About when two buses meet on a corner on the Amalfi Coast Road?
We were on the bus headed towards Amalfi and as I have been discussing, the drivers are amazing and they need to be because the road is so curvy and it is so tight. The bus was so full of people that we were actually standing in the aisle looking out the big window and hoping like hell the driver knew what he was doing. I'm pretty sure I have bruises on my arms as I tried to wedge myself in between the seats and hang on for dear life.
When they go around the corners they honk to give everybody warning but the people on the motorcycles and vespas don't seem to heed that noise, they zip around anyway.
We came around a corner and came face-to-face with another bus and taking a look at this picture you will see there is definitely not room for two buses to pass.
So what does one do? One of the buses has to back up. Who has the right of way? Oh I know all you Idaho guys are telling me... But nope that is not right. The right of way is by whomever can back up to the wider spot in the road and the bus drivers all know where those are. In this case we had to back down the mountain road but the other driver hopped out ...got behind the bus and started waving all of the 20 or 30 cars that had accumulated behind us to back up as well. It's quite the dance.
PS. As the bus was full of every nationality you can think of, I would like to report that the F-Bomb is an international word. When we came across the bus suddenly, we heard it in several dialects. Just fyi.
When both drivers were satisfied we slid past each other and I can only think that the driver who was helping direct traffic must have also oiled those buses because we barely slid by. I think the picture kind of gives an idea of how tight it is. Notice you can only see half of the other bus? This adventure is not for sissies but it has been a fascinating one!!!!
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