Day 11: Amalfi Coast

Amalfi, Italy

We woke up to a gorgeous day in sunny Sorrento and met our driver after a lovely breakfast overlooking the Bay of Naples/Mount Vesuvius to head over to the Amafli Coast! It was a nice, leisurely drive along the vibrant southern coast. Our driver pointed out the olive trees along the way which had nets below to catch the olives (they harvest these in another week or so down south). Once we approached Amalfi the road narrowed (the only land route to the Amalfi Coast is the 25 mi long Strada Statale 163 which runs along the coastline from the town of Vietri sul Mare in the east to Positano in the west). Many compare to Highway 1 in California. The view was incredible as we made many turns and watched Vespas weave in and out of the traffic along the way. As we approached town we spotted a film crew, and based on what we saw believe it to maybe be a Mazda commercial. Our first stop was in the upscale resort town of Positano. There’s actually municipalities located on the Amalfi Coast (I thought it was just a village or two) that are definitely dedicated to tourism and production of lemons/wine. The cliffside gardens are amazing to see and I can’t believe how dangerous it must be to harvest your crop here! When we got into the first town we couldn’t believe the size of the lemons (think mini plastic football size). Wish we could bring some of these home! We made a stop at the Grotto Dello Smeraldo – what a cool site! We took the elevator deep down below the cliff we were on and arrived at water level, walked into a cave and boarded a little row boat to see the grotto in full! Simply beautiful as this bright/clear blue water is light by natural light. It was also neat to see the calcium build up on all the different stalagmites and stalactites! The water in here was also nice and warm. Before getting into Amalfi we enjoyed a huge lunch that the restaurant’s chef of this small village picked out for us! We started with calamari (which is AMAZING here and I will likely never be able to eat stateside again), had a seafood bake with pasta in parchment paper (a variety of mussels, clams and various small shellfish we’d never tried before), and then shared a GIANT local fish (Chestnut) that was prepared in a simple, yet delicious olive oil sauce. It was really meaty (like chicken) vs a flaky fish. The rest of the day included taking in the views, window shopping and enjoying the breeze as we continued down the cost line. We learned the compass was invited in Amalfi and there is a huge classical music concert that last for months in this region. Nearby to the music hall, Bryan unfortunately got stung by a bee on his arm. We decided lemon gelato would be a good fix and shared some while Bry used it to ice his arm in between. In the evening when we got back to Sorrento, we were all too full from lunch and decided to relax with some wine before dinner. We strolled into the middle of town and shared pizza for dinner at La Basilica in a cute courtyard off the busy street. The weather has gotten much cooler here in the evenings, so this was a nice barrier from the wind and kept us comfortable for dinner. Post dinner, we did our standard walk around town, grabbed some gelato, and Jeff and Bryan picked out some cool hats to wear tomorrow as we take a boat excursion to Capri! Ciao!