ekc

The ferry from Salerno does run all the way to Positano (stopping in Amalfi on the way) and the first ferry leaves Salerno at 8:10 am. www.coopsantandrea.com or http://www.travelmar.it/it/orari for schedules.

Mamrota

Since the boats are running from Salerno to Positano so maybe it's a good idea to take 8.10 boat, spend some time in Positano, walk to Agerola and have lunch in Santa Croce and then walk either toward or to Bomerano.
How long it takes from Agerola to Bomerano?
Again - thanks.

flygirl

Hi

I would avoid making this hike in the mid-day heat. It was pleasant in May but by the time we ended (noon) it was getting warm.

I thought you were moving from a hotel in Salerno to Nocelle, my apologies. If you can take a boat to Amalfi and then a bus up to Bomerano, that would mean your hike on the path would be going downhill (not steep) the whole way which is easier and especially easier if it is hot out.

The hike would probably take 2.5 to three hours if you stopped to take photos, etc. If you were on the trail at 1030 you would be done at 130 - which is the heat of the day. I wish there were a way to get there much earlier. In late July I'd want to be on that trail at 7 AM.

How much would a driver charge you to take you to Bomerano?

mama_mia

There is not much cover on the trail so you would be exposed to lots of sun midday. Make sure you have hats and plenty of water.

flygirl

That's right - heat and sun. Take an umbrella!

ekc

I would guess a driver would charge 100 euro for a trip from Salerno to Bomerano.

flygirl

For two people, to avoid the heat and sun by arriving at 7 AM, it would be worth it. IMHO.

ekc

I agree flygirl, but doing anything on my vacation on the AC that would require me getting up at 5:30 am is out of the question.

flygirl

I love getting up early on vacation! The light is gorgeous, it is still and quiet, and you have everything to yourself.

Mamrota

There is a SITA bus from Salerno at 6.00 to Amalfi (7.10) and then 2 buses from Amalfi to Bomerano at 7.45 and 8.00 (8.25 and 8.40 at Bomerano).
It means that we have to be up at 5.00 but would those buses be crowded as well?
I do not mind waking up early but 5.00 a.m. ... it's cruel.
However - I'm willing to do it to slightly beat the heat, have more time for walk and pictures and reach Nocelle just on time for lunch.
Is it a good plan?

ekc

Then it is agreed flygirl, we won't be going on vacation together.

Mamrota, you should not have to worry about the buses being crowded at that early hour!

peter80

You can find more info in regards to the Path of the Gods here:

http://www.amalficoastprivatetours.c...t-hiking-tours

Enjoy!

kestrelpov

@peter80: Hi Peter, I think they changed the page content you linked because at the moment, feb 2015, there are only few lines about the path and a link to a copyrighted* map. If you have a good link please share with us, thanks.

By the way, and in the interest of future thread visitor & hikers, the map is:
MONTI LATTARI PENISOLA SORRENTINA COSTIERA AMALFITANA
CARTA DEI SENTIERI SCALA 1:30.000
aa.vv.
Publisher: S.EL.CA. (10/1996)
ISBN: 9786001494451

Made by the Italian Alpine Club (CAI), usually really good maps, cost about 7€ and is quite old (1996) so pay attention if you wanna use it, is still good but I'd say for a general overview like the gps tracks on the website I mentioned on Feb 2, '14... general overview! There are only few places where you can buy it. Try to search it via ISBN number or contact directly the S.EL.CA. (selca-cartografie.it).

KP

*= copyright owner is S.EL.CA.(S.r.l.), Firenze

raqueloasilva

Hi.

I'm planning my trip to amalfi coast and this topic was so useful for planning the walk of gods part. Thank you everyone for being so helpful to people like myself.. newbies with a lot of questions.

I'm staying in Amalfi so it's easy to take a bus up to bomerano and then walk to nocelle.

My question is: I am reading all theses posts and all the advice is for going early in the morning (due to weather). I'm going at the peak season (August) so I understand and appreciate that advice. But I'm thinking maybe all people go early in the morning as it seems to be so much better. So I'm trying to figure if doing the path at 17pm would be a good option. It would not be as hot as the mid day and I'm suspecting it might be really less crowed at that late afternoon comparing to early morning. Does anyone have a thought on this? I would really appreciate some input.

I understand I would be facing the sun. Not as comfortable as having it on my back. But maybe the sunset could compensate for that..?

Thanks in advanced.

Raquel

kja

@ Raquel:

Keep in mind that if you go at a "quiet" time of day, you are also less likely to run into help in the unlikely (I trust!) event that you need it. As I grow older, I am increasingly aware of the dangers of hiking alone, even on relatively easy paths.... Just something to consider.

Enjoy!

denisea

bookmarking

kestrelpov

@raqueloasilva:
Hi Raquel, as Kja suggest also if the POG is well frequented at some time people traffic will drop. Take time to plan the hike and, of course, inform your host about the "timetable". Also get some useful numbers with you and pay attention to the tiles (red & white) you'll see along the path (just in case of emergency).

Plan your hike with this in mind: at that time only us* use to do the hike or at least some hunters (even if there isn't nothing to hunt ) and we do only in emergency case. It is difficult to miss the path but could be dangerous if you'll do in the dark, even if you are an expert hiker.

Said the "mommy" part what you'll see could be an astonishing show. At that time sunset is about at 20.49 (1st aug) to 20.06 (31st aug), after sunset you'll have another 30/40 mins of light. Plan it right and you'll enjoy the sunset just 1/1.5km before Nocelle. This will give you all the time to reach Nocelle, maybe eat something there (just underneath the grocery there is a restaurant with pizza and some local food). Grasshoppes, cicadas and some birds will sing for you while watching the show! Bring water. Keep in mind could be a really foggy day due the moisture, usually at that time of the day thermal stream wash away the moisture but if you can give a look at weather prevision a day before.

Take care,

KP

*=local guides

john183

We hiked from Bomerano to Nocelle in May of 2014. We were very lucky that we had good weather and it was not crowded at all. Here is a link to our pics from that day. Below the link is an excerpt from my trip report. It was an absolutely incredible day.

https://john183italy2014.shutterfly.com/pictures/416


Positano (Day 13)

The deciders met in the lobby again and after quite a bit of discussion, we decided to go for it – we were going to tackle the path of the gods. Our motto for any decision that had to be made on our trip in 2012 was “this is no time to be conservative, let’s pull out all the stops”. On this trip, we had not had to resort to following our motto for any decision until today. We went to the front desk to order a taxi to Bomerano and they tried to talk us out of it. But we stuck to our motto.

At the agreed upon time, two taxis showed up and there was a bit of confusion. It turned another guy staying at our hotel was doing the exact same thing as us – taking a taxi to Bomerano to walk the path of the gods back toward Positano. We thought about trying to share a taxi but there wasn’t enough room in either taxi for all of us so we climbed in and our driver followed the other taxi. It was a fairly easy drive along the coast until we turned off and headed up towards the top. OMG – it was not nearly as scary as the bus ride yesterday at Capri but still enough to get the heart pumping every now and then. Somewhere along the way our young driver admitted he was completely lost – he had never been to Bomerano so he was just following the first taxi.

We drove through some clouds and continued up until we finally reached the main square at Bomerano. We went in to a little convenience store to buy some water and use the bathroom. OMG again, that bathroom was totally gross. We began to wonder what the heck we had gotten ourselves in to. We easily found the path and started out exactly at 10 AM - feeling a little more nervous than we wanted to be. We soon found out there was no need to be nervous. We hoped to make it to Nocelle in about three hours and that is exactly what we did.

In doing research about this walk, I saw a few things saying the path might be difficult to follow but it was well marked and we only took one wrong turn for a very short distance before realizing our mistake and we quickly turned around. I’m going to let the pictures describe this walk but we really enjoyed it. There were very few people on the path but the ones we met were very nice. And the weather that we were so worried about was perfect. I could not imagine anything worse than getting stuck in a thunderstorm on the side of a mountain half way between Bomerano and Nocelle. But none of that happened. The deciders (or our motto) made the right decision to go. It was incredible.

On the first part of the path, we thought it should have been named the path of the poop instead of the path of the gods. There was more donkey or mule or horse poop right in the middle of the trail than you can imagine. Not only did you have to make sure you didn’t fall off the edge of the cliff but you had to worry about dodging the prolific proportions of poop – and some of it was quite smelly too. Oh well, it was just a part of the adventure.

We made it to Nocelle and stopped for lunch at a restaurant with a great view looking down on to Positano. We also wanted to celebrate the fact that we actually did it. I said before that our group ranges in age from early to late sixties and even though this was not a really difficult hike, we were very proud to have done it. After lunch we caught the bus back to Positano and it eventually dropped us off right next to our hotel. On the bus my wife and I tried to compare this hike to the hike we did in the Cinque Terre. In 2012 we had hiked the high trail (6d) from Manarola to Corniglia. We liked walking through the vineyards looking out over the incredible vista in both directions on the first part of the CT hike the most. But the POG hike was much higher, much more rugged and we thought a bit harder than the CT hike. When Positano first comes in to view, it is spectacular. We liked them both a lot but they are really quite a bit different and I think hard to compare.

We showered, dressed and headed down to the beach to have dinner at Wine – Dark House but it was closed. We were very disappointed but decided to look for a place on the beach. We ended up at Buca di Bacco and were very happy we did. I had an incredible plate of mixed seafood. As I tried to pull the head off my shrimp, it completely exploded and squirted juice all over my wife. And I mean from her hair to her lap she was covered. Jeez – that was not good. We sat there a long time and totally enjoyed watching it turn to dusk. We eventually went back to the hotel, had a limencello on our balcony and went to bed – too tired to try to pack for our trip to Rome the next day. An exhilarating and excellent last day in Positano!

kestrelpov

@john183: Hi John, it is nice you enjoyed it so much. Just to let you know: sometimes we use to call it "The path of the GOATS" for all that poop

KP