How do you sum up an adventure like we had? I guess the trick is to "put pen to paper" or, in this case, start banging on the keyboard.
For years, Sandra and I have wanted to do a big "real" vacation together - something more than just staying in N. America for little one week vacations every couple years or so. We wanted to do something outside of our comfort zone and be able to check something off the bucket-list. Though I crave a little adventure, I was opting for a long tropical vacation somewhere where I could chill on a lounge chair and have mai tais delivered by bikinied natives but, because this is a milestone birthday year for my lovely bride, she held sway with her choice of visiting Italy.
The Hill Family, Terence and Lori and their son, Jess, were instrumental in making this all happen. Their kindness and generosity was overwhelming as they helped us plan our trip and offered up suggestions for activities, dinners, places to visit, etc. Both Sandra and I were a little anxious about visiting another country where English wasn't the official language but the Hill's put us at ease and allowed us to "get our feet wet", so to speak. Spending time with them, as locals, allowed us to really get a feel for what it would be like to live there. I ended up liking Rome far more than I thought I would because of this. The pulse of the city, where everything you needed was within walking distance, started to course through my veins and it was easy to imagine myself living there. From the Hill's apartment you can walk a short distance to a salumeria for meats and cheeses or, in the other direction, coffee or gelato. There's a market close by, pharmacies, basically anything you need is walking distance. I love that.
I took away a few observations about Italy and its inhabitants. In many ways, they seem far more advanced than Americans. The food; seriously, everywhere we visited, if you were hungry, you could stop at any restaurant or bar and get far tastier and fresher food than most restaurants here in America. I'm not talking expensive restaurants, either. We made a point of eating "local" as much as possible and staying away from the "touristy" restaurants. Quite a few meals were simply a slice of amazing pizza or a little snack. I found the food prices to be similar to the US though even the smallest market usually had a great selection of salamis, cheeses and wines.
I imagine the autostradas to be what American freeways were like in the 60s before they started to deteriorate. I've driven coast-to-coast in the US and every single state has issues with their highways. Tax money just isn't getting spent. The autostradas are all toll highways and, unlike the toll highways in the US that have tolls because they can, the Italians actually seem to use the money on the highway. We drove about 4 or 500 miles during our visit to Italy and every single road was virtually perfect. Granted, some were narrow due to ancient planning but I don't think I ever saw a single pothole. The autostradas were 2 to 3 well-marked lanes in each direction with informational signs everywhere. There were signs noting that bridges and tunnels were forthcoming. There were SOS pull-outs every couple kilometers or so and there was always a sign informing the driver of that upcoming pullout. The autostradas do not wind through mountains, they go through them. Never in my life have I driven through longer tunnels. I'm not talking a couple hundred feet long, I'm talking tunnels that are kilometers long! If Italians built highways for Los Angeles, there would be 4 or 5 autostradas with tunnels going from West LA to the Valley and the drive time would be in minutes rather than hours during rush hour. Rome is just a little larger than Los Angeles by city size and population but the traffic just didn't seem to be nearly as bad. In addition, the Italians (as well as most of Europe) have embraced small vehicles. I saw very few American cars with their huge, gas-guzzling motors.
One more thing about the autostradas; about every 50km there was an Autogrill rest stop. How can I describe these? It was as if an Italian grocery store meets a convenience store meets a coffee shop meets an Italian restaurant meets a gas station with all the necessities a traveler would ever need. Toys for the kids, oil for the car, toilet paper for grandma, wine for mom, prosciutti, balls of provolone, pasta everywhere, towers of cookie tins. The food? Absolutely amazing!! Fresh pastries, meats, cheeses, etc. You can sit down and eat a hearty bowl of pasta, pizza, whatever! They have restrooms that could take an entire football team with room to spare. The gas stations have 10+ lanes so you never have to wait to get gas. They are truly amazing and, when you're done, you get right back on the autostrada!
Let me speak a bit about Italian bathrooms. First off, no matter where you are, if you have to "go", every restaurant has a toilette that they are more than willing to let you use. None of this bullshit of "customers only" that you get here in the States. Even the smallest, oldest building had clean, efficient bathrooms. Even the ones that still used antique pull-handle toilets were in perfect working order, didn't smell and were clean. Though there are a lot of American toilets that are now automatic, there are still quite a few that still have handles somewhere on the toilet for flushing. ALL Italian toilettes have large push buttons on the wall for flushing, separate from the toilet. Why can't we have that? So much more sanitary! When you're ready to wash your hands, you step on a lever and the water starts flowing. Step away and the water stops. Oh yeah, in homes, hotels and a few restaurant bathrooms, there are bidets. Bidets are the best invention ever for a bathroom. Why, oh why, have Americans not brought bidets into their bathrooms? In this respect, Americans seem truly barbaric and disgusting compared to Europeans.
Let's continue to compare....you could always pick out American tourists. I was one the first couple days but then I tried to assimilate a bit. Obviously, the camera is a dead give-away but let's just take that out of the equation for a moment. Americans almost always are carrying more body fat than Italians and European tourists. We would sit and point them out and wait to hear if they're speaking English. Yup, almost always. Americans would wear t-shirts or tanks, shorts or jeans and tennis shoes or sandals. Italian men, out for a stroll, would be wearing a fitted, collared button-up shirt, fitted pants and nice shoes. Most businessmen, even of seemingly modest means, would be wearing beautiful, fitted, navy-blue suits. The first day, I was wearing my Hendrix t-shirt, Nike baseball cap and faded jeans. I quickly went out and bought more button-up shirts to add to the few I brought and wore those exclusively the rest of the trip.
Everywhere we went, Italians were kind and gracious. Enter a shop or restaurant and you'll get a warm, "buongiorno" or "buona sera". People always say, "grazie" or "grazia" (thank you) and "prego" (you're welcome). It didn't seem to be a show, it seemed to be ingrained into their culture. To give you another idea of graciousness, we needed to fill up our rental car prior to returning it in Venice. The closest gas station was on the mainland side of the long bridge and it was a bit rundown. I pulled into one lane and a nice Mercedes pulled into the other. I couldn't figure out how to get the payment kiosk to work and the nice Italian man from the Mercedes explained that it was broken and we needed to move to the other lane. We both move our cars and try that kiosk. There was a handwritten note that I couldn't understand so he haltingly explained that it was cash only with no change given. I said, "oh no" because I thought we only had larger bills. He was immediately concerned for me and offered to make change for me! How nice!!! I ended up having proper change but, again, how nice of a stranger to help a foreigner.
It seemed to me that Italians kinda had a "can do" attitude about them. They did things for themselves rather than hiring immigrant labor to do it for them. It seemed to me that the Italians were working almost all the jobs rather than farming them out to the cheapest labor pool. I truly think that is one of the reasons that the streets are clean, bathrooms are clean, goods are fresh and local and that, for the most part, people are nice and gracious. It appears to be part of their culture. Don't get me wrong, there are labor issues with demonstrations and negative graffiti but I think you get that in every major city.
Euros are awesome! No paper money below €5 so change is given in the form of coins. I like VAT, as well, because the final sales prices of goods and services are rounded amounts. The tax is built-in so the consumer doesn't have to deal with pennies. €5 is €5, not €5.45 after tax. Every single sales transaction done by credit card is done with a portable, hand-held chip reader that prints out two receipts, one to sign for the retailer and one for the buyer. So easy, fast and your card never leaves your sight. I just don't understand why the US is so far behind on things like this.
These are just a few examples of what I learned from our trip to Italy. I was also reminded about how much fun it is to spend all day every day for 14 days with my lovely bride. We just get along and enjoy each others company and we also enjoy the same things but there are still enough differences between us to push the other a little outside our respective comfort zones. Sandra (with help from The Hills) had obsessively planned out our vacation, months in advance, with most of the hotels, car rentals and museums reserved and pre-paid so there weren't really any surprises. Though I like to be a little spontaneous and "wing-it" a bit, I have to admit that having everything planned out really took the stress out of visiting a foreign country and, for that, I thank my lovely bride. If you'd like to get a feel for how I like to be spontaneous on vacation, check out my blog of my Road Trip across the US back in 2010.
Vacation is over and it's back to the grind, so to speak, but I have to say that everything seems fresh now. I appreciate my home, my animals, my TV and internet, my work, my music.....there's just a freshness about things. Sandra and I have never taken a 14 day vacation together where we were so completely disconnected with work and home. I think the last time we took a two week vacation together was our honeymoon back in 1993 when we went to Maui. Obviously, Maui is part of the US so there really wasn't any experience of visiting another non-English speaking country. This vacation was a long time coming and we arranged our finances so that we could afford to splurge a bit. I hope that we haven't come off as being pretentious as we've shared pictures and experiences with you. It's just something we've never been able to do before and it was our "virgin" trip overseas so we wanted to share our experience with you, our family and friends.
Until the next vacation blog.....Ciao!
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Monday, May 23, 2016
Day 14 - Travel Day....the Longest Day of Our Lives!
Got up at 6am and made it to the airport with time to spare - even after dropping off the car. So...that little Fiat 500 would go about 150km before the gas gauge would move off of full. We had gassed up about 100km outside of Rome and the gauge still showed full as we left the hotel. The gauge still showed full when we pulled into the car rental drop off. And....the gauge no longer showed full once the car had been emptied out. Damnit!! We had to pay for another full tank of gas as I didn't have time to go out and find a gas station. Oh well.
Our flight left at 10AM Rome time and was scheduled to arrive at 2:30PM LA time. We followed the sun across the sky for 12.5 hours in a tube filled with all our fellow sardines. Wow, what a grind! Nasty, nasty food on Alitalia, as well. If anyone reads this and flies Alitalia, I would recommend packing some munchies because the only thing edible during that 12 hours was some saltine crackers and apple slices. At one point, we were served these pale pink meat slices with little green specks in them with a "cheese" (I think it was cheese...it had the consistency of creamy feta cheese....maybe not....I don't know) spread that had canned peas in it as well as crunchy potato-looking things that could have been any white/gray kind of vegetable. I don't know. I don't even think my dogs would've eaten it. We also got served cooked vegetables that included a slice of some vegetable that was bright orange and looked like a cooked carrot but was the size of a huge potato slice. Sandra thought it might have been sweet potato but tasted it and couldn't be sure. I think there was a slice of eggplant in there, as well. UGH!!!!
And that, my friends, is our Italy adventure. Stay tuned for an Epilogue.
Our flight left at 10AM Rome time and was scheduled to arrive at 2:30PM LA time. We followed the sun across the sky for 12.5 hours in a tube filled with all our fellow sardines. Wow, what a grind! Nasty, nasty food on Alitalia, as well. If anyone reads this and flies Alitalia, I would recommend packing some munchies because the only thing edible during that 12 hours was some saltine crackers and apple slices. At one point, we were served these pale pink meat slices with little green specks in them with a "cheese" (I think it was cheese...it had the consistency of creamy feta cheese....maybe not....I don't know) spread that had canned peas in it as well as crunchy potato-looking things that could have been any white/gray kind of vegetable. I don't know. I don't even think my dogs would've eaten it. We also got served cooked vegetables that included a slice of some vegetable that was bright orange and looked like a cooked carrot but was the size of a huge potato slice. Sandra thought it might have been sweet potato but tasted it and couldn't be sure. I think there was a slice of eggplant in there, as well. UGH!!!!
The doggies and our bird were so happy to see us! Big kisses and tummy rubs all around! We cracked a cold beer, unloaded our suitcases, had some food and could no longer keep our eyes open by 7PM! Jetlag from east to west sucks!!!
And that, my friends, is our Italy adventure. Stay tuned for an Epilogue.
Day 13 - The Drive Back to Roma
Sandra is a very smart girl!! She booked us at a hotel right near the Rome airport so we would have no issues making our 10AM flight the following morning.
We checked out of the Relais Blu, said our goodbyes and were on the road by a little after 11AM. The drive was supposed to take a little less than 3 hours so we planned to check in at our hotel then take the "speedy" train into Rome for a nice dinner and our last taste of Venchi gelato. That was not to be the case.
The distance from our hotel to Naples where we could catch the multi-lane autostrada was a little less than 60km of 2-lane highway. That 60km, which should have taken us less than an hour, ended up taking almost 3 hours!!!! UGH!!! There must have been an accident somewhere up the road because the opposing traffic would disappear for about 10 or 15 minutes, then a string of cars would show up, then we would move a bit, then we'd see some Polizia, then ambulances and there was no other choice of road. That was it, we just needed to deal.
We eventually made it to the autostrada and, once again, I could relax on one of the nicest highways ever. The speed limit was 100kph, I was driving 120 and getting passed like I was standing still. I finally sped up to 130 (80mph) to keep up with the trucks in the far right lane so I wouldn't get run over and, still, the cars in the far left lane were flying by. At one point, I sped up to see how fast they were going and didn't feel comfortable going over 155kph (96mph) and watched the car in front of me just disappear. It would have been so cool to have been in a faster, safer car. Oh well, we got amazing gas mileage!
We made it to our hotel, The Golden Tulip (?), by the late afternoon and decided we were too tired and it was too late to head into Rome. The airport is on the coast outside of Rome so, even on the "speedy" train, it takes about 35 minutes to get into the city and we just didn't want to have it end up being a late night. The Golden Tulip was nice but it was obvious that it was a "corporate" hotel. We got a couple cocktails and some ice for one of the Birrificio Sorrento beers and just chilled a bit before dinner. Though it was a corporate hotel, the restaurant was surprisingly decent - of course, nothing like how we had been eating, but quite good, nonetheless. Our last dinner in Italy.
Tomorrow, we sit in a flying sardine tube for 12.5 hours!!! Happy Day!!
We checked out of the Relais Blu, said our goodbyes and were on the road by a little after 11AM. The drive was supposed to take a little less than 3 hours so we planned to check in at our hotel then take the "speedy" train into Rome for a nice dinner and our last taste of Venchi gelato. That was not to be the case.
The distance from our hotel to Naples where we could catch the multi-lane autostrada was a little less than 60km of 2-lane highway. That 60km, which should have taken us less than an hour, ended up taking almost 3 hours!!!! UGH!!! There must have been an accident somewhere up the road because the opposing traffic would disappear for about 10 or 15 minutes, then a string of cars would show up, then we would move a bit, then we'd see some Polizia, then ambulances and there was no other choice of road. That was it, we just needed to deal.
We eventually made it to the autostrada and, once again, I could relax on one of the nicest highways ever. The speed limit was 100kph, I was driving 120 and getting passed like I was standing still. I finally sped up to 130 (80mph) to keep up with the trucks in the far right lane so I wouldn't get run over and, still, the cars in the far left lane were flying by. At one point, I sped up to see how fast they were going and didn't feel comfortable going over 155kph (96mph) and watched the car in front of me just disappear. It would have been so cool to have been in a faster, safer car. Oh well, we got amazing gas mileage!
We made it to our hotel, The Golden Tulip (?), by the late afternoon and decided we were too tired and it was too late to head into Rome. The airport is on the coast outside of Rome so, even on the "speedy" train, it takes about 35 minutes to get into the city and we just didn't want to have it end up being a late night. The Golden Tulip was nice but it was obvious that it was a "corporate" hotel. We got a couple cocktails and some ice for one of the Birrificio Sorrento beers and just chilled a bit before dinner. Though it was a corporate hotel, the restaurant was surprisingly decent - of course, nothing like how we had been eating, but quite good, nonetheless. Our last dinner in Italy.
Tomorrow, we sit in a flying sardine tube for 12.5 hours!!! Happy Day!!
Day 12 - Visiting Sorrento
When we planned our trip, we had originally planned for this day to be spent driving to Vesuvius and Pompeii but, after yesterday's long drive, we decided we wanted to stay a little closer so decided to head out and explore Sorrento.
Sorrento is an ancient city, though very few ruins remain, and is a prime tourist attraction due to it's port, history of Limoncello production and beautiful cliff-side hotels. Once again, we found a great parking garage and off we went with no agenda whatsoever. We dinked around town and decided to make our way down the cliff for a drink at one of the restaurants out on the many piers. We shared a bottle of wine and enjoyed the beautiful views and cool breezes off the Med.
Guess what? Yup, we were hungry and decided to make our way back up the cliff to find a restaurant somewhere for a little pasta. We found a great little place along a narrow walkway that was being serenaded by a trio with a young woman belting out Italian favorites. More wine, some food and we were good! After lunch, we explored a bit more, took some pictures, bought some gifts and made our way back to the hotel. Sorrento gave me, far and away, the most exciting driving experience of the entire trip. People everywhere darting in front of you, cars, buses, scooters all going everywhere all at once. At one point, we were driving up this narrow road and a Mercedes was coming down. My right mirror was about 2 inches from a cement wall so I couldn't go over any more and he was as far over as he could get. As we passed, our mirrors kissed and I looked at Guido and simply said, "oops" and away we went! No damage, no foul!
Once back at the hotel, we relaxed a bit, drank some beer, played around at the pool and watched an amazing sunset, drank more beer then went and got cleaned up for dinner. We stopped by the bar on our way to dinner (surprise, surprise!) for a shot of Jager and ended up chatting with the bartenders and sampling a host of other liqueurs as well as having them pour us one of the beers we bought. Dinner was amazing, just as on our first night in the hotel, and was a great end to our stay at the Relais Blu as we needed to check out in the morning.
Sorrento is an ancient city, though very few ruins remain, and is a prime tourist attraction due to it's port, history of Limoncello production and beautiful cliff-side hotels. Once again, we found a great parking garage and off we went with no agenda whatsoever. We dinked around town and decided to make our way down the cliff for a drink at one of the restaurants out on the many piers. We shared a bottle of wine and enjoyed the beautiful views and cool breezes off the Med.
Guess what? Yup, we were hungry and decided to make our way back up the cliff to find a restaurant somewhere for a little pasta. We found a great little place along a narrow walkway that was being serenaded by a trio with a young woman belting out Italian favorites. More wine, some food and we were good! After lunch, we explored a bit more, took some pictures, bought some gifts and made our way back to the hotel. Sorrento gave me, far and away, the most exciting driving experience of the entire trip. People everywhere darting in front of you, cars, buses, scooters all going everywhere all at once. At one point, we were driving up this narrow road and a Mercedes was coming down. My right mirror was about 2 inches from a cement wall so I couldn't go over any more and he was as far over as he could get. As we passed, our mirrors kissed and I looked at Guido and simply said, "oops" and away we went! No damage, no foul!
On our way back to the hotel, we noticed that the brewery, Birrificio Sorrento, was open so we stopped, went in and introduced ourselves. We met one of the owners, Giuseppe, as he was busy cleaning with one of his staff. His English wasn't very good but he understood that I was a beer snob and truly disliked the most popular Italian beer, Peroni, but was really interested in his beer. He agreed wholeheartedly and I think he said something to the effect that he thought Peroni was Italian pisswater. Ok, language barrier surmounted! Unfortunately, it was just a working brewery rather than a brewpub so they didn't have any beer to sample but I ended up buying a sample bottle each of the three styles they make as well as a t-shirt and a couple glasses as momentoes. Very nice guy and I really hope he is able to get his beer exported to the US.
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| Check out the waterspout in the distance!!! |
Ciao!!
Day 11 - Driving the Amalfi Coast
One of the best decisions we made was to rent a car for this last part of our vacation. The day dawned bright and we were happy that we didn't need to rush anywhere to make some appointment. The day was ours.
The hotel offers a wonderful breakfast spread made up of cheeses, salami, fresh fruit, fresh bread, juices, cereals, etc. so we took our time indulging out on the terrace overlooking the Med. The Caffe Americano was thick and rich and going down exactly the way that it should. What a grand start to the day!
Earlier, we had mentioned to the hotel staff that we were going to be driving the Amalfi Coast and they made the recommendation to drive straight through to Ravello, have lunch there then slowly make our way back. Once again, we didn't want to be time or destination bound so we just decided to head out and see where the road takes us. That's the way we roll sometimes!
The road from the hotel winds up into the hills a bit before it drops back down to the Sorrentine Coast. We were following the GPS and the "Nav Chick" wanted to take us down this little "road" that was little more than a path with grass overflowing the sides and grass growing in the middle of it. We've learned something about using GPS in a completely foreign context; use sparingly and with good judgement of your surroundings cuz it ain't always perfect. We turned around, went back down the hill and, before no time, we saw a sign that we had missed earlier. Yes, you guessed it, as soon as we were on the correct road, the GPS started working perfectly!
The vistas were truly stunning! Everywhere we looked was a potential picture opportunity but, alas, there was either nowhere to pull off or, where there was, it was already filled with cars and tour buses. The drive, itself, was nowhere near as frightening as the guidebooks and trips reports will have you believe - at least for me it wasn't. There were certainly times when I needed to concentrate on the road but that's what you're supposed to do when you're driving, right? We watched one entertaining encounter when two tour buses met right on a corner. They've obviously done this before because they inched by themselves with about a half inch to spare. Seriously, if two passengers had got up out of their seats and looked out the opposite window, the weight transfer would have caused the buses to hit.
The first town that we came to was Positano. My friend, Paul, has been to Positano quite a few times and told us quite a bit about it so it was definitely on our bucket-list for the day but we were still planning on heading towards Ravello first and visit Positano on the way back home so onward we drove.
The next town was the town of Praiano which, we were told by Sandra's friend, Nadia, has an amazing restaurant, Trattoria San Gennaro, that serves mussels in "crazy" sauce. Well, we love mussels and the time had flown by so a stop for lunch was made. Normally, we order something else with mussels because, once you finish digging the little buggers out of their shells, there's not much actual food so we ordered Insalate di Frutte di Mare with it. Oh...yeah, I forgot that we also ordered the obligatory bottle (half) of wine to go with it. Well, when the waitress started walking our way with these two huge platters, we were wondering what she was doing and why she was bringing us their entire days catch of seafood to our table! The plate of mussels was probably 2 feet in diameter and the seafood salad was almost as big and piled about 8 inches high!
Bear with me as I devote an entire paragraph to this gustatory delight. The mussels were super fresh with every single shell opened perfectly. They were swimming in a delicious tomato-based sauce with hints of wine and oregano that, I'm sure was made fresh that morning and had been simmering ever since. The meat of every mussel was this perfect orange/tan color with not a single hint of being rubbery or having a trace of seaweed. Pure elegance. The seafood salad was a bowl of calamari, octopus, snails, shrimp, fish, prawns, clams and mussels that was served warm by itself. Most of the time, restaurants, at least here in the States, will serve the seafood on a bed of lettuce. Not this time. The seafood stood alone - a bowl of nothing but perfectly cooked seafood and a couple of local lemons on the side for seasoning. A little dash of salt, pepper and drizzle of olive oil and lemon was all that was needed to bring out all the oceany goodness of what was before us. Just like the bowl of mussels, not a single piece of seafood had even the hint of being rubbery in texture. It's not easy to cook octopus that melts in your mouth like this did. It seems like octopus is either rubbery or a little mushy. Not this time! Never, ever, in my life have I ordered either of these dishes and not been able to finish them completely and eat a basket of bread as well. We could not eat a single bite more and ended up leaving some on the plate! We were stuffed and it was all we could do to finish the wine. (OK, so I'm kidding here a bit - we can ALWAYS finish the wine!)
The sun was out and we were excited to work off our lunch by navigating the 400 steps down to the little beach that Nadia also told us about. The path wasn't just 400 steps straight down, it was a meandering path past the front yards of small homes and little hotels perched on the cliff. Teeny little gardens with grapes, herbs, lemon trees and flowers everywhere. We made our way down the Medieval steps to find a minuscule little harbor with a commercial beach to the left, which was closed, and a small little beach to the right of the boat launch. There were only 4 people on this little beach soaking up the sunshine and doing a little swimming. We took off our shoes and socks and proceeded to let the crystal blue Med cool our feet while we digested lunch. It was such a wonderful little beach that we hung out for as long as we wanted because we were on nobody's schedule but our own.
Eventually, we dried off our feet and began the climb back up to the top. During the climb, we made the decision that Praiano would be our turn-around spot rather than continue on to Ravello, as originally planned. It was getting late in the afternoon and we still wanted to spend some time back in Positano. Yeah, we may have missed a bit but being relaxed trumped what we missed further down the road. Know what I mean? We bought some little goodies, hopped in the car and turned around to make our way back.
The highway passes Positano high above the town and there is a little one-way road that winds down towards the Centro. The tourists were definitely out in force as we made our way down. Luckily, Positano has a few nice public parking garages so we pulled in and made our way down into the town. Not 20 steps down the street, Sandra finds this amazing shop selling beautiful linen clothes. Maria Rosselli, was her over-energetic salesgirl who brought us into the back to see the factory where they made all the clothes. "No China!" she said! Beautiful clothes....and, yes, Sandra came home with a couple tops. Once in the centro of town, Positano looked quite similar to the other cliff-side towns that we'd seen except for having a great beach. We looked around a bit, dodged tourists and restaurant "hawkers" and decided to have a gelato and chill for a bit. The gelateria had a great view but it was just OK flavor and didn't even come close to comparing to the Venchi gelato we'd had in Rome.
We made our way back to the car and headed for home. In retrospect, we were very happy that we hadn't driven all the way to Ravello because we wouldn't have had any time to do any walking around. The drive back to the hotel was beautiful and uneventful, though with a bit more traffic. I could only imagine how bad the drive would be on a beautiful summer weekend. Once back at the hotel, Sandra decided that she wanted to go check out the pool. We took some cool pics, drank a few beers poolside and enjoyed the sunset.
After the pool, we cleaned up a bit and decided that we wanted to "go local" and find a pizzeria somewhere close. We drove about 3 minutes down the in the opposite direction and found Ristorante Nastro D’Oro. The restaurant was obviously family owned and decorated like someone's kitchen and had quite a few local patrons. Perfect! We ordered a couple beers, pizza and a salad - exactly what we wanted and, true to Italian cuisine, those simple foods were done perfectly with super fresh ingredients. While sitting there, Sandra and I were talking about how she saw a trip report by someone saying that there's a microbrew somewhere close to the hotel. I looked out the front window of the restaurant and there was a sign glowing across the street that said something like "Birrificio..." I looked out the other window and there is was; "Brewery" in big glowing letters. I asked Francesco, the owner, about the brewery and he asked if I wanted to try one of their beers. YES I DID!! He brought us a bottle of their Syrentum which is a craft-brew lager with hints of Sorrento lemons. Amazingly good beer!!! The brewery was closed for the evening but a plan was made to return!
Back to the hotel with full bellies and very sleepy.
The hotel offers a wonderful breakfast spread made up of cheeses, salami, fresh fruit, fresh bread, juices, cereals, etc. so we took our time indulging out on the terrace overlooking the Med. The Caffe Americano was thick and rich and going down exactly the way that it should. What a grand start to the day!
Earlier, we had mentioned to the hotel staff that we were going to be driving the Amalfi Coast and they made the recommendation to drive straight through to Ravello, have lunch there then slowly make our way back. Once again, we didn't want to be time or destination bound so we just decided to head out and see where the road takes us. That's the way we roll sometimes!
The road from the hotel winds up into the hills a bit before it drops back down to the Sorrentine Coast. We were following the GPS and the "Nav Chick" wanted to take us down this little "road" that was little more than a path with grass overflowing the sides and grass growing in the middle of it. We've learned something about using GPS in a completely foreign context; use sparingly and with good judgement of your surroundings cuz it ain't always perfect. We turned around, went back down the hill and, before no time, we saw a sign that we had missed earlier. Yes, you guessed it, as soon as we were on the correct road, the GPS started working perfectly!
The vistas were truly stunning! Everywhere we looked was a potential picture opportunity but, alas, there was either nowhere to pull off or, where there was, it was already filled with cars and tour buses. The drive, itself, was nowhere near as frightening as the guidebooks and trips reports will have you believe - at least for me it wasn't. There were certainly times when I needed to concentrate on the road but that's what you're supposed to do when you're driving, right? We watched one entertaining encounter when two tour buses met right on a corner. They've obviously done this before because they inched by themselves with about a half inch to spare. Seriously, if two passengers had got up out of their seats and looked out the opposite window, the weight transfer would have caused the buses to hit.
The first town that we came to was Positano. My friend, Paul, has been to Positano quite a few times and told us quite a bit about it so it was definitely on our bucket-list for the day but we were still planning on heading towards Ravello first and visit Positano on the way back home so onward we drove.
The sun was out and we were excited to work off our lunch by navigating the 400 steps down to the little beach that Nadia also told us about. The path wasn't just 400 steps straight down, it was a meandering path past the front yards of small homes and little hotels perched on the cliff. Teeny little gardens with grapes, herbs, lemon trees and flowers everywhere. We made our way down the Medieval steps to find a minuscule little harbor with a commercial beach to the left, which was closed, and a small little beach to the right of the boat launch. There were only 4 people on this little beach soaking up the sunshine and doing a little swimming. We took off our shoes and socks and proceeded to let the crystal blue Med cool our feet while we digested lunch. It was such a wonderful little beach that we hung out for as long as we wanted because we were on nobody's schedule but our own.
Eventually, we dried off our feet and began the climb back up to the top. During the climb, we made the decision that Praiano would be our turn-around spot rather than continue on to Ravello, as originally planned. It was getting late in the afternoon and we still wanted to spend some time back in Positano. Yeah, we may have missed a bit but being relaxed trumped what we missed further down the road. Know what I mean? We bought some little goodies, hopped in the car and turned around to make our way back.
The highway passes Positano high above the town and there is a little one-way road that winds down towards the Centro. The tourists were definitely out in force as we made our way down. Luckily, Positano has a few nice public parking garages so we pulled in and made our way down into the town. Not 20 steps down the street, Sandra finds this amazing shop selling beautiful linen clothes. Maria Rosselli, was her over-energetic salesgirl who brought us into the back to see the factory where they made all the clothes. "No China!" she said! Beautiful clothes....and, yes, Sandra came home with a couple tops. Once in the centro of town, Positano looked quite similar to the other cliff-side towns that we'd seen except for having a great beach. We looked around a bit, dodged tourists and restaurant "hawkers" and decided to have a gelato and chill for a bit. The gelateria had a great view but it was just OK flavor and didn't even come close to comparing to the Venchi gelato we'd had in Rome.
We made our way back to the car and headed for home. In retrospect, we were very happy that we hadn't driven all the way to Ravello because we wouldn't have had any time to do any walking around. The drive back to the hotel was beautiful and uneventful, though with a bit more traffic. I could only imagine how bad the drive would be on a beautiful summer weekend. Once back at the hotel, Sandra decided that she wanted to go check out the pool. We took some cool pics, drank a few beers poolside and enjoyed the sunset.
Back to the hotel with full bellies and very sleepy.
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