A Femgineer’s Adventures in Italia: Part II – Arriving on the Amalfi Coast
Day 1: We arrived in Rome sleep deprived and overheated. We hadn’t bothered to check the forecast before leaving. I was sweating the moment …
Day 1:
We arrived in Rome sleep deprived and overheated. We hadn’t bothered to check the forecast before leaving. I was sweating the moment I got off the plane, it was in the 90s. We quickly headed for the train station Roma Termini, which is about 30 minutes away from the airport. My Italian was rusty, but Jason’s was decent so he walked up to train ticket machine, and bought a ticket for our next destination Napoli (Naples).
We rode in second class, which is much cheaper than first, moderately comfortable and had air conditioning, which was the major perk. Riding on a train in Italy is like sharing a table at a restaurant with strangers, who don’t speak your language. Only the table is moving through the Italian country side and you’re waiting for your destination instead of a dish.
The train ride to Napoli was about an hour and half, with no stops. I was too tired to stay awake and see all the Italian countryside, but what I did see was beautiful. It was a sunny day, and the landscape between Roma and Napoli was filled with rolling hills and sparsely populated with little houses. As we approached Napoli the hills turned into mountains and you could see Mount Vesuvius from afar. I started talking to Jason about visiting Pompeii, because I heard it was a very interesting site, but we decided to hold off on planning for it, because it would require coming back to Napoli from Positano.
Once we arrived in Napoli, we were greeted by a very friendly driver from Positano, who escorted us to our comfy Mercedes taxi. The drive from Napoli to Positano was a little over an hour. There wasn’t much to see in Napoli. Once the air conditioning kicked in Jason and I dozed off. I was pleasantly awaken by the breathtaking views, and windy roads of Sorrento, which is about 30 minutes way from Positano. We stopped at a few places to snap some pictures. We kept driving through Sorrento, and once we left we were in a sort of dead zone for about 15 minutes that was sparsely inhabited. There were cliffs and a sparkling blue sea to our right, and to our left large hills. Then our driver announced that we were entering Positano and the start of the Amalfi Coast. It was amazing. You could see the entire town of Positano built up into the hillside and the sea directly below it. It looked like there was hardly any flat surfaces, and all the houses and hotels were perfectly perched on the hills. We kept driving down the narrow windy road, and made one final stop to admire Positano from afar.
Arriving at Casa Miulo, we climbed up the 10 steps to our little house, and was greeted by an older woman who lived in the house above ours. She hardly spoke any English, but somehow we managed to understand one another. I was reluctant to had over our passports to her, but nevertheless trusted her given the fact that she trusted us to stay in her guest house. We entered our cute loft style house that was pretty hot, turned on the one and only fan in our bedroom, and plopped ourselves down on the bed and fell fast asleep.
Waking up a few hours later, hungry, and slightly refreshed, we decided it was time to explore! We weren’t sure if we would stay awake long enough to make it down to the beach. Having no maps, GPS, or sense of direction except down the hillside, we decided that we’d eat dinner, and then venture out farther if we felt up to it. We found a cute pizzeria located a few streets down from our house. The pizza was amazing! Warm mozzarella topped on a soft crust. After devouring our dinner we walked around some more, and then decided we were awake enough to head to the beach. Our route down was a little circuitous but we found it by going down several flights of stairs. The beach was surrounded by lots of open air restaurants, an internet cafe, and boat rental and sailing tour stands. After scouting the place, we figured that we still needed a day to get over the jet lag, so we headed back up the stairs to Casa Miulo.
Day 2:
I awoke starving as usual. Jason was still tired, but willing to satisfy my hunger pangs. We walked across the street to the market, and was greeted by a very sweet middle-aged woman, “Epi”, who spoke English fluently. The market smelled like fresh baked bread, even though it had mostly packaged goods. We noticed there was a deli counter, and proceeded to order two sandwiches a caprese for me, and a mozzarella with melanzane (eggplant) for Jason. The sandwiches were enormous, and came on this round soft bread. The mozzarella was much more flavorful than any I had had back home, and the tomatoes were very juicy and ripe. I took a bite of Jason’s sandwich, and the eggplant had been marinated to perfection! I decided that the next time I went to the market, I was going to order the melazane sandwich.
After feasting on sandwiches for breakfast we slumped back into our slumber state. I awoke a few hours later and began reading on my Kindle, “My Life in France”. By 2pm Casa Miulo was sweltering, an we decided it was time to cool off at the beach. We headed down to the main beach in Positano called Spiagga Grande, and rented two umbrella covered lounge chairs for the rest of the afternoon. They were pricey, but the shade was worth it to me. The beach was mostly populated by European couples, and a few Italian families. We entered the water from the pebbly beach, which was like walking on hot massage stones. The water was cool and refreshing.
After climbing up the stairs to shower we headed back down to the spiagga for dinner. All the restaurants were open air, bustling with people, and smelled of the delectable Italian food aromas; fresh baked bread, sweet tomatoes, and succulent seafood. Jason and I picked one of the open air restaurants and plopped ourselves down for a feast. I ordered linguine with clams, which is a very popular local dish. It is very light, flavored slightly with garlic, but mostly the clams bring out the flavor in the dish. We enjoyed a bottle of the Costa D’Amalfi, a local wine, with dinner. The red version is a little heavy for a warm summer night.
Heading back up to our villa after a little wine and a feast was difficult, but we managed to make it back safe and sound.
The next day would be Monday and the start of exploring the coastline. Jason remarked that he was no longer going to nap and that we should do a day trip somewhere. I pulled out my Frommer’s Amalfi Coast guide book, and looked up Salerno, it was the farthest east from Positano. The book mentioned it had a decent beach. I figured taking the ferry to the farthest point would give us a good look of eastern side of the Amalfi Coast, and we’d have an idea of where we’d want to go and explore on our trip.
Jason and I started to do a little planning, we wanted to go to Capri for my birthday and at some point visit the town of Amalfi. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to just go on a ferry or take a private tour. We decided we’d finalize our plans in the morning, and headed off to rest up for our first day of real adventure!
