Montepertuso

     

     We woke up in our house high above Positano to another beautiful day.  We went to the café Il Pertuso for coffee and then took the bus into town,  In town there were many tourists, many giftshops, yachts and one navy patrol ship in the harbor.  I learned some new italian words; moglie, spiaggia.   I had my first look at a newspaper since we left.  There was another shooting, this time of 5 police officers keeping watch on a parade of protesters.

     

     Another hot, hair-raising ride back to Monte Pertuso from the center.  We ate again at the local   restaurant near the apartment.  It was La Festa de la Madonna, church bells rang and fireworks went off.  They were shot from the cliff side at 3 locations above us and exploded high over our heads where we were eating.  The flashes lit the face of the mountain and the white stone mixed with the red green and  blue of the fireworks as part of the display.

     

     The next day I climbed up to the hole in the mountainside that gives Monte Pertuso its name and saw the remnants of the rocket launchers.  I had climbed a long flight of stone stairs through terraced gardens to a well-worn forest trail until I came out at the puncture in the mountain.  From there, there was a rusted steel ladder that climbed to the top of the needle-eye.  I thought that might be the very top, but later when I looked at the entire mountain from below, I saw that it was just the beginning of the mountain which kept ascending far beyond that.