# Italy: Amalfi Coast



## moloch05 (Dec 6, 2011)

Last year was my wife's 60th birthday and I surprised her with tickets to Rome. My wife loves Italy more than any other country in Europe. She wanted to travel in September and October while the weather was still warm but the summer crowds were absent. We therefore delayed the trip until this year. We were lucky and experienced one of Italy's warmest autumns with balmy conditions until mid-October. 

This was my first visit to Italy and I did not know what to expect. I normally prefer to travel in the Asian tropics or here in Australia. I found that Italy was much more interesting than I anticipated. Parts of it have really spectacular scenery and I found many butterflies, birds and a few herps. It was also an interesting feeling to walk in the hills and find ruins of old buildings that were centuries old.

We spent most of our time at three locations including Cinque Terre, the Amalfi Coast and finally Florence/Assisi. This report will cover my favourite part of the trip, the visit to the spectacular Amalfi Coast. Some of you will be like me and not know much of this part of the world. I will add a few "touristy" shots at the end of the post to give a feel for the place. 






Here are a few shots of the Amalfi area:


























The town of Amalfi was built in a narrow valley. A stream flows down the valley but then is diverted into a channel that runs beneath the buildings.














I found a trail that followed this stream for a few kilometers into the hills behind Amalfi. This was interesting since it was densely wooded. Also, there were so many ancient ruins along the way. These were always too shady for photos but here are habitat shots of the area.





This little frog was found along the stream. I don't know its identity.











... typical view along the trails:





... high in the hills above Amalfi





These areas were good for herps. One nice find was this snake that I think to be a Western Whip Snake (_Hierophis viridiflavus_):













Wall Lizards were confusing. I think that both Italian Wall Lizards (_Podarcis sicula_) and Common Wall Lizards (_Podarcis muralis_) were possible here. The lizards that I photographed more closely resemble shots of Italian Wall Lizards but I am not certain of the species. Does anyone out there know what should be examined to separate these species?






















Rock walls like this always had flowers and were a good place to find butterflies.





I don't know the name of this plant but it was attactive to many butterflies and hawk-moths.





Hummingbird Hawk-Moths (_Macroglossum stellatarum_) were commonly seen as they fed from mountain wildflowers. Their abdomens had enlarged scales that looked a little like the fanned tail of a hovering hummingbird.






Swallowtail (_Papilio machaon_): fairly common on flowers along the rock walls.






Lesser Woodland Graylings (_Hipparchia genava_) were numerous in the stream valley above Amalfi. They often would lay their wings against rocks while basking in the morning. 






Tree Graylings (_Hipparchia statilinus_) were the most common satyrinae. These would also lay their wings flat on rocks or ferns when basking.










Speckled Wood (_Paragea egeria_): These varied a little in colour and some were quite dark.













Wall Browns (_Lasiommata megera_) were common in open areas such as along rock walls. They would usually flick the upper wing upwards when I took a photo. This exposed the eyespot that was often obscured when the butterfly was resting.










Meadow Browns (_Maniola jurtina_) were seen a few times in the stream valley above Amalfi.






Red Admiral (_Vanessa atalanta_): fairly common but usually wary and hard to approach.










Southern White Admiral (_Limenitis reducta_): scarce with only a few seen. Their undersurface is nicely marked and reminds me of a Commander in Malaysia. In flight, they resemble a _Neptis_.










Silver-washed Fritillary (_Argynnis paphia_): the male landed next to the basking female and began to display with quivering wings.










I walked from Amalfi up to the little village of Ravello a few times. It was quite a walk. One section of the trail had 700 steps so it was great exercise. Wall Lizards were numerous in this area. The view from the lookouts at Ravello was spectacular! Birds here included species like European Robins, Serin, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Jay, Raven, Greenfinch, Acrocephalus warblers, White Wagtails, Grey Wagtails and others.














... more to come later


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## Sezzzzzzzzz (Dec 6, 2011)

absolutely gorgeous!!!


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## Jacquie (Dec 6, 2011)

Wow amazing photos. What a beautiful place. What a great husband!!!


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## gus11 (Dec 7, 2011)

Ver nice David,
Looks like a lovely place, and always good to see shots of exotics. I've sent the thread through to stefano, he may be able to ID some of your herps.


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## freaky-mastechef (Dec 7, 2011)

superb pictures, birds and butterflies are stunning. what tools did you use (lenses, flash,ect....)


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## Monitor_Keeper (Dec 7, 2011)

Amazing place


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## Jay84 (Dec 7, 2011)

Wow, thanks for another informative thread with great pics!

My partner is Italian and I am hoping we can go visit next year and explore some of Europe. 

Some of the pics of the butterflies bring back fond memories of growing up in the UK. we used to have the admirals and the swallowtails visit the garden. We had a huge buddlia (sp?) bush that was laden with big flowers each spring. 

Do you have pics of the birds? In particular the tits, wagtails and Jay?? That's what I was named after..... The Jay bird lol


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## mungus (Dec 7, 2011)

just got back 1 month ago from there and other parts of europe.
this time went for 6 weeks ( wife 8 weeks 8) )
back again next year.............love the photo's !!!


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## GetCoiled (Dec 7, 2011)

what a nice trip David! Whay didn't you tell me you'd have come over here mate?! Amalfi and its Coast were the places where my parents went for their weeding travel.  The lizards you shot are all Podarcis sicula, a taxon with an impressive and astonishing speciation and polymorphism on the whole range covered. Consider that a lot of little islands got their own ssp. The Hierophis viridiflavus there doesn't show its usual phenotype since you shot a melanistic one, once called (ssp.) carbonarius. Honestly I can't tell you much more because I'm not really skilled about local herpetofauna :-(


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## moloch05 (Dec 7, 2011)

*Sentiero degli Dei*

Thanks very much, everyone. The Amalfi Coast is certainly beautiful.

freaky, I use a Canon 40D with a Tamron 18x250 zoom for habitat and then either a Canon 100mm macro or Tamron 180mm macro for reptile and butterfly shots. I almost always use a flash when taking macro shots.

Jay, you and your partner will have such a good time. Italy is so different to anything here. Unfortunately, no bird shots. They seem incredibly shy there so are hard to see well. I saw "Jays" a few times in flight but they tended to drop into cover when they landed. I had the impression that birds must be hunted so are super wary. The butterflies were good. I think that another name for the shrub is "Butterfly Bush". I found a large one on a fence line near Robertson (NSW) and it is covered with butterflies in January. I will be visiting it again before long for photos.

Thanks, Stef, for the info. I hope to get back again in two years so perhaps we can meet. Those wall lizards were amazing. It seemed like they all had their own patterns. We did not make it out to Capri but I would like to sometime since I have read that the local race is entirely blue when in breeding colours. I will have more shots of the snakes from Sant'Agata and they also were melanistic and heavy-bodied. We stayed right on the main piazza opposite the church. My wife enjoyed watching the Italian weddings.






One of the highlights of the trip was a mountain walk from Amalfi to Positano. This walk is called "Sentiero degli Dei" ("Path of the Gods"). It certainly was beautiful with lovely vistas over the Lattari Mountains and the Isle of Capri in the distance. We took a bus for 45 minutes from Amalfi up to the village of Bomarano. The Path of the Gods walk commences there. The walk was not all that long nor strenuous and it took us about 4 hours to reach the paved road in the hills above Positano.

Here are photos along the way. It was amazing to see terraces carved into these steep slopes. Just getting to those everyday would have been difficult. The people who work those must be very fit.













... odd, narrow cypress trees grew on some of the slopes.









... trail down to Positano









The stunning Positano. 










Along the way, I saw this Wall Lizard that might be different from the others. I think that it may be a Common Wall Lizard (_P. muralis_) but I will need confirmation from someone. It lived along the trail high in the hills.






This Wall Lizard was much more green than the others. It was basking next to a shop where my wife was shopping. I think that it is an Italian Wall Lizard.






Wall Gecko (_Tarentola mauritanica_): I saw a couple on rock walls along the trail.






A few species of plants were flowering. These attracted a variety of butterflies.
... carnation-like:











Here are shots of butterflies on the walk:
Clouded Yellows (_Coleus crocea_) were common. This one was very cooperative and allowed me to get quite close for photos. They usually were fast and wary.




I only saw a few of the whiter yellows. They seemed to be smaller than the Clouded Yellow above. When looking through the Italian butterfly website, I could not decide whether these were females of C. crocea or whether they might have been something different such as Berger's Clouded Yellows (_C. facariensis_).





This, to me, looks like a Mountain Small White (_Pieris ergane_), but I am not certain. I learned on this trip that there are a number of "Cabbage Whites" in Europe. 









Small White (_Pieris rapae_) 





Bath Whites (_Pontia edusa_). I see them often but they rarely seem to stop at flowers and when they do, the visits are brief.









I saw Graylings (_Hipparchia semele_) a few times above Positano. These would often flick open their wings with the preflash to expose the eye spots.












Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)


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## richoman_3 (Dec 7, 2011)

very nice David !!!
im going to malta next year and i cant wait


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## pinkmus (Dec 7, 2011)

First snake I ever held and caught was a western whipsnake in Malta. Were the ones you saw all black (the larger ones) or grey-green juvies, or did you see any black ones with green flecks? great Pics 

-Will


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## richoman_3 (Dec 7, 2011)

pinkmus said:


> First snake I ever held and caught was a western whipsnake in Malta. Were the ones you saw all black (the larger ones) or grey-green juvies, or did you see any black ones with green flecks? great Pics
> 
> -Will



did you ever find any scorpions or centipedes in malta?
apparantly theres 1 scorpion but i dont know of any centipedes (only scutigera)


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## pinkmus (Dec 7, 2011)

richoman_3 said:


> did you ever find any scorpions or centipedes in malta?
> apparantly theres 1 scorpion but i dont know of any centipedes (only scutigera)



Pm sent.


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## moloch05 (Dec 8, 2011)

*Sant'Agata*

Thanks, guys. Will, I have shots of other whipsnakes in this post.


My wife wanted to experience Italian village life so we spent a week at Sant'Agata. This area is on a plateau not far from Positano and just above Sorrento. Most of the natural habitat here was gone. There were large gardens around each of the houses. The people here seemed to produce much of their food and it seemed like everything in the gardens had a purpose. Most yards had olive trees, fig trees, rows of cherry tomatoes, red peppers (capsicums), squash, beans and other vegetables. Chickens were numerous and some farms also had pigs. 

We stayed here at "Charming House", a nice place with small apartments. I gorged on the figs and found many wall lizards and butterflies right in the yard.






At first, I was a little disappointed with the area after the beauty of Amalfi and Positano. After a couple of days, I found a trail through native vegetation near the ocean. This place was only about a half-hour walk down a steep hill from our apartment so I visited it as much as possible. Birds here included many Blackbirds, Robins, Common Redstarts, Willow Warblers, Acrocephalus warblers, Sardinian Warblers, Goldcrests, Serin, Great Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Ravens, Peregrine Falcons, Kestrels, a Hoopoe, Common Buzzards and what I think were Dartmouth Warblers.

















Vesuvius in the distance:







This area was good for Western Whip Snakes (_Hierophis viridiflavus_). I bumped into several including this juvenile:








... and adults













Wall lizards were common. I think that these are Italian Wall Lizards (_Podarcis siculus_).


















Wall Geckos (_Tarentola mauritanica_) were common. These were day active geckos that basked before temps were too high. In the afternoon, I still saw them but they were usually on the shady sides of boulders or rock walls. From a distance, they always made me think of Sceloporus.

















Common Blues (_Polyommatus icarus_). There seemed to a good deal of interaction between the blue and brown butterflies. The brown lycaenids were probably Brown Argus (_Aricia agestis_).



















female Escher's Blue (_Plebicula escheri_) 










Lang's Short-tailed Blue (_Leptotes pirithus_): common 





Geranium Bronze (_Cacyreus marshalli_)









Small Copper (_Lycaena phaeus_): I really like these colourful butterflies.









Long-tailed Blue (_Lampides boeticus_). This species has an incredible distribution. I saw it recently in the Blue Mountains and earlier in the year in Malaysia.





Mallow Skipper (_Carcharodus alceae_)





Pygmy Skipper (_Gegenes pumilio_): tiny skipper that seems to be quite wary. I have only saw it a few times.






These _Cyclamen_ grew in cool, shady areas along the trails.










Sunrise at Sant'Agata:







Here are a few touristy shots of Amalfi. We stayed in a hotel that was situated next to the main piazza (plaza). 





The room had a small balcony and we would sit there at night, sip wine and enjoy the ambience. It really was a lovely place.

















Autumn was a great time to visit since it was not too crowded as in the summer.












That is all from Amalfi. Before long, I will begin a post from Florence/Assisi/Cinque Terre.


Regards,
David


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## Banjo (Dec 9, 2011)

Thanks for sharing Dave, I really enjoyed the pics. looks like you both had a great time.


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## moloch05 (Dec 10, 2011)

Thanks, Banjo. Yes, the trip was lots of fun and we saw many interesting places and animals. The food and wine were good as well.

Regards,
David


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## jordo (Dec 14, 2011)

Great trip report. I went to Italy when I was younger and can't wait to go back. The culture and food is amazing.


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## gosia (Dec 14, 2011)

WOW!!! I am so like you prefer Asian countries, but since my husbands parents were born in Italy he always said we should take the kids there. I always saw it as a big waste of money and always joked that Italy has too many "Wogs" there! But I must say your photos changed my mind :lol: He is turning 40 next year so might just surprise him with tics!

Thanx for sharing! And ohhhh.... what an ace husband you are


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## moloch05 (Dec 15, 2011)

Thanks, jordo and gosia.

Yes, Italy is such a beautiful place. I think that you will have a great time, gosia. Now is a good time to go with the strong Aussie dollar. We found it to be less expensive than Australia. Food and wine were especially cheap.

Regards,
David


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