Amalfi Coast Day 2: The Valley of the Ironworks

Another day, another adventure, another hike! On our second day in San Lazzaro we decided to do a hike through Valle delle Ferriere (Valley of the Ironworks). This 10-16km trail leads from San Lazzaro, up over the mountains, and down to the town of Amalfi. We planned to hike down and then take an evening bus back to our BnB. Hiking from San Lazzaro has been quite nice. Since we’re already up at an elevation of 630m, most of the hikes end up having a pretty serious elevation drop. Today’s hike would be a total of 170m up and then 800m back down.

The hike began with a climb up a road behind the village. From here we already had a fantastic view of the Mediterranean, San Lazzaro and the surrounding towns. We stopped for a bit to enjoy, and then headed up into the woods.

As the trail climbed higher we continued to stop and look behind us at the wonderful view. Once we reached the top of the ridge, we sighed, and stole one last backwards glance as we prepared ourselves for a while of walking through the trees. Then, suddenly a large gap in the trees ahead revealed another sight to behold in front of us. Monisha aptly verbalized what we were both thinking: “that was a short-lived lack of incredible view!"

From the ridge, we began our descent through a forest of chestnut trees. Fall has just started here, and the leaves have begun to shift from green to yellow and orange. At this point, the ocean views had subsided, and a different sort of beauty lay before us.

Past the groves of chestnuts our trail continued. Now, the trail became a bit harder to follow. There were a lot of unmarked crossroads and forks that forced us to make on the spot judgements of the correct trail. Luckily, we had downloaded an app onto Nolan’s phone that was specifically built for hiking in this area of Agerola. It uses the phones GPS to let you know when you have strayed from the trail. Without it, we would have had a much tougher time following the correct trail. At one point, even with GPS guidance, we found ourselves on the edge of a cliff with no real trail in sight. We scrambled over some rocks and hugged the side of the cliff. This gave us a great view, but was also pretty scary. We aren’t sure where the real trail is during this part, but we definitely weren’t on it.

After our rock scrambling adventure, we met up with the proper trail and continued down into the Valle delle Ferriere. We had read that the valley is full of springs, streams, and waterfalls, so we were excited to see at least one more foss and bring these adventures to a full circle. As we walked, we composed a parody of “The Final Countdown” entitled “The Final Foss-found,” about the mystical final foss that lay at the end of our travels.

It always seems to take a while between hearing a waterfall and actually seeing it. This hike provided an extreme case of the phenomenon. We didn't want to get our hopes too high, but it was impossible not to get excited. Finally, we got to the floor of the valley and saw a beautiful stream. A bit further off the main trail we arrived in the mystical fantasy land promised by the hikes description.

Waterfalls and drips over steep walls covered in moss and vines. The whole are feels like a fairy tale. To add a bit even a bit more mystery, we saw the bodies of two wild boars. One lay in the river and a second was rotting away in spring above it! A fellow hiker from Sweden hypothesized that they had fallen to their deaths from the top of the walls far above.

After feeling fulfilled and accepting that we had just left behind the final foss of our trip, we came across...several more fosses!

Our hike continued its fantasy flavor as we came upon the namesake of the valley. In the Valley of the Ironworks are ruins of both old paper mill and ironworks. The walls and rooms of the old mills stand over waterfalls and portions of the river.

The views as we approached Amalfi:

Our hike ended successfully in the town of Amalfi, and we marveled at all the things we had seen on the way. It had proved to be by far our most adventurous hike! We ate a lunch of pizza, buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes outside the big church. Then, we caught the bus back up the hill to San Lazzaro.

For dinner, a different BnB down the road that is known for its food. Garlic bread, grilled mozzarella, asparagus risotto, and tomato mozzarella gnocchi. :)