Down the Coast

After a bus ride south, past Mt. Vesuvius, we arrive in Paestum our halfway point for the trip to Atrani. Here we spent a few hours wandering amongst the ruins, sketching, and taking in the monumentality of these structures, some of which were built hundreds of years before Christ. From here we took a train and another bus along the precarious coastal road dropping us in Atrani. This is a town that has grown like a vine, up the steep hillsides latching into the mountains around it. Each layer of space lives atop one another connected by endless sets of stairs and corridors, defined by the structures around it. The time spent along the coast was much too short, and I could easily spend the rest of the time wandering around the maze of townships that dot the coastline and ridge tops. The trip back to Rome included a boat ride along the coast, with the dark afternoon thunderclouds as a backdrop for the green hills growing from the sea. A photo of Atrani, and a water color and analysis of the Temple of Neptune at Paestum.