Culture, cuisine, cliffs and coastlines:
12 days in Campania
12 days in Campania
Amalfi Coast, part 1
June 11: A beautiful, but not stress-free, arrival in Positano.
We’re adjusting now and had a better night’s sleep. We chose breakfast
on our own terrace. Apparently the local sparrows prefer this and look
forward to joining guests for breakfast (and a few handouts).
Our plan was to check out, leave our luggage with the hotel, and then walk
out (and UP) to the Villa Jovis, the remains of Roman emperor Tiberius’s
villa on the northeast tip of the island. It is here that he reportedly tossed
his former lovers (hundreds, both boys and girls and the younger the
better) off the cliffs when he had moved on to others.
We realized that we had forgotten to make additional copies of our
passports, as required by the owner of the apartment we had rented in
Positano. Luigi, La Minerva’s proprietor, kindly agreed to make copies for
us in the hotel’s copy machine. This would become important a little later
on. He also took care of booking our ferry tickets for Positano and making
arrangements for a porter to take our luggage down to Marina Grande. All
we needed to do was show up at the dock 10 minutes before the ferry
departure at 3:25 and look for Enrico. Perfect!
We thought the Villa Jovis would be very interesting for Allie, who had just
studied the ancient Romans in 6th grade social studies. The problem was,
she was still getting over her jet lag and the walk UP to Villa Jovis was not
what she had in mind for the morning. Like the previous day, it wound out
of the piazetta into more commercial areas, that included stores used by
locals for their groceries and supplies, and then into residential areas,
passing villas large and small. One common theme: the immaculate
gardens and the smell of flowers along the way. These people take their
gardens very seriously.
Once up at Villa Jovis, Allie regained her interest and her strength, and we
all enjoyed exploring the various rooms, cisterns, walls, etc. It was a clear
day, and you could see across the bay of Naples and along both sides of
the Sorrentine peninsula and all the way to Praiano. The walk back was
easier, of course, being down hill. We noticed many of the residents of the
area coming back up, pulling their small carts of groceries behind them.
We picked up our daypacks from the hotel and set off for lunch at Buca di
Bacco da Serafina, which has excellent pizza, then took the funicular down
the hill. With a little time to kill, we tried calling Stefano, our landlord in
Positano, but we had no luck. The one call to a land-line phone was a
wrong number (“no hotel, no hotel” exclaimed the person answering;
oops) and calls to other mobile phones would not go through. We met
Enrico at the dock, where he delivered our tickets and our bags. Just as the
ferry was arriving, we suddenly noticed that we did not have Chris’s
passport. Of course, we could have discovered this at any point in the day
rather than 10 minutes before the ferry was to leave. We determined that
the only place it possibly could be was in the copy machine of the La
Minerva. Enrico called the hotel, and this was confirmed. But there was no
way to retrieve it and still make the ferry. Enrico offered to exchange our
tickets for the later ferry, Chris set off to retrieve his passport, and Marisa
and Allie explored the small strip of beach near Marina Grande. It was an
interesting diversion. In one half hour’s time, we watched several old men
wandering around in their Speedos, a little boy whip down his swim suit
and urinate on the rocks about five feet in front of us, and a young woman
change out of long pants and a long sleeved shirt into a bikini on the beach
with the aid of just a small scarf. But Allie quickly discovered that she didn’t
like beaches made of rocks rather than sand. After having the world’s most
expensive (10€) coke and granita, we reconnected, located Enrico and our
luggage (and gave him the generous tip that he deserved), and boarded
our ferry to Positano. Finally!
The view of Positano in the late afternoon sunlight was just as we
imagined it. Arriving by water the town slowly came into view from behind
the mountain – a splash of pastels rising up dramatically up both sides of
a valley. Although we knew we were staying at the ‘top’ of the town, it is
hard to imagine how that ‘top’ is situated until you disembark and look
straight up at it from the beach.
We still hadn’t connected with our landlord and were having no success
with the cell phone, so we decided to try a calling card. We visited the
tabacchi, purchased a local calling card, and easily connected from a
nearby public phone. We arranged to meet him in front of the apartment in
20 minutes.
Now, we thought we’d stroll over to Piazza Mulini and take a taxi. Easy,
right? Wrong. The first challenge is finding Piazza Mulini. Chris had a
directionally correct sense of where to go, but we didn’t realize that would
involve negotiating some narrow and crowded (and ascending) shopping
streets, and climbing some steps. We casually declined the assistance of
a porter near the dock, instead simply asking him for directions. After much
sweating and little success, we were back at the beach, tails between
legs, asking the porter for assistance. A little scrambling ensued. They
could take us as far as Piazza Mulini on a service road, in the back of a
truck. Then one of us could accompany the porter and luggage up the hill,
but the other two would have to take the bus. Worse yet, there was some
confusion about where to go, so we handed him the papers on which we’d
written the address (which happened to be the aforementioned copies of
passports). And in all the confusion, we failed to take these back from him,
so some porter in Positano now has copies of our passports (and the
landlord does not). Chris accompanied the porter, and got an earful in the
process. Marisa and Allie took the bus – our first experience with the local
bus – which we hit at just the wrong time. It was jammed, and we weren’t
sure exactly where to get off. Lesson learned: the porter services are there
for a reason. Unless you are staying right at the beach, there is no easy
way to get to your accommodation with luggage.
Somehow, we all made it to our apartment on via Marconi, just doors down
from Bar Internazionale, where we connected with Stefano and quickly got
acquainted with our home – including its very large terrace and stunning
view of Positano – for the next week. It was really nice to be able to
completely unpack and spread out. The trials of getting there faded quickly.
This was going to be nice!
Being that this was an apartment, not a hotel, we needed a few sundries
and supplies, so off we went to the little corner market. It wasn’t the most
friendly place, but they had what we were looking for – espresso (for our
little stovetop coffeemaker), limoncello, yogurt, paper towels, laundry
detergent, soap, etc. We even managed to pick up what must be the
world's best 1.95€ bottle of wine – which we immediately opened and
enjoyed on our terrace.
We were a little tired from our long walk and afternoon mis-steps, so we
decided to try out La Grottina Azzurra, the little family-run trattoria just a
couple of doors down from our apartment. We had seen some favorable
reviews, and previous tenants of our apartment also offered their
recommendations in the guest book. It only has about 10 tables – mostly
inside, but a few on the sidewalk where you can enjoy the view when the
SITA buses are not blocking it and blowing exhaust. It was full when we
arrived just after 8pm, and we had to wait for a table. We ate well:
proscuitto e melone, antipasti misti, three pasta dishes, liter of house
wine, bread and coperto, mineral water, coke – all for 49€. Of course, we
got into the limoncello afterwards on our terrace and admired the lights of
Positano at night.
June 12: Perusing Positano
This was a pretty lazy day, but, hey, you’re allowed to do this on vacation.
We decided just to hang around Positano and get to know our home for the
next week.
First up was figuring out what to do about breakfasts. Allie and Marisa took
a trip to Bar Internazionale to become familiar with the selection of cornetti
and other breakfast goodies. We would not go hungry this week. We also
learned to use the stovetop espresso maker. Not bad. We might like to
have one of these.
After awhile, we took our first walk down the steps to the beach. The first
time down, it seemed a little steep and long, but manageable – about 15
minutes total. We passed some of the many hotels that we’ve read so
much about: Villa Franca, Casa Albertina, Covo di Saraceni. We were in
search of a good map of Positano and figured this might be found at the
tourist information office. But without a map, we were unable to find the
tourist office itself. So we headed to the dock to book our Gennaro e
Salvatore Amalfi Coast boat trip, and we spoke at length with Salvatore’s
daughter, Chiara, who was working in the stand. We eventually did find the
tourist office, and a map, but determined that the map in our Sunflower
book was better.
The lower part of Positano is filled with hotels, restaurants, and shops of
all kinds – ceramic shops (!!), art shops, souvenir shops, limoncello shops
(with lemons the size of American footballs), and clothing shops after
clothing shops with their wares often displayed outside on doors and
sidewalk displays. Not really our thing, although some of them were very
nice (including those owned by our landlord’s family). Instead, we headed
for Fornillo Beach, which is accessible via a nice path that begins near the
Covo di Saraceni. We enjoyed lunch at Lo Guarracino, which has a nice
perch above the path and overlooking the beach. Very peaceful, and the
food was pretty good, especially the scialatelle with mixed shellfish.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying our apartment – playing
a LONG game of Uno, doing some laundry, and mostly enjoying the view
from our terrace. We purchased a small, external speaker for the iPod for
about $40 and brought both with us on the trip. Together, they took up just
a small amount of space in one of our carry-ons. This turned out to be
excellent for our apartment, as we were able to have music (and only the
songs we like), inside or out on our terrace.
Later on, we headed back down the steps, intending to find a dinner spot
in town. We checked some menus, but given that we weren’t all that
hungry, we bused back up the hill for a simple dinner at La Grottina
Azzurra. Not bad, but the meats were kind of average. Stick to the pasta
here.
Next > The Amalfi Coast, part 2
See all of our trip photos
our travels
home
contact us
June 11: A beautiful, but not stress-free, arrival in Positano.
We’re adjusting now and had a better night’s sleep. We chose breakfast
on our own terrace. Apparently the local sparrows prefer this and look
forward to joining guests for breakfast (and a few handouts).
Our plan was to check out, leave our luggage with the hotel, and then walk
out (and UP) to the Villa Jovis, the remains of Roman emperor Tiberius’s
villa on the northeast tip of the island. It is here that he reportedly tossed
his former lovers (hundreds, both boys and girls and the younger the
better) off the cliffs when he had moved on to others.
We realized that we had forgotten to make additional copies of our
passports, as required by the owner of the apartment we had rented in
Positano. Luigi, La Minerva’s proprietor, kindly agreed to make copies for
us in the hotel’s copy machine. This would become important a little later
on. He also took care of booking our ferry tickets for Positano and making
arrangements for a porter to take our luggage down to Marina Grande. All
we needed to do was show up at the dock 10 minutes before the ferry
departure at 3:25 and look for Enrico. Perfect!
We thought the Villa Jovis would be very interesting for Allie, who had just
studied the ancient Romans in 6th grade social studies. The problem was,
she was still getting over her jet lag and the walk UP to Villa Jovis was not
what she had in mind for the morning. Like the previous day, it wound out
of the piazetta into more commercial areas, that included stores used by
locals for their groceries and supplies, and then into residential areas,
passing villas large and small. One common theme: the immaculate
gardens and the smell of flowers along the way. These people take their
gardens very seriously.
Once up at Villa Jovis, Allie regained her interest and her strength, and we
all enjoyed exploring the various rooms, cisterns, walls, etc. It was a clear
day, and you could see across the bay of Naples and along both sides of
the Sorrentine peninsula and all the way to Praiano. The walk back was
easier, of course, being down hill. We noticed many of the residents of the
area coming back up, pulling their small carts of groceries behind them.
We picked up our daypacks from the hotel and set off for lunch at Buca di
Bacco da Serafina, which has excellent pizza, then took the funicular down
the hill. With a little time to kill, we tried calling Stefano, our landlord in
Positano, but we had no luck. The one call to a land-line phone was a
wrong number (“no hotel, no hotel” exclaimed the person answering;
oops) and calls to other mobile phones would not go through. We met
Enrico at the dock, where he delivered our tickets and our bags. Just as the
ferry was arriving, we suddenly noticed that we did not have Chris’s
passport. Of course, we could have discovered this at any point in the day
rather than 10 minutes before the ferry was to leave. We determined that
the only place it possibly could be was in the copy machine of the La
Minerva. Enrico called the hotel, and this was confirmed. But there was no
way to retrieve it and still make the ferry. Enrico offered to exchange our
tickets for the later ferry, Chris set off to retrieve his passport, and Marisa
and Allie explored the small strip of beach near Marina Grande. It was an
interesting diversion. In one half hour’s time, we watched several old men
wandering around in their Speedos, a little boy whip down his swim suit
and urinate on the rocks about five feet in front of us, and a young woman
change out of long pants and a long sleeved shirt into a bikini on the beach
with the aid of just a small scarf. But Allie quickly discovered that she didn’t
like beaches made of rocks rather than sand. After having the world’s most
expensive (10€) coke and granita, we reconnected, located Enrico and our
luggage (and gave him the generous tip that he deserved), and boarded
our ferry to Positano. Finally!
The view of Positano in the late afternoon sunlight was just as we
imagined it. Arriving by water the town slowly came into view from behind
the mountain – a splash of pastels rising up dramatically up both sides of
a valley. Although we knew we were staying at the ‘top’ of the town, it is
hard to imagine how that ‘top’ is situated until you disembark and look
straight up at it from the beach.
We still hadn’t connected with our landlord and were having no success
with the cell phone, so we decided to try a calling card. We visited the
tabacchi, purchased a local calling card, and easily connected from a
nearby public phone. We arranged to meet him in front of the apartment in
20 minutes.
Now, we thought we’d stroll over to Piazza Mulini and take a taxi. Easy,
right? Wrong. The first challenge is finding Piazza Mulini. Chris had a
directionally correct sense of where to go, but we didn’t realize that would
involve negotiating some narrow and crowded (and ascending) shopping
streets, and climbing some steps. We casually declined the assistance of
a porter near the dock, instead simply asking him for directions. After much
sweating and little success, we were back at the beach, tails between
legs, asking the porter for assistance. A little scrambling ensued. They
could take us as far as Piazza Mulini on a service road, in the back of a
truck. Then one of us could accompany the porter and luggage up the hill,
but the other two would have to take the bus. Worse yet, there was some
confusion about where to go, so we handed him the papers on which we’d
written the address (which happened to be the aforementioned copies of
passports). And in all the confusion, we failed to take these back from him,
so some porter in Positano now has copies of our passports (and the
landlord does not). Chris accompanied the porter, and got an earful in the
process. Marisa and Allie took the bus – our first experience with the local
bus – which we hit at just the wrong time. It was jammed, and we weren’t
sure exactly where to get off. Lesson learned: the porter services are there
for a reason. Unless you are staying right at the beach, there is no easy
way to get to your accommodation with luggage.
Somehow, we all made it to our apartment on via Marconi, just doors down
from Bar Internazionale, where we connected with Stefano and quickly got
acquainted with our home – including its very large terrace and stunning
view of Positano – for the next week. It was really nice to be able to
completely unpack and spread out. The trials of getting there faded quickly.
This was going to be nice!
Being that this was an apartment, not a hotel, we needed a few sundries
and supplies, so off we went to the little corner market. It wasn’t the most
friendly place, but they had what we were looking for – espresso (for our
little stovetop coffeemaker), limoncello, yogurt, paper towels, laundry
detergent, soap, etc. We even managed to pick up what must be the
world's best 1.95€ bottle of wine – which we immediately opened and
enjoyed on our terrace.
We were a little tired from our long walk and afternoon mis-steps, so we
decided to try out La Grottina Azzurra, the little family-run trattoria just a
couple of doors down from our apartment. We had seen some favorable
reviews, and previous tenants of our apartment also offered their
recommendations in the guest book. It only has about 10 tables – mostly
inside, but a few on the sidewalk where you can enjoy the view when the
SITA buses are not blocking it and blowing exhaust. It was full when we
arrived just after 8pm, and we had to wait for a table. We ate well:
proscuitto e melone, antipasti misti, three pasta dishes, liter of house
wine, bread and coperto, mineral water, coke – all for 49€. Of course, we
got into the limoncello afterwards on our terrace and admired the lights of
Positano at night.
June 12: Perusing Positano
This was a pretty lazy day, but, hey, you’re allowed to do this on vacation.
We decided just to hang around Positano and get to know our home for the
next week.
First up was figuring out what to do about breakfasts. Allie and Marisa took
a trip to Bar Internazionale to become familiar with the selection of cornetti
and other breakfast goodies. We would not go hungry this week. We also
learned to use the stovetop espresso maker. Not bad. We might like to
have one of these.
After awhile, we took our first walk down the steps to the beach. The first
time down, it seemed a little steep and long, but manageable – about 15
minutes total. We passed some of the many hotels that we’ve read so
much about: Villa Franca, Casa Albertina, Covo di Saraceni. We were in
search of a good map of Positano and figured this might be found at the
tourist information office. But without a map, we were unable to find the
tourist office itself. So we headed to the dock to book our Gennaro e
Salvatore Amalfi Coast boat trip, and we spoke at length with Salvatore’s
daughter, Chiara, who was working in the stand. We eventually did find the
tourist office, and a map, but determined that the map in our Sunflower
book was better.
The lower part of Positano is filled with hotels, restaurants, and shops of
all kinds – ceramic shops (!!), art shops, souvenir shops, limoncello shops
(with lemons the size of American footballs), and clothing shops after
clothing shops with their wares often displayed outside on doors and
sidewalk displays. Not really our thing, although some of them were very
nice (including those owned by our landlord’s family). Instead, we headed
for Fornillo Beach, which is accessible via a nice path that begins near the
Covo di Saraceni. We enjoyed lunch at Lo Guarracino, which has a nice
perch above the path and overlooking the beach. Very peaceful, and the
food was pretty good, especially the scialatelle with mixed shellfish.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying our apartment – playing
a LONG game of Uno, doing some laundry, and mostly enjoying the view
from our terrace. We purchased a small, external speaker for the iPod for
about $40 and brought both with us on the trip. Together, they took up just
a small amount of space in one of our carry-ons. This turned out to be
excellent for our apartment, as we were able to have music (and only the
songs we like), inside or out on our terrace.
Later on, we headed back down the steps, intending to find a dinner spot
in town. We checked some menus, but given that we weren’t all that
hungry, we bused back up the hill for a simple dinner at La Grottina
Azzurra. Not bad, but the meats were kind of average. Stick to the pasta
here.
Next > The Amalfi Coast, part 2
See all of our trip photos
our travels
home
contact us
Capri - View of the Sorrentine peninsula
from Villa Jovis
from Villa Jovis
Capri - Villa Jovis
Capri - Limoncello shop
Capri - Marina Grande
Arriving in Positano by ferry
Positano - from Spiaggia Grande
Positano - Spiaggia Grande
Positano - shopping
Positano - Spiaggia Grande
Positano - Fornillo Beach
