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     We arrived in Sorrento, Italy, the first week in June of 2000. Our first day there we enjoyed the romantic aura of the Isle of Capri, to which we traveled by boat. The second day, the Circumvenusiana, which is the local train, dropped us off at the glorious ruins of Pompeii. We hoped that on our third day we would tackle the circuitous and precipitous road along the Costa Amalfi.

     The guidebooks discourage travel with a rental car. The thought of sightseeing in a tour bus discouraged us. It occurred to my husband, who had not touched a motorcycle in decades, that we should "do" the Amalfi Coast by Vespa Scooter. I felt some trepidation. From the moment we arrived in Italy I had noticed beautiful girls riding scooters everywhere, dressed en haute couture, zooming through busy traffic with their long dark tresses trailing behind them. I admired them with a mixture of wonder and envy. What style, what energy. Only for the young, I thought to myself.

     "Come on, Love," he pleaded. "Lots of fresh air. We can stop anywhere anytime we want. They’re so easy to park and what a great view, all the way!"

     He seemed confident of his motorcycle riding skills and put forth such a convincing argument that I nodded yes. After all, I’m only 54. When, if not now?

     There was a scooter rental shop near our hotel. First thing in the morning, sporting snazzy helmets, we hopped on our sprightly scooter, just big enough for the two of us, and zipped into the first of the hundreds of curves that lay ahead. The Amalfi Coast Highway, carved into rocky cliffs, is one of the most scenic and dangerous drives on earth. Towns and settlements flourish hundreds of feet above or below the highway. Although I did not visit a family dwelling, I am convinced that anyone living along this coast must have to climb several stories just to go to the bathroom!

     The sheer verticality of the countryside around us bewildered us. It was impossible! Houses could not perch this way. People could not walk up and down such heights in the daily course of their lives. The awesome landscape, sheer cliffs shattering down for hundreds of feet to the grand ocean at their base, diminished us into tiny entities. The Sea itself, so far below us, so tempting and seductive, was distant and unreal, untouchable, like a magnificent backdrop, a painting by a great Italian master in which we were but a barely detectable brush stroke. Out in the air on our Scooter, we felt exposed, vulnerable, yet able to enjoy sights and sounds, like the wind whooshing around us, in a direct way that we would never experience in a bus or a car. As awe-struck as we were by the brilliant heart-rending beauty around us, our Scooter enabled us to become part of the grand scheme of the incredible moveable feast that is the Amalfi Coast.

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