TexasAggie

Thank you so much to all the posters who have given me such encouragement in this trip report, it is very much appreciated. Day 4 is in the works and I hope to post it today or tonight.

Sorry for the delay of a week... DH's company was bought last week (the deal that made national headlines) and so we had an interesting week of guessing about layoffs and other not so grand scenarios. We've come to the conclusion that we likely won't hear anything concrete for several months (these aquisitions always take months to finalize), so this week it is back to normal, meaning more pizzas to report

uhoh_busted

Delightful report -- we were part of a similar tour group -- don't know if the guide was Mario or Marcello, but it was truly worth the cost (at that time it was lira) plus tip. As we had driven and parked a car, the guide's advise that if you have lunch at the restaurant there, your parking will be free was useful. (And we had pizza which was perfectly fine, along with a couple of beers). Looking forward to more of your report

cigalechanta

Happy Anniversary. Virtual flowers to you.

mr_go

Thanks for letting us know, TA. Sorry to hear of your "interesting week." As veterans of corporate upheavals at Arthur Andersen and Sears, Ms. Go and I understand your situation completely. Hang in there...all will be well.

(48 hours to go for us, and I'm starting to get the twitches.)

lifetravel

keep it coming ... great report ..... hope everything settles down in view of your eventful week.

TexasAggie

DAY FOUR: "On the 4th Day of Pizza"

I am what DH likes to call a "challenged sleeper". I tend to wake up several times during the night especially when sleeping in a strange bed. Despite the gruel of Pompeii, I was up (and WIDE AWAKE) about 4:15am. I didn’t want to disturb DH with my tossing and turning so I threw on a pair of jeans and a shirt in the dark, felt around for my not-so-trendy "school teacher glasses" instead of turning on the lights to locate my contacts, grabbed the mini maglight and a book I keep by the bed for just such occasions and headed out to the terrace.

The Bay of Naples is awe-inspiring at night. With all the lights off on Via Capo at night, the stars just take your breath away. From out of nowhere I recalled a childhood family camping memory. When I was a little girl I told my younger sister who was afraid of the dark that stars were really holes in the ceiling of heaven where the angels watched down on us. Years later, it’s still a comforting thought thousands of miles away from home and outside alone in the middle of the night.

Back to reality, I was quite surprised to see the amount of development on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius. During the day the haze precluded us from catching more than a shadowy glimpse of the mountain, but at night I could clearly see the outline of the caldera and the lights marching up the sides of this lurking monster. I recently saw the BBC-special on Pompeii and it mentioned that the government was offering financial incentives to people to move out of this red zone of danger. From the looks of it, not too many people are taking them up on the offer.

Spent a little while reading and headed back to bed shortly before 6am as it was getting light (good planning, I know). It felt like I had just fallen asleep when the alarm went off at 7:30. Up and to breakfast, then to the station to catch the 9:07am Circumvesuviana to Naples (arrived 10:10ish). The enterprising jazz couple was hard at work again. I paid more attention to their song selection this time (I have 11 years of painful piano lessons in my distant past). More big band than rock n’ roll today, no blues.

We headed upstairs upon arrival and straight to the automated ticket machines. I wasn’t sure (still am not sure) if our transportation pass we got with the ArteCard would work all the way to Paestum so we had planned on buying roundtrip tickets anyway since I knew they wouldn’t be expensive. In my experience, you are better safe than sorry when it comes to having the right ticket in Italy! NOTE: You cannot buy train tickets from Naples to Paestum at the self-service ticket machines in the station – you get an error message. We rushed to the ticket stand line, nervously checking our watches as we knew that the train we wanted departed at 10:50am (and was the only direct train to Paestum for a couple hours). We got to the front at 10:40 and attempted to show our transportation passes and ask if they would get us to Paestum, but quickly gave up due to the time constraint and bought 2 roundtrip tickets (10€ per person). We sprinted across the station to the track, boarded the train at 10:48am with 2 minutes to spare and waited… the train pulled out about 11:20am. Ah, Italy

The train trip is about 1 hour, 25 minutes. As you approach Paestum, you can see massive Greek stone walls from the window (look to your right). There are signs directing you toward the sight and museum. We arrived just before 1pm. The approach is pretty spectacular – you walk through a Greek stone arch in the wall (an ancient entry to the city) and down a path lined with crumbling stone walls and an array of wildflowers. An easy way to tell if what you are looking at is Greek or Roman is by checking out the masonry. The Greeks tended to use large stone blocks and fitted them together without mortar, the Romans tended to use smaller stones (and bricks) and made great use of mortar (often with little pieces of gravel or shards of pottery in the mix to strengthen it).

Since it was during Cultural Week all of the exits and entrances were open. We looked around in the shops lining the road that leads to the sight and bought a small ceramic clock (weird purchase but I fell in love with the design) and a Past and Present book about Paestum for 13€. We pondered eating lunch in one of the restaurants but were too eager to get a closer view of the magnificent temples dominating the landscape. So we settled for gelato instead. I got a 2€ coni with a large scoop of lemon (perfect considering the hot cloudless day). As I took my first lick I was stunned to see DH pointing to the extra large cup and indicating he wanted a scoop of: pistaccio, amarena (sour cherry), lemon, fragoli (strawberry), AND bacio (chocolate with nuts). Five scoops later he had a prodigious amount of ice cream in that cup! He valiantly managed to consume all 6€ worth of gelato and admittedly, I was pretty darn impressed.
NOTE: We later visited the official bookstore and they were out of the Past and Present books in English though the price would have also been 13€, so definitely seek out these shops if you want a good guidebook and the main bookstore is out.

Paestum... I don’t think the right words to describe the three temples exist. I find Roman architecture to be very indicative of their power and might; Greek architecture is just beautiful – graceful and airy. Although it is a pain to get to without a car, this sight is so very worth the trouble. We walked around the sight (there is a lot more there than just the temples) from 1:15pm to 5pm. The ruins here (aside from the temples and public areas) are less maintained than those of Pompeii. We saw several Roman paved roads (with foundations of homes and shops) leading off into fields of grass as tall as my chest. DH put me up on his shoulders and I could see that the ruins went quite a long way into the field. Wild poppies (reddish orange) and various other wildflowers litter the landscape creating provocative splashes of color among the fallen columns. We found the amount of garbage on the ground very disheartening and spent the last half-hour of the day picking up trash and depositing it in the trash bins near the entrance where the man checks tickets. The man seemed really touched and came out to thank us numerous times.

We made a quick stop at the bookstore before heading back to the station to catch the 5:43pm train back to Naples (arrives around 7:10pm). We each got another cone of ice cream (DH limited himself to a scoop of lemon) and we bought a small urn for 25€ that looks great in our study.

While licking our second gelatos of the day we discussed dinner and decided to try to find the same pizza place in Naples that we had liked so much on Sunday night. I know I mentioned it on Day 1, but I really liked Naples. Sorrento gets kind of sleepy at night; Naples just seems to throw off even more energy. Our train clunked into the Naples station more or less on time and we were at the pizzeria, Pizza e Contorini, by about 8:15pm. The waiter remembered us and enthusiastically welcomed us back so the meal started off with big smiles. I ordered two bottles of aqua naturale and DH ordered a coca cola and one bottle of aqua frizzante. DH got the pizza diavola again but I ended up trying a type of pizza that ought to be called heaven (I think it was called "speciale" on the menu). Very thin crust liberally spread with chunky tomato sauce, halved cherry tomatoes bursting with flavor, gobs of buffalo mozzarella (we watched the chef lop rounds off the fresh cheese), and extra fresh basil leaves. A dash of the spicy pink oil from the jar on the table and I was in paradise. As you can guess, the meal also ended with big smiles. Total cost was 15€ and change.

Although I wanted to walk around after dinner our aching feet were urging us back to the station – the sore feet won the debate and we headed back. We caught the 9:41pm Circumvesuviana (arrived a few minutes before 11pm). We met two very nice Canadian women headed to Sorrento at the station and chatted with them the entire ride. They had been best friends since high school and when their husbands both died (I got the feeling it was within the past 5 years) they decided to travel together instead of staying home alone all the time. They were staying at Il Nido and they kept saying how all they wanted or cared about was that the bed was comfortable... I did NOT mention what I have read about the beds there! The blue SITA bus was there when we got off the train so we took the lazy way out and took it back to the stop near the hotel instead of forcing our complaining feet into the 25 minute uphill walk. Before dropping off to sleep I wrote "why is it that my legs aren’t even the slightest bit sore yet my feet feel as though someone took a baseball bat to them?"

PIZZA NOTE OF THE DAY: DH is a huge fan of crushed red peppers on his pizza to give it a little more oomph. We saved the little packets that you get from places like Pizza Hut and Papa John’s for a year and brought them with us in a ziplock baggie. He waxed almost poetic about how much these little packets of spice improved his pizza-dining-experience.

TexasAggie

mr_go, I hope you and ms_go have a fantastic trip and I am looking forward to your trip report!

What a small world... DH was also an Andersen employee at the time of the Enron fiasco, though he was fortunate to be in one of the offices that was directly aquired by another Big 4 firm so he was never out of work. It certainly seems that accounting is not as "safe" of a career choice as it used to be in terms of job security.

TexasAggie

Hmmm... I ran a few edits through before hitting post but they didn't appear in the version that got posted.

The only one of importance related to the museum. The museum was overrun with schoolchildren (probably due to Cultural Week) so we opted to save it for the 2007 trip we are already planning on fitting in somewhere. From the brief glimpse we got, the museum has a very good collection of artifacts.

Eloise

TexasAggie:

Great fun; I'm really enjoying your reports. Paestum made quite an impression on me, too.

But what I long for is your "speciale," which is, I think, the classic pizza margherita that too few places take the trouble to do well: fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil. I would kill to have one now!

Leely

Thanks for the report, TexasAggie. I am SO jealous; my sis and I were in Rome for a very quick 5 days in May. I would have killed for a longer vacation that included the sea!!!

Glad you two had such a fantastic time--and that you came in under budget. And thanks for the lowdown on pizza pizza pizza.

TexasAggie

Here is my review (also posted on www.tripadvisor.com) of the hotel we stayed at in Sorrento for 4 nights, La Tonnarella.

We stayed at La Tonnarella for 4 nights, arriving May 14th and departing May 18th. We had a double room with the view terrace (Room 1) and paid 160€ per night. The room had air conditioning (but it wasn't turned on yet for the season and the woman at the front desk would not turn it on even when we requested), a hair dryer, and normal Italian bathroom plumbing with a nice sized shower. The bed was acceptably comfortable (VERY firm mattress), and extra pillows were provided. The room was fairly large in size and there was a desk, night tables, a chair, and a twin bed made up as a sofa as furniture (plus the bigger bed – 2 twin beds pushed together).

The best thing about the room is the terrace with sunbeds and tables. The terrace is HUGE and there are pretty potted flowers on it, along with 3 sunbeds and 2 ceramic tile tables. The terrace is not very private (you can see through to other terraces on the sides and below), but it is fantastic for laying out in the sun with a good book or just staring into the sea.

We found the reception desk service to be mediocre but professional most of the time. We found out from another guest that the front desk had turned on the AC when they requested (it was really hot one day), so I'm not sure why they didn't do it when I requested as I was really nice about it. Maybe the problem was being too nice?? There is some traffic noise, but it was very minimal and did not disturb us.

Breakfast was served in the hotel's BEAUTIFUL dining room/restaurant. The room is tiled with amazing ceramic tiles (lots of colors) and it has massive windows overlooking the Bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. The breakfast buffet was good (fruits, cereals, breads and pastries, meats and cheeses, fried eggs, bacon, little sausages that reminded me of hot dogs in consitency and taste, and juices/coffees with particularly excellent cappuccino).

The hotel is on Via Capo and it took us about 20-25 minutes to walk from the hotel to the bus/train station every day. We could have taken buses (there is a bus stop very close to the hotel), but we like to walk. The buses are all 1€ per person, per ride.

We ate in the restaurant one night and it was the biggest food disappointment of our entire trip. We started off with a marginal bottle of white wine but it seemed overpriced at 20€. It looked and tasted like a cheap bottle (probably worth about 5&euro that they put a nice price on. We had the fried mozzarella with egg (little breaded mozzarella triangles with a layer of cooked egg on top, about 6&euro for an appetizer - unusual and pretty good. Dinner went downhill from here. DH ordered lamb chops (12&euro as his entree and was served LITERALLY a plate of bones with fat on them and only 4 small bites of meat (yes, we counted). I ordered the beefsteak with gorgonzola cheese (16&euro and the steak was so undercooked that it was blood-red in the middle and only about room temperature. I ordered a salad (6&euro mid-way through the meal when it became apparent I wouldn't be able to choke down enough raw meat to keep me from getting hungry later. For what we spent on the meal (close to 70€ with cover charge and service), I was exceedingly disappointed.

We will likely stay at La Tonnarella again, probably for another several nights on our next trip in 2007. While I could not recommend the restaurant in good faith, I think the hotel is a good value.

ms_go

Thanks, TexasAggie. I've been taking notes...

Not to jump ahead on you, but since we're leaving in less than 48 hours...did you end up doing the Gennaro & Salvatore boat trip and, if so, how was it? And did you do any good hiking in the AC area?

Interesting, btw, about your DH. Hope that all settles out well. I spent 15 years with Andersen in "HQ" positions, so we were not part of any acquisition. But as they say, change is often a good thing. And I'm still tapping that bank of FF miles I accrued while there so we can go to great places like Italy!

TexasAggie

Hi mr_go,

We ended up doing a different tour of Capri (still based out of Positano). We went with Lucibello (it may only have 1 "l&quot for 50€ per person. Since we aren't big seafood people we didn't think the included lunch with Gennaro e Salvatore would be worth the extra price of their tour (their price was 75€ per person) and we canceled a couple of weeks before we arrived so they wouldn't be expecting us.

Our tour left Positano from the main beach at 9:30am sharp and we took a tour all around the island of Capri with the guide pointing out all sorts of interesting historical facts on the trip. The sea was too rough to do the Blue Grotto but it would have been an option otherwise. We got dropped off at Marina Grande (sp?) below Capri town about 11:30am and he came to pick us up again at 4:30pm. We were back at the Positano beach about 5:45pm. We were really happy with the tour we took.

We used the 5 hours on the island to visit the Natural Arch and Villa Jovis (Emperor Tiberius' palace).

LAwoman

Really enjoying your report, TexasAggie, and so impressed that you and Mr. Aggie picked up trash at Paestum - bravo!!

altajoe

Aggie,

Too bad that you and DH "aren't big seafood people". Going to the Amalfi coast and not eating seafood is like going to College Station on a fall saturday and not going to a football game. But that explians your choice of Lamb chops and Beefsteak. lol

GeoffHamer

Lucibello is spelt like that. Their web site is www.lucibello.it.

hlocke1

Hi TexasAggie -

Sounds like you had a great trip. We are doing just as you did... going to Italy to relive last year's honeymoon (while seeing different areas, though). So, is the rest of your report still coming?

We leave next week and I'm anxious to hear if you got to try La Tagliata in Montepertuso! We are also staying at the Hotel California, so I'm also curious to hear how that went for you... Happy Anniversary! - Heather.

TexasAggie

DAY 5: "On the 5th Day of Pizza"
The TexasAggies Meet Sicilian Dessert Wine

Finally, a day to sleep in (well a little bit at least!). We luxuriated in bed until about 8:30am and then packed our things before heading downstairs to breakfast. The massive windows were all open in the dining room and the sunshine (no haze today) streamed in along with the heady scent of all the flowers in the window boxes. We lingered over a couple cappuccinos, paid our bill at the front desk and arranged to leave our bags in the lobby while we set off on a quick side trip before leaving Sorrento.

A wonderful Fodors poster (dln AKA mermaid) had kindly emailed us excellent directions from Via Capo to the Roman-era ruins near Sorrento, the Ruderi villa Pollio Felice. Of course we still managed to get lost for about half an hour in true Jill and Chris fashion. Because we got lost I’m not sure how long the walk would normally be but my guess is perhaps 20 or 30 minutes. The ruins are pretty ruined, especially after seeing Pompeii and Paestum, but we enjoyed checking out the old villa and imagining what it must have looked like. Their view would have been stupendous and the structure would have been very large and airy - a perfect house for the lazy summer days. After a few minutes at the villa we clambered back down to the "pool" (a natural depression that the hotel employees say was a nymphaeum in ancient times) to soak our feet which were quite sore and cranky after three consecutive days of pounding the pavement dawn to dusk. The sea water enters the pool through a small natural arch creating a miniature wave pool effect. The water was pretty cold (mid-May) but the pool is out in the open sunshine so the hot rays beating on your head and body while the water freezes your legs creates a surprisingly pleasant effect. The gentle waves and swirling current worked just like a spa treatment and after about 15 minutes my feet were blissfully numb.

It was about 10:30 by this time and we had planned to catch the 11:30 SITA bus so we slogged double time back to the hotel, fetched our luggage, and caught the blue bus from the Via Capo stop down to the Circumvesuviana station. Our transportation pass from the ArteCard covered our bus fare which would have otherwise been 1€ each. There were two "bus officials" checking tickets. We had not ridden the blue and orange busses much but this was the first time we saw tickets being checked. A young Australian couple did not have tickets and they were assessed a fine of 50€ each. They appeared to be a few years younger than us and were traveling on a severe budget. We were a couple rows back but we could hear every word of the argument with the officials (an Italian man in a business suit was translating between the two parties). The dispute ended with the girl in tears and the couple paying 60€ total which was every single euro that they apparently had on them. Last we saw them they were deciding if they should go ahead and go to Pompeii and blow their budget or just walk back to the campsite where they were staying. Hopefully this story will reinforce the importance of buying and validating tickets on any kind of transportation. Although they deserved the fine it was still sad to see their day ruined

We got down to the Circumvesuviana/bus station about 11:20 but the 11:30 bus was already full and there was a line of people awaiting the next bus that snaked around the entire circle driveway. The next bus wasn't scheduled to come until 12:25 (which really meant that it showed up about 12:40pm) so we had a nice long wait in the unrelenting midday sun. We made friends with those around us by sharing our sunscreen When the bus finally did arrive the line more or less disintegrated. We had several people shove in front of us and when it started looking like we wouldn’t be able to get on the bus due to all the cutting we finally got into the spirit and started using our suitcases to block any more people from cutting in front of us. We got the last two seats at the very back of the bus although the bus driver did allow people to fill the aisles and ride standing up so probably another 20 people got on after us. We departed Sorrento a little before 1pm.

For the best views of the coast and the sea you will want to sit on the right side of the bus. If you are like me and suddenly discover the route gives you extreme motion sickness you will want to be removed from the bus and left to walk, luggage or not. The ride is up and down over and over again with lots of sudden brakes so that it feels like a 45 minute-long rollercoaster, albeit a mild one. Despite the great tan I’d recently acquired I was an interesting shade of green by the time we got off. We got off at the first Positano stop knowing that our hotel was closer to the second stop because I didn’t think I could stay on that packed bus one more minute without being sick. I parked the larger suitcase and sat down on it with my head in my hands for a good ten minutes until the rocking/rolling sensation faded to bearable. We then caught one of the city buses (1€ each) to the other stop and walked the few meters uphill to our hotel, Hotel California. The hotel owners were welcoming and gracious and showed us to our room immediately (maybe I still looked like I could be ill at any moment). I promptly flopped onto the bed while DH sweetly set about unpacking, opening windows to let in a breeze, and trying to coax me to drink water.

I revived after about a half hour and we decided to walk around and explore. DH had spotted some ceramic shops he thought I’d like and he was starving by that point and ready for lunch. I later teased him about using my weakness for shops to his advantage ;-) We stumbled onto a small restaurant called Ristorante Valle Dei Mulino (or something close to that). Although I really didn’t have an appetite yet I felt like I should order something since it was a real restaurant as opposed to a casual bar-type establishment. DH ordered the lasagna (made with several kids of sheep milk cheese and absolutely delicious) and I ordered the tomato-sauce drenched ravioli stuffed with spinach, basil, and a very mild clumpy cheese. That plus two bottles of water came to 20€ including the cover charge but not service.

We spent the next few hours walking through the town, lingering in the many shops and engaging in a bit of discreet gawking at the sky-high prices. I bought my Mom a beautiful ceramic vase and a nice bottle of lemon lotion. We found several small grocery and "frutta e verdura" stores and loaded up on fresh produce. The displays are almost a work of art and the monster lemons (some of them the size of a child’s bowling ball) are truly a sight to behold. A storm came down over the mountains with striking swiftness and deluged the town for almost an hour between 4 and 5pm so we got in a nice nap. We emerged a bit groggy around 7pm and went to ask Maria, the owner of our hotel, for a dinner recommendation featuring... pizza of course She made a call and we were told to be on the front porch at 8pm for the restaurant’s van to pick us up.

The Pizzeria Da Costantino van picked us up promptly at 8pm and we made a few other 'people-collecting stops' at other hotels on our way up to the restaurant. The drive is probably about 10 minutes up but it was long enough to set off my motion sickness again and erase my appetite completely. As I screwed my eyes tightly shut on the turns a fleeting "girl" thought went through my head, "wow, if I keep this up I could be down to a size 2 in a couple days!"

We got a table right by the wall of windows with a gorgeous view out over the town of Positano and the sea. The restaurant is family-run (the papa is the maitre de/waiter, the son is the van driver and cashier, and the mama was supervising the kitchen). We ended up with the papa as our waiter. DH ordered the grilled sausages with french fries and I ordered a mixed salad and mozzarella cheese pizza with fresh peppers and proscuitto. We had spent several minutes puzzling over the wine menu and it appeared that all the listed white wines were very dry. Although we like dry whites, we were in the mood for something a little sweeter or even just medium-dry. I didn’t have my menu translator with me so I attempted to explain what we wanted with my very limited Italian – using "dolci" for "sweet" because it was all I knew to do (don’t know why "amabile" didn’t occur to me but it did not). The poor papa/waiter thought we were absolutely off our rockers when we said we wanted a liter or bottiglia of this "dolci bianco vino" with our main meal, but he nodded his head and went off to the wine storage area in search of what we had requested.

While we waited we were brought a complimentary serving of bruschetta that turned out to be probably the best bruschetta I have had in my life, though the charming rustic ambience of the restaurant and the beautiful views from our vantage point certainly helped form my impression. The toasted rounds of bread were spread with olive oil, crushed fresh basil, and thin slices of toasted garlic cloves almost melded with roasted halved cherry tomatoes. Perfetto! The meal that followed did not disappoint either. My pizza was generously sized and baked in the traditional wood-burning oven. The pie was doused in both olive oil and zesty tomato sauce before the toppings were piled on and the oil helped the crust stay wonderfully crunchy and light. My mixed salad with just a touch of aged balsamic vinegar was also fantastic.

While we were enjoying the free bruschetta the papa waiter reappeared with an unopened bottle of a peachy-light amber colored wine which he presented to us with a flourish and the tantalizing comment "When you drunk I (with a capital "I&quot drive you home myself!" He opened the bottle, poured a bit in each of our glasses and commanded "drink!". As I lifted the glass to my lips I caught a whiff of the wine and thought "my that smells strong"... The first sip – I believe it burned a trail all the way down my throat to my stomach, but we both smiled and said it was good since we had been the ones to send him on a hunt to find us a sweet wine in the first place. Once he left we immediately examined the label and discovered we had a bottle of Sicilian dessert liquor on our hands at close to 30% alcohol. We spent the rest of the meal wondering if we had purchased the whole bottle and what we were going to do with it since I was convinced that more than a glass or two (and these were small glasses) would result in one of us needing to get our stomachs pumped! DH managed to finish his glass and consume a fraction of glass number two while I felt immensely proud of emptying just about 2/3 of my first glass. The taste was very fruity and I did have the presence of mind to search the menu for gelato thinking that I could spoon a little on the top in a creative attempt to use up some of the large bottle we feared we had bought. Fortunately when the check arrived we saw that we were only charged for the amount we had consumed and we happily left the bottle sitting on the table vowing NEVER to try ordering sweet wine in Italy again! The total meal price was about 45€.

The van ride back to the hotel did not make me ill but I don’t know if it was due to the dark (not being able to see the coast) or still being a bit lightheaded (ok, tipsy). We spent some time relaxing in the Jacuzzi tub in our room and turned in about midnight.

TexasAggie

DAY 6: "On the 6th Day of Pizza"
The Positano Blues

"Rain, rain go away, come again another day"
We woke up early planning to go to Ravello and Amalfi but the steady downpour with no sign of abating foiled our plans. It slowed to a drizzle by about 9:30 but the clouds were ominously dark and strong gusts of wind kept swooping down the cliffs and through the town so we opted to save the other Amalfi Coast towns for the 2007 trip that we were already planning in earnest by this point.

By 11am I was pacing the room (relaxing is just something I am not good at apparently) and itching to get out and do something, anything. We walked up a little ways from the hotel and spent some time in an antique shop. I found a set of beautiful brass doorknobs but resisted the impulse to buy them since 1. they weighed a ton and 2. our house won’t be complete until this autumn and it seemed to make more sense to buy furnishings once we see the final product.

We didn’t see much else up the hill except more houses and hotels so we headed back into town stopping in the ceramic shop I had liked the most of all that we had seen the day before, Nonsola Modo. An hour and 167€ later we emerged after buying vases for several family members and several platters, pitchers, and other decorative kitchen items in a cobalt blue with lemons pattern. When the box arrived in Denver a couple weeks later we were amazed at the packaging – the store owner wrapped each piece in bubble wrap and then sprayed some sort of "foam" into the box that hardened into a styrofoam-like substance, totally encasing the breakables. Getting the wrapped ceramic pieces out was like digging for dinosaur bones!

The drizzle turned into a serious downpour and so we headed back to the hotel, each snagging a cone of lemon gelato for our lunch. We both pulled out books and spent some time reading (and I must confess to spending some time moping). We had planned to go to La Tagliata (up in a town above Positano called Monterpertuso) for dinner but after my bouts with motion sickness we decided to save it for the future return trip and go on a nice day when we could hike up and avoid the drive that was sure to make me very ill again. And so we asked Maria to call the Da Costantino van again to pick us up at 7:30pm.

The one upside to the day of rain was the fresh smell permeating the entire town. The driver appeared right on time. No other people-collecting stops this time so we went up, up, up to the restaurant. The van driver had on the radio and was singing at the top of his lungs in Italian; he had a very impressive baritone I should add. About half-way up we jerked to a sudden stop, he rolled down the window and plucked a hot pink flower which he handed to DH and gestured that he was to give it to me. How touching to see that romance is still alive and well in Italy. Up near the top we encountered a woman in a large car trying to come down the same narrow road we were hurtling up. The window rolled down again and our driver and the woman conversed (more like shouted at one another). He wanted her to back up, she wanted him to back up, and he ended up reaching down and folding her side window in to show her that he could pass without hitting her car – all smiles and "buona sera"s after that and we got to the restaurant without further incident or adventure.

Unlike the night before, the restaurant was almost empty. Maybe the bad weather kept people closer to town? We were greeted with big smiles as returning guests and I wondered to myself if they were betting on if we would order another crazy wine. We played it safe and went with a half liter of the house wine, a pizza with Italian sausage for DH, seminola gnocci with tomato-basil sauce for me, and a strawberry tart for dessert. We were given two servings of the complimentary bruschetta. The food was as wonderful as the night before (DH’s pizza was loaded with two kinds of spicy Italian sausage) and the papa dropped by our table and offered us each a free shot of lemoncello with our strawberry tart. He broke out into great peals of laughter when I eyed the bottle and said "soltanto un poco stasera" (only a little tonight). Dinner was 35€.

We lingered quite a while over dinner and dessert since there was no shortage of empty tables for the few guests that drifted in and didn’t end up back at the hotel until after 10pm. It was too cold and windy for a walk so we talked to Maria about arranging some sort of tour for the next day and she said to be downstairs by 9am and she would work something out for us to do.

I realize this may border on blasphemy to many, but I don’t think I would return to Positano. Even in good weather there seems to be little to do except shop in expensive stores or lay on the beach all day. It is definitely beautiful and I am sure the bad weather jaded my experience but I felt very trapped and bored for a great deal of the time we were there. I suspect it is just a matter of preference – what constitutes "la dolce vita" to one amounts to torture to another and vice versa.

Review of hotel and The 7th Day of Pizza coming soon…

TexasAggie

Review of Hotel California Positano (also called Albergo California)


We stayed at Hotel (Albergo) California for 2 nights, arriving on May 18th and departing on May 20th. We were in room 58, a very large double room with a jacuzzi tub and a small balcony overlooking the town and sea at a rate of 165€ per night. We LOVED our room! It was the largest room we have ever had in Italy and it was beautifully decorated with ceramic tiles. We requested extra pillows for the second night and slept much better as the matresses are somewhat firm. One of the balconies is tiny but the other had two sunchairs and a table.

There is some traffic noise since the hotel overlooks the road, but traffic noise is pretty hard to avoid in Positano and it didn't disturb too much. We loved the jacuzzi tub and some very nice bath salts were thoughtfully provided to use with it. The jets are loud however, so one person could probably not take a nap while another was using it.

Breakfast was served on the terrace downstairs. Breads and coffee or tea were included in the room rate, but cereals and scrambled eggs and bacon were available for 2-4€ and the food was great.

Maria runs the hotel with the help of her family and I cannot say enough wonderful things about them. She speaks excellent English and she is so friendly, helpful and welcoming. Her and her family take great care of their guests.