Road trip week four; Amalfi coast, lemons and lunatic drivers

The Amalfi coast, just those two words combined can conjure up images in your minds eye; sweeping curving roads, sunshine and elegance. For us, this was the area around which we had created our road trip of a lifetime. Looking again at Monty Don’s book on Italian gardens made our mind up that we should drive along the coast road and up into Ravello. Then we could visit any of the towns we fancied on the return leg, Amalfi, Praiano and Positano. Another early morning start, 7am, saw us pulling in the wing mirror of the car and me holding my breath for almost an hour and 20 minutes!

“They just drive straight at you!” roared J. Not that I can blame him it was full on. Scooters (and cars) overtaking cars on blind bends, buses creating spaces where there wasn’t any. We met a couple back in Modena and they gave us some advice when they heard what we were doing. “Remember you’re a pebble in a stream or a leaf in the breeze”. Basically, we had to let them all get on with their madness around us and try to keep on course. Amazingly we arrived unscathed and found a carpark, dazed we wandered into Ravello town to recover and grab an espresso before taking in some more gardens.

 

First, on the recommendation of our local rep, Gianni, we visited Villa Rufolo, in through the gates on the dot of 9am we had the place to ourselves for a while. The views over to Salerno were breathtaking, like a lot of the Amalfi coast is. Known as the “Garden of the Soul” we were able to feel that sentiment well, I think because of the early hour and lack of tourist hoards. Although a small garden, it has such beautiful detail on the two terraces that it will hold your attention. After we had strolled around and sat on a bench soaking in the sun and seascape we took ourselves off to find the gardens of Villa Cimbrone.

The garden was enticing from the moment we stepped through the huge wooden gates. Pathways led you onward with glimpses of vistas of to the left and right of you. But all the time you knew you needed to walk down the central gravel path and be awe inspired by the infinity terrace at the other end. It was all it promised to be and more. We were certainly getting our fill of beautifully spectacular gardens on this trip. It would be difficult to pick a favourite. Lunch was calling and so I braced myself for the return journey. Arriving in Amalfi I instructed J to turn into the harbour as Gianni had suggested a restaurant there. “We’ll never find any parking” J said pessimistically and as we slowly drove along the pathway (road) we saw the name we were searching for. “Ooh there’s a space” – in the reserved parking for the restaurant – we pulled in and the ‘valet’ said “have you reserved a table?“, “YES” says J, (we hadn’t) and determinedly parks the car and switches it off.  Nonchalantly we walk in and take a table on the terrace overlooking the harbour and have a fab lunch!

I think the glass of wine at lunch helped J’s Italian driving skills and he seemed much more at home on the roads now. We quickly stopped at a road side stall and bought some Amalfi lemons, that we’ve always wanted to see. They are quite amazing. Below, left to right: ordinary lemon, Sfusato lemon & Cedro lemon. The last one apparently you can eat whole. When we open and try it I will let you know!

One of the trips recommended to us was a boat trip to Capri, Cap-ri not Cupri as we tend to say 🙂 It was a whirlwind tour with a taxi bus picking us up near our villa at 9am, down to the nearest harbour, Marina Lobra in Massa Lubrense, and off around the Sorrento coast and over to Capri. Our boat driver Giuseppe was great fun, showing us all the sights and with one liners that couldn’t fail to make you smile. Dropped off at Marina Grande we had 4 hours to ourselves. Straight onto a small bus we wound our way up into the hills and over mama mia bridge (yes really) and into Anacapri to get onto the chair lift to the top of Monte Solaro for stunning views over the island.

A quick lunch of the tomato and mozzarella sandwich the tour had given to us, we set off to catch the bus back down to Capri and walk through town to the Gardens of Augustus. This small garden only 1 Euro entry (which goes to local charity) has yet more stunning views over the bay and of a winding pathway, Via Krupp, (no longer accessible due to falling rocks) towards Marina Piccola. We then pushed our way back through the crowds (what must it be like in high summer?!!) and caught another bus to the harbour. Here J finally allowed me to catch my breath, sit on the quay side waiting for the boat with a well deserved gelato (lemon if you wanted to know! 😉 ).

In case we were in danger of getting fat, drinking and eating our own body weight each day we try to make sure we walk often. Gianni had one more local suggestion, a secluded bay to swim in, Campanella, you just had to walk 45mins to get there. Down hill, on a stone path. I was channelling my inner goat as I stumbled my way down the narrow steps. Boy was it worth it, glorious countryside and the sparkling aquamarine sea all to ourselves…

…for all of 20 minutes! Then an Italian walking group of about 25 people descended on us, it was funny. We spent about an hour swimming and people watching until we couldn’t put off the return uphill journey any longer. Puffing, huffing and sweating we climbed back up, it took us about an hour!

Amalfi, we have enjoyed how full on your region was but we are ready to hit the road again and discover another new area, Puliga, arrivederci!

Road trip week three; barking, beaches and best meat ever

 

After the highs of the last few days I suppose we were due for a few let downs. We had packed a lot into a short space of time and felt very lucky. This feeling was to change, a bit like the weather and we were caught in a thunderstorm. It did result in a stunning rainbow, but also dampened our mood a lot!

With a day ‘spare’ we decided just to do lunch and drove to a hill top town I had read about in a guide book loaned to me by the B&B. It was in a lovely little village called Veroli. We still had to get used to lunches sometimes starting at 1pm, so we had a quick look in the church as we were early. The church was beautiful, very plain on the outside but inside was one of the most opulent we have seen.

 

Anyway back to lunch! The menu was not laid out like others, no antipasti, primi or secondi, help what are we going to order? J went for Taglirini e facioli and I went for Capacollo all griglia. Well we figured that griglia was grilled so had to be meat! Pasta and beans arrived for J and a pork chop arrived for me. The chefs here are young, but with an ethos of reviving old recipes with a modern twist. That pork was divine. Yes I should have ordered a side veg dish to go with it but it didn’t matter. In our usual habit J and I have mouthfuls of each others dishes. So every now and then I would have some beans, but J didn’t see much of my dish! The seasoning was perfection with the salt having a black appearance, I don’t know why, it wasn’t burnt just delicious. Best meat ever!

Staying at rural locations mean rural smells and noises, which is fine until the dogs howl and bark for over an hour at 2am. I tried to be pragmatic and think, ‘well, we will be at the next hotel soon and it will be better‘. I was wrong. Faded elegance was how you could describe the next hotel, which was situated on a lake, next to a long stretch of beach. Men with pickaxes and shovels were busy with the holes they had made in the garden. A hose from a small septic tank truck trailed into one. Not the best first impression for the hotel (a 4 star hotel). The man on the front desk (which he refused to leave) handed us one of those stupid plastic hotel ‘key’ cards, pointed at the lift door and said “room 204, press number 1“. Great! Up we went and tried to work out how said ‘key’ worked. Once we had eventually got in the room, we sat and wondered if we had made a mistake. Trying not to have a knee jerk reaction and book another hotel, anywhere, we took a deep breath and tried to give it a chance.

In the morning, grey skies loomed and we took off to the beach determined to have a good time and ‘chill out’. How British is it to sit on the beach under an umbrella? That was us, day one. Next day, same beach, sunbathing, 25 degrees and we swam in the sea. You know the way in the UK the sea makes your skin tingle with how cold it is? Well we were in the Tyrrhenian Sea (part of the Mediterranean Sea, who knew?) and it was about 22 degrees. Wow! It was such good fun to splash about in the waves that sometimes caught you off guard and slapped you around the back of the head. I realised that we were having child-like fun, easy, simple and full of joy and laughter. Something I personally find difficult in everyday life and this was why we were taking this time off. Time to remember to live. Back at the hotel, our last night there was dominated by a wedding in the gardens, which went on to 3am. We were happy to leave and start our first weeks self catering in the Amalfi coast region. If for no other reason than I was fed up washing our pants in hotel sinks!

The Amalfi coast was the main reason for our once in a lifetime trip. J has wanted to visit and drive it for years. Over the past few weeks he has experienced how Italians drive and so felt prepared. But as the roads got progressively narrower after we left the autostrada his preparation seemed useless. We met the rep, Gianni, and he drove with us to meet the owner and translate. As we pulled up in the layby next to the lane that the cottage was down we watched as the two men assessed the size (an audi A4 allroad) and quality of our car (90% of cars here have extensive damage). Hmm. “he doesn’t know if your car will fit through the gate” said Gianni. Great. Off we went down hill on a single track dirt lane. Yes it was a tight turn into the drive and gateway, but after a bit of negotiation we were through. Success, we went through the usual intro instructions and breathed a sigh of relief that we were here.

Quick I thought get a wash on. With dirty clothes spilling out of our two small suitcases I stuffed a load into the machine in the outdoor kitchen. After a brief assessment of the dials I chose a setting and waited. Nothing. Ok yes silly me I needed to pull the dial out. Great off we go. No, nothing. I could hear the machine trying to fill but there wasn’t any water. Ok, contact Gianni to contact the owner (who lives 200 meters away). The owner and his wife arrived and she looked at it and yes it wasn’t working. Technician called, a part was quickly fitted and our clothes were spinning around. Joy! That was until the machine refused to open once the cycle had finished. Were we ever going to see our clothes again?

After a glass of wine on the roof terrace and a phone call to my dad, I unplugged the machine, waited and waited and CLICK! Clean clothes! Phew.

Road trips, a good idea? Hell yeah!

Running our own landscape garden maintenance business, like a lot of self employed people, this has meant making sacrifices. Long hours, phone calls from clients in the evenings, on the weekend… ALL the time. But this is what you do to keep a roof over your head, really yummy food on the table and be able to drink an occasional glass of wine, ok not occasional, perhaps it’s almost every night! After 30 years of doing this there comes a point when you think, WHY? After two close family bereavements, J & I started to question our work life balance. Something had to give.

 

As you might have read in my previous post we have been doing some house sitting through Trusted Housesitters. This has been one small way to shake things up. But what we had really wanted was a gap year, but that damn mortgage and business kept getting in the way. As a compromise we began to plan a trip of a life time to Italy. For many years J has wanted to visit the Amalfi coast line. Positano, Priano, Sorrento. Lemons the size of your head. Windy coastal roads. Roman ruins, Pompeii. And being gardeners Monty Don had showed us wonders such as Ninfa Gardens and La Mortella on Ischia to visit, we were sold.

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Lots of talking, planning, dreaming and many years on we are finally doing our Italian Road Trip. 6 weeks driving our way down the west coast of Italy to Amalfi, into the heel – Puliga – and back home up the east coast into Le Marche. Now that’s what I call a good compromise!

I will be doing my best to chart our trip here, week by week. This is mainly so I can look back and remember what we did, I seem to have the memory of a goldfish.

I hope you enjoy taking this trip with us, ciao!