Path of the Gods is a trail that Greek Gods took to save Ulysses from sirens on Li Galli Island. That is according to a legend. Honestly, it might take you closer to the one up. Views leave you speechless, nature diversity is just overwhelming and tons of stairs might make you want to pray to the God – please no more, seriously, no more.
Before our hiking day I checked all the possibilities. Most of them say: start in Bomerano/ Agerola and make your way down to Positano. That’s the guarantee of the best views. We did it a bit differently. Started in Positano (which was our holiday base) we made our way up to Bomerano and then continued our hike with ‘Ring of the Gods’ or ‘Circuit of Tre Calli’.
Starting in Positano was a challenge. When we finally found a sign saying ‘Path of the Gods’ we were happy, but little we knew what’s in front of us. Stairs. Lots of stairs. So it’s quite a quick altitude change in a short time. It’s marked 1,5 hour to Nocelle but we were in this little village after 45 minutes.
In Nocelle you still have quite a few stairs but then you start to see the light in a tunnel and yes! You’re finally on the trail (well the trail started already with the stairs). We took a little break in the ‘last bar’ before the Path of the Gods, where a very welcoming Italian couple served fresh orange and lemon juice and of course beer.
Finally! The trail with not so many stairs. We enjoyed every minute of it. The landscape and the flora changes all the time. We were breathing in the fresh sea air with quite a few tourists around. We didn’t mind. We knew we were not going to be alone on the trail.
At one point you have two options: you can take a lower or a higher trail and both will lead you to the same point. We took a higher one since we saw there was no people around. After you get to the crossing that says ‘Positano, Praiano, Nocelle’ and that’s not where you want to go. We made a little off piste once again just to check the view from a little mountain on the way. Then we came back to the crossing and continued our way to Bomerano/ Agerola.
When we got to Agerola/ Bomerano we decided to double check in the tourist office if our plan was not ‘too much’ for one day. Girl sitting in the office advised us to go back to Positano with the same trail (meaning ‘Path of the Gods’) since the one that we chose is quite high and involves still quite a hike up. Little she knew. We continued our ‘hike day’ with ‘Circuit of Tre Calli’ which starts in Bomerano square and is well marked. And then it started with stairs again…
When the stairs are finally finished you find yourself on a pretty trail with no people around. Quite a big altitude change in not so much time. It climbs up but steadily. Hiking through the forest has its amazing charm and later you get to the panorami view point. I was glad we didn’t listen to the girl in the tourist office. It was even better than Path of Gods.
We just continued the trail until we reached Capo Muro, where there’s a crossing and we weren’t too sure where to go. Finally we chose as we thought the right way and then an Italian farmer showed us the right trail by throwing a stone in a good direction. Yes, our Italian is unfortunately very poor.
We finally got to a sign that I just loved. It said nothing. We decided that we take a trail going down, since that’s the direction that we were aiming for. Since the sun was slowly going down we had to move our asses to get to Positano before the night came. And we managed!
We walked 23 km on that day, sweated 1000 litres of water on the stairs, did almost 1400 m altitude change and it took us 7 hours and 45 minutes easy walking. We hiked one of the most amazing hikes in our life. Although to be honest every hike for me is exceptional. This one offered us a bit of change, change from Swiss mountains. Incredible views that we will never forget.
Practical information:
Starting point: Positano
Target: Path of the Gods, Circuit of Tre Calli, Capo Muro (1100 m) and back to Positano
Hike lenght: 23 km
Difficulty: Path of the Gods is not a difficult hike. The only difficulty are the stairs and there’s quite a lot of them. Circuit of Tre Calli is more demanding but not difficult.
Tips: If you are thinking of a day long hike that is a perfect solution. Path of the Gods offers stunning views but going even higher has its advantages. We bought a hiking trail map and it wasn’t the best. It was quite useless to be honest. Watch out: trails are sometimes poorly marked.
Text: Agnieszka Wajs
