A Magical Evening on the Amalfi Coast

Yesterday evening I looked out the window and gasped, and then promptly ran to grab my camera. Something was happening outside that only rarely happens on the Amalfi Coast. Thick white clouds were billowing in off the sea and snaking their way up the mountains. This only happens when the temperature is just so and the humidity very high and the winds blowing in the right direction – a combination that seems most likely in these balmy May days with cooler evenings. Or, at least the only other time I’ve seen it was back in May 2007 on my second visit to the Amalfi Coast.

The Amalfi Coast is a place of magic for me every day of the year. Yet, there are certain days when nature pulls out all the stops and the only thing left to do is gasp. And run for the camera, of course. Looking across to Ravello, the buildings along the top of the town were shrouded in a mist on both sides. Clouds swept over the Villa Cimbrone at the tip of Ravello, which is where I was lucky enough to be standing in May 2007 when the low clouds rolled in. Maybe that’s when the magic of the Amalfi Coast really got under my skin.

The last light of sunset lit up the face of the old man of the mountain beyond Ravello, the clouds surrounded him as if he were laying in a luxurious bubble bath.

Looking down toward Pontone I could just make out the ruins of the medieval church of Sant’Eustachio. I watched as the mist floated around and through the holes of the church ruins shrouding them in mist against the rosy glow of sunset. There’s magic in these mountains, I know it.

The clouds got as far as Scala before the mountains said stop. A cool wind came up from the mountains unexpectedly and began to push the clouds back out to sea.

By the time it was dark it was clear again and I could see the lights twinkling in Ravello. How strange this battle between mountains and sea, and how beautiful.