Update from the Amalfi Coast

May 13 – Friday We’re leaving Vieste, Puglia this morning to drive from the east coast slightly southwest to the Amalfi Coast.  Leaving Vieste, the road doesn’t quite seem so bad as coming in and not quite so long!  We admire the views when we can and Mark concentrates on the curves.  Once we get to the next town we have left the mountains and are now on the flat lands – reminds me of the flat of the prairies except very green.  Here the agriculture is grains, some row crops, and grazing land, and the first haying we seen so far on the trip.  We drive through the flat agri-land, next through verdant green foothills, and then to full out mountains (although not high like the Rockies.  As we approach Naples to head south, we are in mountain territory.  The Amalfi Coast is on the west side of these mountains.  The drive into the area of Minori where we are staying is along a coast road built in 1840.  It is built along the contours of the coast – thus twisty and winding and Narrow!!  Jeffrey is none too pleased about all the twists in the road as his stomach starts to protest. The mountains drop off directly into the sea, the only beach areas are in the few bays that have towns. Here are a couple of views from our deck...

We are met on the side of the road by Piero, and then directs us to a parking spot where we can unload for our accommodation, Oliver House.  Oliver, his uncle, who owns the place is also here to meet us.  Our house is perched on the hillside like most places in this area. Some seem really perched on the side of a mountain.

 Actually, it is built into the hillside!  We walk up a number of narrow concrete steps along a narrow concrete path, up more stairs, more path and more stairs to arrive at the house.  Turning around we now see the awesome view of the bay and the towns of Miori and Maiori.  We have a very private little area with the main road to the rest of the Amalfi coast right below us!  It is well outfitted with 2 large bedrooms and 2 large baths.  J is impressed that he has a flat screen in his room!  Oliver shows us around the place and wants to be sure we are pleased!

Outside there are olive and lemon trees, flowers in urns, loungers, and a roman-style bath/jacuzzi which I’m sure in the morning will be in full light- J was eyeing this with glee.  This place didn’t have a blue pool overlooking the sea like the ad on the net did.   When I questioned Piero, he tells me that that location is booked solid and he assured me I would much rather be here… we’ll see.  Oliver tells us where he buys his groceries.  The internet is down because of a storm last week, but he tells us we can use his internet key while we are here (which is for 10 nights)

We decide to drive into Maiori to buy groceries. We’ve already decided we won’t be driving everyday as the roads are narrow and there is lots of traffic with many busses and little parking.  It’s just not worth the hassle!  Anyways, we go into town, it’s still siesta time at 3:45, so we decide to go for a snack.  A couple of beer, a soda and a few snacks and we dish out $35 Euro!  Ouch!  We’re in tourist territory!!

Fortified by food, we were off to the grocery store to buy things for the week.  We are unable to buy fresh veggies and fruit that’ll wait until tomorrow to go to a vedure/fruitti stand. Back at Oliver House Teresa makes another wonderful dinner, add some wine, and we enjoy the evening on the deck at this wonderful spot.

Saturday, May 14 – We wake up to beautiful blue sky and the sun’s shining on the Jacuzzi pool.  J wants to go in first thing.  The water is cold – but he perseveres and goes in.  It takes T a good 20 min to get in up to her thighs, and M has no interest in getting in!!  Piero comes by and he asks if it’s warm enough – or would we like it warmer – warmer please!  And he goes down below to increase the temperature.  The pool is about twice the size of our hot tub made out of what else…. concrete!  The Italians LOVE their concrete!!!  From the pool we have a view of the bay below – ah lovely! 

Piero helps Mark get the internet key to work as well as brings a couple of bottles of wine, and a big pot to cook pasta (he has lent us his for the week).   He is a wonderful guy who is very welcoming and wants to ensure we do not want for anything.  He happens to live on the other side of this villa.

We enjoy the day just hanging out, J in the hot tube, M and T on the deck, all soaking in the views. Later in the afternoon we decide to walk to town to go to pick up produce.  We are told to walk on the ocean side of the road.  J is in the lead and M is in the rear.  It does get a bit hair-raising when busses are passing within a foot of where we are walking.  We virtually cling to the concrete walks as we walk along.  We have been watching the traffic from our deck where at times traffic comes to a stand still as two busses meet each other along the road.  As we are walking – this happens.  In front of us we see cars parked as close to the rock/concrete wall as they can and a bus inching its way along in the opposite direction with inches to spare between the cars and the rock wall on the other side, a tour guide is walking in front of the bus – telling people to move their cars over giving directions to the bus driver.  We inch our way past the traffic jam and carry on into town. We find a flight of steps, allowing us to get off the roadway and make our way into town.  We walk around and explore, a truly fun pastime. We stop for a cappuccino and some excellent desserts. T tells us that she really wants to get some lemoncelo (liqueur) here as this is one thing the area is known for. M and J walk around a couple of corners and find a lemoncello factory!  We buy a little bottle and ask how long it takes to make.  The owner tells T it takes two days and makes it by hand.  Using something similar to a potato peeler, he peels the zest off, then adds it to his vat of alcohol and sugar and lets it ferment.  Apparently the Amalfi coast is noted for sfugato lemons – which are lemons much larger than what we find in N. Am. They use lemons in lots of cooking and baking.  

We stop at a vegetable shop where we pick up a number of things to round off the array of groceries we have picked up.  We are really enjoying the fresh produce – tomatoes that are wonderfully sweet, lemons and oranges just picked from the trees, fennel and fava beans (which we had before in Greece) and are learning to cook with.  Loaded down with fresh produce we head back to the villa.  This time T leads, and M in the rear.  Again there are places where we wait for traffic to go by as it makes us nervous where the road gets narrow especially on blind corners. We turn around as noise increases behind us to see a rally of Harley Davidson riders – we decide to count – 94 in all! WOW!

Sunday, May 15 - Another beautiful day – we’ve decided to hang here enjoying the pool, view and warmth, as well as get caught up on loading photos and editing stuff.  It is a very relaxing day admiring the beauty around us.  One thing we really notice is the use of terraces to create small portions of flat ground to grow fruit trees and gardens - you folks from Trail should really appreciate these shots.

  From our vantage we first see likely another 100 motorbikes (not Harleys this time) and then see another 150  or so scooter riders pass by our place- this time they are being escorted by a sirened vehicle.  We know when busses are approaching the corners as they toot their horns to warn oncoming motorists.  They don’t exactly go slow as they drive these roads!  Oliver stops by this evening on his way out with 2 bottles of white wine and we chat while he waits to go out with his friends.  We get a bit of his life story, born and raised in the area, his livelihood if off of tourists who come and rent rooms at one of three villas which he owns. We have found by chatting with people, we have been treated differently as time goes on.  For example, when I asked about laundry upon our arrival, Oliver said we could have it sent out .  By Sunday – he was offering the use of his personal washer for us to use.   The Italians do love kids, J was offered extra helpings of pasta on a couple of occasions as well as free dessert.  They are impressed that he tries to converse in Italian with them – this makes them smile and show appreciation.  

Monday, May 16 – Today is overcast – well partially overcast – which makes a perfect day to go explore.  We decide that we will go to the town of Ravello located up in the hills above the villa.  Piero offers us a ride up and we gladly accept.  Up into the hills we go along more twising roads to a beautiful town nestled on the top of the mountain. It has a couple of areas where it is flat, which is not usual for towns not located down at water level.  Both Minori and Maiori have beaches.  Maiori has the largest one on the Amalfi Coast and it might be1 km long.  Ravello is known for its lush green gardens and it lives up to its name.  There are two villas here occupying some of the flat area with gardens for people to go through and enjoy  (for a price of course). The town site of Ravello has restricted vehicle access (permit only), Piero has one, so we get further into the townsite along one-vehicle-wide streets to a park.

We enjoy walking along the walkways which have many beautiful courtyards and vines climbing along the walls as well as urns filled with flowers.

One of Ravello’s claim to fame is having the beauty that influenced the famous composer Richard Wagner in composing Parsifal.  Piero tells us many people come to Ravello to get married.  They also host a number of music festivals during the summer months with renowned conductors and artists. We viewed the gardens at Villa Cimbrone, which had some statues that were so lifelike...

 re-designed in early 1900’s to replicate rose gardens from the UK and get a wonderful panoramic view of the coastline from the town of Amalfi down to Salerno. 

Of course, J is hungry – couldn’t eat while we were at the villa – no sir!  So, off we go to find a restaurant to enjoy.  The owner comes around and waits on our table and she’s pleased J finished his ravioli – which was delicious of course, and offers him a second helping.  He turned her down – even though she came back a second time to be sure.  A little while later, she came by and brought him a free dessert.  I don’t think they get many young kids coming here as I think it’s more of a tourist place.  Or maybe it’s just because he sounds so sweet and innocent when he tries out his Italian. 

We had read that one could walk down from Ravello to Minori through a series of staircases., the word is there are 1100 steps!  With some help for directions from a gentleman, we locate the beginning of our trek.  Now, yesterday we did a leg workout so the legs had been tried.  By the time we got near step 800 or so, we were feeling the effect of all the walking.  We stopped a few times to give the shaky leg muscles some much needed rest.  It was wonderful walking down amongst houses and gardens.  We did meet an older gentleman taking his time going up.  J commented on how he’s glad he doesn’t have to do this everyday.  It would certainly be all quite the exercise regime!!  We were very happy to arrive home and have some much needed refreshments!