiful, with a small curved, stone beach that stretches from one steep wall of the rocky canyon to the other. There was a surpising amount of beach glass among the stones, and I picked up numerous pieces to add to my collection from the Great Lakes. Four older, Italian fishermen entered the cove from the sea in brightly painted boats and pulled the boats up on to the shore and dragged them to a storage area using a winch and four wooden skids.
The walk back up the hill was challenging. After the first hundred steps or so, we stopped every fifty steps at hand-painted tile step-markers to rest and take in the view while enjoying the cool breeze. The last marker was for step number seven hundred. Aftert that, we returned to a dirt trail and continued the upward climb till we reached our home back in Sant' Agata. It's been a while since we've done any serious hiking on our trip, and we were definitely feeling sore by the time we were done!Long ago, before the stone tower was erected to ward off invaders, and before the monastery and church of St. Peter were built, the Apostle Paul passed nearby on a boat journey that took him by the Amalfi Coast and arround the Sorrentine Pennisula on his way to Rome. It was his last journey recorded in the book of Acts. He was a captive headed for trial after he appealed to Caesar for justice. Many assume he died there as a martyr. Others believe he was freed and eventually continued his ministry in other places, including Spain.
Today is our last full day in Southern Italy before we travel by train to Rome!
