TrenItalia has been a great experience, even if all of my reserved seats have been facing the wrong way... Which kind of indicates the problem may lie with me.
Anyway, the train trip from Tropea to Salerno was smooth sailing and fun. Then I tried to ride the 5120 bus from Salerno to Amalfi. I asked for help on bus times from my desk clerk in Tropea and I believe she misinterpreted one of the Icons for bus frequency, but that is no big deal. The Sunday bus showed up 15 minutes late but did not stop because there were bodies packed in like Tokyo Metro commuters. So I looked for taxis but on the first sunny Sunday of the year the taxis were GONE from downtown Salerno. Did not see one taxi in over an hour of looking at hotels and taxi stands. So I went back to the bus stop. And the 5120 was 20 minutes late again, but there was room for me to stand by the door in the middle. And have you noticed how much more you notice people coughing and sneezing since Covid? That bus had two hacking coughers and 3 or 4 people sneezing in an epic manner. Rail travel gives you a LOT more personal space. The coup de grace was that the bus driver got irritated by all the people in cars who were driving with their left wheel in the center of the road instead of keeping their right (passenger) door as close to the wall on the outside as possible. So the bus driver forced the cars to back up every 2 or 3 minutes since backing a big bus would be much more difficult than backing up a car or three. And the driver was positively steaming by the time we got to Amalfi. 23 kilometers took us 85 minutes. 16.5 miles? In an hour and 25 minutes off season.
I like rail travel but public buses might not be my cup of tea any longer though this is admittedly not a normal bus trip.
But I got to my apartment in Amalfi, got a pizza and a bottle of wine and I am golden.
