day 2 Positano

We had the opportunity to sleep in a bit today.  Room service breakfast delivered around 9:30 and we feasted on the fried eggs with bacon, yogurt,coffee, espresso and fresh fruit.  We stayed in a good portion of the day due to rain, but we made the best of it: reading, napping, listening to the gentle cycles of the mediterranean storm.

 

Around four pm we decided to venture out during a lull in the rain and grab a small late lunch so we could enjoy the standard late dinners like all the locals.  Well, that break in the rain was short lived- only five minutes after we left our hotel the drizzle became a full on shower.  We had to run into a parking garage at the bottom of one of the curves in the main road winding through the town.  Luckily they had umbrellas for sale- yay! And they were all rainbow colored- yay!!!  So we proceeded back out with our giant rainbow umbrella and decided to make the best of it, popping into a few of the local stores.

 

We located the highly recommended "Bruno's" where we decided to eat dinner our last night in Positano, and meandered along the road to find one of the many beautiful hand-made ceramic stores.  This craft is the main artisinal product of this region.  Unable to resist, we purchased a brilliant hand-painted square platter with a cobalt blue background, highlighting a few lemons in the center, which may as well be the regional symbol for how beautiful and plentiful they are here.  This hand-made and painted piece will be used for many happy meals in the future of our home, and we will always keep it on display.

 

That evening we took a chance on a restaurant that had been suggested by the Italian man who worked the front desk at our B&B.  He didn't really speak a lick of english, but his smile was watrm when John or I at least attempted to communicate in Italian with him.  Here was another fabulous evening with white wine (the amalfi region, though not as globally renowned for it's wine production, I think actually provided us some of the best white varieties we had on our entire trip).  More fantastic antipasti plates for starters- I began with a great variety of more freshly grilled vegetables, and local cheese.  John began with a mixed plate of frutta di mare- seafood, and as per our dining habits we shared with eachother our plates.

Day One Amalfi Coast/ Positano

Gently being rocked in and out of sleep, I feel the train come a full stop- "Is this us?" I ask, and both without total certainty of whether we were at the Salerno station or not jumped off just as the train began moving away- our timing is the best!

Pepe, from Piano (another town along the Amalfo coast) picked us up and we were treated to the service from the "best driver in all Amalfi" by his own regard!  The drive was AMAZING.  The scenery as we hugged the hairpin curves of the perilous amalfi highway almost made you feel like you were flying.  All the drivers ar respectful of the dangers of the tight quarters, but there is no regard for personal space as they squeeze past eachother on a two-way highway only considered wide enough for one vehicle at high speeds here in America.  The motorcyclists seem to have no care for their own safety, whipping around the vehicles and the curves without ever knowing what is actually coming towards them around the bend! CRAZY!  Yet, with all this wild driving, you are transported into this other world nestled in amongst the cliffs on the mediterranean.  You feel light years away from the hustle and bustle of italy's big cities and you take in the hundreds of gardening terraces, lemons at road-side market carts as big as your head, and the moody shifts in blue of the sea.  Pepe allowed us a photo opportunity at tone of the market stands.  He also stopped the car on a bridge and let us get out to see the oldest fishing town in Amalfi- tucked back in a small, narrow cove (couldn't have been more than 150 feet across from cliff to cliff) were these cliffside homes where only a community of 100 people live now.  I think every resident was down on their private beach just below the bridge we stood on, enjoying the sunshine and gentle waves hitting their shore.

 

Pepe drops us off along the one and only driving road that curves through Positano. One of the 7 signs on this curve in the road indicates that "La Rosa Dei Venti", our B&B for the next few days is only accessible from here by foot by an arrow pointing down the stone-paved pathway through the buldings and down the stairs.  Luckily it's only about 120 paces and 15 stairs down to our quaint accomodations.  There is something absolutely wonderful about how the "kitchy" decor that we would snicker at in America seems to feel nothing but absolutely perfect in this quiet B&B.  The one thing that no one could ever take away from this place is the view!!!

 

Around 8 we decided to venture out to find dinner- ten minutes down the stone-paved pathway and stairs through other hotels/ B&Bs/ residences and we reach the beach.  We walk along and find the happiest dog in the world- we watch him as he darts out from a sea-side bar, which is closing for the evening, staright for the water.  He ives in head first, paddles around for a minute. then swims back out onto the rocky shore, he shakes out and rolls onto his back, allowing the stones to give him a good scratch.  I swear John and I both detect a smile on his face as we turn our attention away from him and back to our mission for food.  We find a little private cove with a beach that only about a dozen people could enjoy together, and I can't help myself from taking a moment to kick off my sandles to enjoy running along the water's edge.  After recovering from this moment of bliss, we climb another set of stairs and that happiest of all dogs bounds past us as if to say "If you lived here, you could take all these stairs with ease like I do."  A challenge I would delightfully submit to.

 

We finally find a great restaurant with an outdoor veranda overlooking the sea.  We split an antipasti with a sampling of local cheeses. grilled eggplant, roasted red and yellow peppers, cappicola,salami,prosciutto, and a pizza with tomato, capers, fresh ground tuna, and mozzarella on a thin, crisp crust. At the end of our meal we ask for "vino porta via"- wine for the road, and our young waiter smiles and brings us back wine in a liter- sized water bottle and tells us to enjoy!  Our hike back up the stairs to our B&B was much harder than going down to the beach- later, we would find out that from the beach to the top if the stairs along the cliff it is 900 from bottom to top give or take a few- luckily we were probably around 300 (still pretty steep I might add).  CLIMB, CLIMB, HUFF, HUFF, SIP SIP!  The wine kept us company and we laughed as we struggled on the hike up!