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KarenWoo,
Thanks for following! I’m pleased you’re enjoying the photos and comments. Herculaneum is a real pleasure to visit - it’s not nearly as busy or crowded as Pompeii and, because it’s smaller and more intact, its easier to get a good sense of the place. We did visit Paestum and loved it, too. It’s a very different experience - it’s notable for having 3 very intact Greek temples, although a Roman city was also built on top of the Greek site. And the Barlotti buffalo farm and restaurant was amazing! I’m still dreaming of the smoked mozzarella and the ricotta - oh, heavenly! |
We ate at 2 restaurants in Atrani - Ristorante Savo, where we had the best lemon ravioli. And the lemon tiramisu...so good!
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...17666d360.jpeg yes, this is lemon tiramisu! We also ate at Mistral - more casual, but good.. We enjoyed pizza and a couple of pasta dishes. |
progol, still enjoying your report and wonderful pictures. I want that dessert! 😁
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Thanks, SusanP! And it’s easy to have that dessert —- when you’re in Atrani!
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So as travel becomes more precarious in the era of the coronavirus, here is a continuation of our southern Italy trip for the armchair traveler...
From Atrani, we made a day trip to Ravello, one of the most beautifully-sited locations of our trip. We walked from Atrani to Amalfi to catch the SITA bus to Ravello. The walk was no more than 10 minutes but it does go along the road for a few minutes. This wasn’t a problem but just want to give a head’s up, especially for those with children. Ravello is one of the most gloriously sited towns and wins the Town with the most Spectacular Views award of our trip. You can’t help but ooh and ahh once you’re there. And there are even some worthwhile sites to see! Mind you, we are not trying to see everything – we have seen a lot but it was surprisingly leisurely. We arrived early in the day and the Piazza Duomo, the main square, was surprisingly quiet. We loved the Duomo, so bright and airy, filled with mosaics. Such a delightful place! Look for the pulpit, sitting atop 6 spiral columns, and its ambo with its delightful mosaic of Jonah and the Whale – these are standouts. The 2 “main” sights in Ravello are the Villa Rufolo, on the main square, and Villa Cimbrone, a bit of a walk through the . Both are worth visiting, though I’m partial to Villa Rufolo. The villa was built in the 13th century, and in the mid-19th century, renovated by Sir Francis Neville Reid, a Scottish botanist, who fell in love with it. And it’s easy to see why – the views are magnificent and the gardens are stunning. Villa Cimbrone is a bit of a walk and we managed to get lost, even though it is one long circular path from start to end! Lots of ups and downs and by the time we got to the site, we were pretty tired. The villa is now a 5-star hotel, and we stroll through the very dreamy gardens with even more spectacular views. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for our visit to Ravello! We spent several delightful hours in Ravello and then took the bus–happily, the bus driver stopped in Atrani, so a very easy return back to lovely La Scogliera. |
Atrani to Amalfi walk...
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0b995121e1.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...cc9a53820e.jpg And on to Ravello .... A quiet Piazza Duomo, looking from the steps of the church https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...ce0cb173f8.jpg And the Duomo... https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0b73a6ed88.jpg The ambo https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...7e72d14ae8.jpg Jonah and the Whale - detail https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f3d8f27bf9.jpg The pulpit https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...13900072c1.jpg The spiral columns https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...c1c568570f.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...5ceccd30b8.jpg Lovely mosaics throughout the Duomo https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...4447d1b12d.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...29df5caa9b.jpg A section of the 12th C bronze doors |
But it’s the spectacular views that we are here for! And beautifully framed by the Villa Rufolo and its gardens. The villa, too, is charming, with its medieval ruins and mid-19th C rooms.
Villa Rufolo https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...7e9cadd585.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...d920483f48.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...b12423e489.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f4236f325a.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...d7c1a505d4.jpg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...18c803371e.jpg The villa ain't bad, either! https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...99027b2b96.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e27f3422e2.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...5fbfe9198f.jpg |
The Villa Cimbrone took some effort to find! I still don't know quite how we missed the turnoff, but there's one long circular path from the Piazza Duomo, with multiple turnoffs, and what should've been a 10-minute walk ended up being 2 or 3 times that. Lots of ups and downs along the way.
The gardens are lovely with their romantic English landscaping, and it's the "Terrace of Infinity" which is the standout, as it hovers high above the water and frames yet more stunning views! https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f4685fe778.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...ab03cdc081.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...809177cfaa.jpg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6adf09184f.jpg |
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More gorgeous pics, progol. If we ever got to Ravello on our trip to the Amalfi 42 or so years ago I don't remember it so thanks for the tour. So beautiful. It's funny how these places that are supposed to be so easy to find can be so difficult, isn't it?
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It's funny, it really shouldn't have been hard to find Villa Cimbrone, since there is really one main pathway - but there are turnoffs and we just missed it completely. But it wasn't so bad getting a little lost in Ravello!
I'm glad you're still enjoying the photos, annhig! |
Wow; your photos are stunning. We were already planning a return visit to Naples with some time on the coast. You’ve given me lots of food for thought. Thanks for sharing! And Portugal is on our list for 2023 so I’m following along on your planning thread.
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So lovely. I’m taking notes!
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Thank you, indyhiker and Adelaidean! I"m so pleased you're still following along!
indyhiker, you're already planning 2023?! I've got so many trips in my brain but am trying to keep it only one year ahead at a time! But I admit, it's difficult;) |
I loved your travel itinerary! I have always maintained, if you love Italy , you must give yourself time to explore the place and do not go there with the fixed plan, just a general outline of where you would be headed and be prepared to take detours on whim and give yourself pleasant surprises. Best part about Italy from the travelers point of view is its excellent infrastructure, high speed trains, excellent buses, but just do not expect them to run on time. Italy is pretty relaxed when it comes to time :)
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alluring4,
Thank you! I’m glad you liked our itinerary! These days, we do have a fixed itinerary, but I try to schedule enough time to see what we want in a relatively relaxed way. I think one of the important things I’ve learned is that we can’t see everything! So I have my must-sees, my priorities, and then whatever other sites/activities we might want to see or do. And so, I try to structure trips to allow down time as well as seeing at least some of the things on my list. |
These days, we do have a fixed itinerary, but I try to schedule enough time to see what we want in a relatively relaxed way. I think one of the important things I’ve learned is that we can’t see everything! So I have my must-sees, my priorities, and then whatever other sites/activities we might want to see or do. And so, I try to structure trips to allow down time as well as seeing at least some of the things on my list.>>
I'm sure that having time to relax adds a lot of enjoyment to my trips, Progol. IME dashing hither and thither every day makes it very difficult to process what I've have seen and done and not to mention wearing me out. And the longer the trip the more important it is. |
<<<Ravello is one of the most gloriously sited towns and wins the Town with the most Spectacular Views award of our trip. You can’t help but ooh and ahh once you’re there. >>>
Totally agree! And we couldn't help but gasp a few times on the bus ride to and from Ravello. At one point on the way up, the side of our bus actually scraped against the rocks for several feet on the right side when we met a car on a tight turn. What a wild ride. But so worth it. Really enjoying your report and your pictures. |
Originally Posted by progol
(Post 17069851)
Thank you, indyhiker and Adelaidean! I"m so pleased you're still following along!
indyhiker, you're already planning 2023?! I've got so many trips in my brain but am trying to keep it only one year ahead at a time! But I admit, it's difficult;) |
annhig, Our recent trip to Italy was fabulous, a lot because I lowered expectations of what we would do and see. Yet we still saw pretty much everything that we wanted to, so it was being realistic and giving ourselves enough time to relax.
john183 - it sounds like you had one H*&L of a bus ride! Ours wasn't quite that hair-raising. The views everywhere from Ravello were pretty stupendous. indyhiker - I totally relate! I have lots of plans for the future - I just have been trying to contain them! Right now, I'm trying to focus on the immediate plans - having just canceled our trip to China, our upcoming trip to Spain and Portugal is starting to be a little uncertain with the continued spread of the coronavirus. But fingers crossed, we'll still be making the trip in whole or in part! |
I’m sorry for the uncertainty surrounding your travel plans. We were in Paris the first two weeks of the month and thankfully got home just before the situation in Europe started to deteriorate. But it was unnerving even by then.
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Originally Posted by indyhiker
(Post 17070782)
I’m sorry for the uncertainty surrounding your travel plans. We were in Paris the first two weeks of the month and thankfully got home just before the situation in Europe started to deteriorate. But it was unnerving even by then.
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I'm now so glad we had the amazing trip we did and am so sad to see the impact of the CV on Italy - an amazing place. Anyway, back to this trip...
A morning spent in the town of Amalfi was pleasant, though we were both very glad that we had our lovely Atrani to return to... The Amalfi Cathedral was impressive, and worth some time for exploration. The medieval cathedral, begun in the 9th & 10th centuries, is a miss-mash of styles, from Arab-Norman, Baroque, Gothic, and Renaissance (thank you, wikipedia!). It's dedicated to St. Andrew. The cathedral complex consists of several parts, including the cloister, the original basilica, the crypt and the cathedral. The basilica is now a museum and contains many of the church's treasures. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...aad4825fe.jpeg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...84d948331c.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f15c8f7cc2.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...135ffc980f.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...b8c3cb6a44.jpg 1,000 year old bronze door, cast in Constantinople https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a15aa554e4.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...340aa33c5.jpeg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f4c06c7fe1.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e17fdc700d.jpg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...b001330c57.jpg These 13th century heads contain relics of several saints https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f11be3cf22.jpg Looking back to Amalfi from one of the piers |
Very sadly, we leave our little heaven-on-earth in Atrani. It's saying goodbye to the lovely couple, Pino and Pina, who own La Scogliera that makes it especially hard to leave. It's the human connection that really makes this place as special as it is.
Next stop will be Salerno, where we will get a car to Paestum! We take the ferry from Amalfi - a short and pleasant ride. Arriving in Salerno is a bit of a shock after staying in tiny Atrani as it's a real city - not just a tourist destination! Fortunately, the Hertz rental office is only a short distance away, and we walk from the port and find the office relatively quickly. On the ferry https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...5b1dd94912.jpg I had initially made a reservation for one night in Salerno, as I had read that it's an underrated city. But when we arrived, I realized it would take more time and energy to "feel" the place, and we added it to our stay in Rome, the last stop in our trip. I was glad I did. It may be worth spending time there, but it isn't a quaint and charming Amalfi coast town, and we didn't feel that one night would really give us a good taste of the place. Arriving in Paestum We picked up the car and had a relatively easy drive out of town, arriving a little over an hour later in Paestum at the Il Granaio dei Casabella, a converted granary, overlooking the ruins site. You can just barely make out one of the temples from the hotel window, but it is conveniently located next to the site, and it's a short walk from the entrance. It's clearly off-season in the hotel, and there were very few people actually staying there. It was a bit odd, at first, but we did grow to like the place. There are nice grounds and a spacious interior with several sitting areas, and at a busier time, this probably has a very pleasant ambience. It's ideally located for touring. From the hotel window https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2e376f9c36.jpg If you look really closely, at the very top of the photo, just in front of the hills, you CAN see the temple! https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0585f876d5.jpg From the hotel room |
<<if you look really closely, at the very top of the photo, just in front of the hills, you CAN see the temple! >>
You're right, you can! looks like a very nice spot. And thanks for the pictures of Amalfi and the Duomo - very different from when I visited with our language group from Cornwall in February a few years ago. Then there were very few people around and despite the sunshine it was quite cold though it didn't stop us having a cioccolata calda in the square afterwards. |
Hi, annhig! Thank you for still following after all this time! I can't quite believe I'm still working on this trip! I'm glad you enjoyed the photos of Amalfi and the Duomo. It was quite a change for us, too, after the intimacy of Atrani. I'm glad we visited, and glad we stayed where we did.
Your cioccolata calla sounds very nice! |
There are few things as yummy as an italian hot chocolate, except perhaps a spanish one!
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Thank you for continuing your saga, Progol. Great photos!
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Still following along, too! Love your photos and report.
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annhig, I'm all for any hot chocolate!
Trophywife and KarenWoo, Thank you for still following along. I'm glad you're still enjoying it! Paestum report & photos to follow! |
Progol, I’m so enjoying my return to the area of the Amalfi Coast with you. When I hopped off the bus from Ravello to Atrani, a helpful townswoman gave me directions back to Amalfi via an underground way that brought me out near the Amalfi Cathedral. Did you ever go that way?
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Originally Posted by bon_voyage
(Post 17076307)
Progol, I’m so enjoying my return to the area of the Amalfi Coast with you. When I hopped off the bus from Ravello to Atrani, a helpful townswoman gave me directions back to Amalfi via an underground way that brought me out near the Amalfi Cathedral. Did you ever go that way?
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Annhig, Mexican hot chocolate is fabulous.
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<<Annhig, Mexican hot chocolate is fabulous.>>
I hope to try it one day, Underhill. |
Ahh, such a short time ago, but a lifetime ago in travel-time, now that covid-19 has pretty much changed the world as we know it, we arrived in Paestum. We spent 2 nights at Il Granaio dei Casabella, which gave us plenty of time to visit the site, see the archeological museum (a must!) and have 2 of the best meals of our trip! After arriving in the mid-afternoon, we ate at one of the restaurants near the entry to the site - to be honest, I don't recall which one, but I suspect they are all good. We had the BEST ravioli of the entire trip. We also visited the Caseificio Barlotti, a farm which produces some of the most wonderful buffalo products and has a fabulous restaurant. We had ravioli again - but the prize of the day was the ricotta cheese. I've never had such delicious ricotta cheese in my life -- and I lived on a block in NYC which had a small cheese store that made it's own. This was so good, I still think about it! And the mozzarella (plain and smoked) wasn't so bad, either! The ice cream we had afterwards -- wow!
Paestum is a remarkable site. It was a major ancient Greek city and contains 3 temples, dating from 600BC to 450BC, that are in remarkably good shape and so beautiful to see. The city was taken over by the Romans in the 3rd century BC, but these ruins are not in great shape. The ancient temples, though, are spectacular! |
The Paestum Archeological Museum has some of the best artifacts and are displayed beautifully. It's well worth a visit. The museum's treasure is the Tomb of the Diver, a rare example of ancient Greek tomb with its painted frescos. Amazing!
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...4a5754f800.jpg The symbolism of this image is thought to represent the passage from life to death, diving from mortality into immortality https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2b02de2518.jpg The symposium, relaxing after the banquet https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...04db830c93.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...dac38d7ac5.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...0348f0a33f.jpg |
Stunning shots, progol!
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Wonderful to travel with you.
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TDudette and Adelaidean, Thanks so much! This is the only traveling most of us will be doing for a while, so we might as well enjoy it!
Paule |
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