Napoli then Home🍕

Our hike had ended but Keeley and I had one more full day in Naples before flying home the following day. We were dropped off at the central train station and we headed back to the same hotel we stayed at for two nights pre hike - the Ibis Styles. Located just two short blocks from the train station which makes it very convenient and a recommendation from Rick Steves. Not fancy but very clean, comfortable, affordable and pretty quiet. They have a nice optional breakfast with lots of great food (and an amazing coffee machine) for just 9 Euros per person per day. The area around the train station is often described as gritty, but we never felt unsafe and we weren’t expecting that there would be an abundance of things to do, see and eat right around there. Also we didn’t plan to be out late at night - things to take into consideration. So for us it was great.

We didn’t have anything in particular we were planning to do that day. A little shopping and our last amazing pizza was all that was on my list. The weather was nice so we headed down to Naples Bay and decided to then loop up into the Spanish quarter for shopping and lunch. We really enjoyed the area and found it to be vibrant and authentic. From my reading it appears to have undergone a positive change recently and become kind of a hot spot for tourists and considered safe. It was very busy so my one caution as always is just to be mindful of your wallet or purse. Good advice wherever you are. There is a main street that runs perpendicular to the bay that is full of shops and restaurants but then lots of little streets that intersect the main street with an abundance of more shops and restaurants. We strolled around and then just randomly picked a spot for lunch that looked like a good choice. It did not disappoint. Is it possible to get a bad pizza in Naples? The wall of pictures was our view from the restaurant. The soccer team from Naples is United FC and the locals are rabid fans and their pictures, jerseys, statues and shrines are everywhere. The restaurant we were eating at had a life sized statue of Maradona and I wasn’t sure they were going to serve us when we admitted we didn’t know much (or really anything) about him. We shared a fresh green salad and delicious margarita pizza.

Sitting next to us at lunch was a nice couple from Holland. We started chatting and they had lots of questions for us about the US. They were heading to the Amalfi coast and we told them we had just left that same area and were pretty tired. The woman very sweetly said well the Italians have perfected the art of doing nothing so maybe consider that an option for the afternoon. What great advice! We had been up and out and hiking for 10 days so relaxing sounded so good. We decided to work our way back to the hotel stopping off here and there for shopping and one last scoop of gelato. Then spent a couple of hours relaxing on our beds. I might have even dozed off for 20 or 30 minutes.

We did a bit of organizing for the journey home, took another walk around before heading to dinner. Another Rick Steves recommendation not too far from our hotel. He has never given me a bad steer and this time was no exception. He said it was a restaurant full of locals and that appeared to be the case. We got there right when it opened at 7PM (like many places in Europe restaurants open later - 7 or 7:30 or even sometimes 8PM). We were seated right away but that table pictured right next to us was filled a minute later. We weren’t super hungry and decided to share an appetizer and entree - getting back to our normal amount of food. For the appetizer we ordered the ricotta with tomato jam and nuts and the entree was ziti with red and yellow tomatoes and pecorino cheese. Both were fantastic. The ricotta was so smooth it was perfect to spread on the amazing bread. A successful last meal in Italy.

Goodbye Napoli and Amalfi coast! We were up early and headed to the train station to catch the Alibus back to the airport. Off first to Dublin and then connecting to the USA.

I also wanted to post a picture of the hotel we stayed at in Vico our first four nights of the hike. Hotel Aequa was a very pretty hotel in a great location in the little town of Vico Equense just up the coast from Sorrento. If you are looking for a quiet less expensive option then some of the trendier locations or plan to be driving in a car this hotel does have a garage which is not always the case. The town had some nice restaurants and shops and a very local feel. Also a small beach and marina.

This was the view from our room.

This trip was as close to perfection as possible for me. I was experiencing it with my favorite female and everything went according to plan with zero issues. The weather was great except for a tiny bit of rain for a few hours one afternoon. It didn’t stop any of our plans. We walked according to my calculations a bit over 84 miles which was important since it felt like we were consuming way more than our normal amount of food which either way would have been fine since it was all fantastic. If someone ever tries to tell me there is a tastier tomato anywhere in the world I will just firmly say that’s not possible - end of discussion. Keeley and I lost count on how many cappuccinos we had throughout the trip. There might have been a few consumed after 10AM - sorry Federico! I think it was my best packing job ever. We wore every single thing we brought and always felt we had everything we needed. We picked the most clean clothes to wear home. Our toes have been in the Mediterranean. 🥰

This trip was on my list for quite sometime and it exceeded my high expectations. If you have something on your list I hope you make it happen too. Jump while you can! Arrivederci for now🩷

Paestum🦬🏛️

The last day with our hiking group but no hiking today. I’m ok with it as we have had 6 good days of hiking and my legs want a bit of a rest. We visited two really interesting places in Paestum and they couldn’t be more different.

Our first stop after about an hour and a half of mostly beautiful scenery heading south on the Amalfi coast was a buffalo mozzarella farm called Tenuta Vannulo.

Buffalo mozzarella? I had never really heard of it. Well turns out the area south of the Amalfi coast is kind of swampy so in the 6th century water buffalo’s were brought from India. Water buffalo’s like a swampy area and they also provide excellent milk. I was picturing the huge bison that you can see in Western Kansas in the Tallgrass National Park. They are very aggressive and mean! Not the same buffalo at all. The water buffalo is very docile and I might go so far as to say sweet. There are lots of buffalo farms in this area so we visited one that also offers a restaurant and tours of the process. It was really interesting and we did get to sample quite a few products.

While the animals aren’t out in a field roaming around it’s still a pretty good life. They play classical music which they discovered relaxes the buffalo and they produce more milk. The top picture is the stall the buffalo goes into to be hooked up to the very high tech milking machine. The animal is cleaned and the milk is tested to make sure there is no infection then milked. Then they have access to a nice buffalo meal. How about a massage? Sure! It’s available around the clock. In the lower left picture see those big yellow spongy things? Just stand underneath one and it will massage your body. They are very patient so if the machines are busy they just wait their turn. They get in the milking machines two or three times a day so when they feel ready they just get in the pen and move forward to get into the machine - bottom right picture. The reward is food so they are more than willing to line up.

So sweet you could almost have one as a pet! This one used too much fur gel. A very stiff fur do😂

We toured where the milk goes after it leaves the buffalo. Straight in to make cheese. Mozzarella, ricotta, yogurt, gelato and cappuccino’s. A perfect mozzarella braid.

There is also a museum of farm implements and a leather shop with beautiful purses, wallets, belts etc and a restaurant where we had lunch and ate all buffalo products. A heavy calcium intake but all delicious and creamy.

On to our second site which was close by. The Archeological Park where they have Greek and Roman ruins that date back to 600 BCE. We were all blown away. There are three large temples that predate the Parthenon in Athens and are in better condition. Did you ever hear about this? I never did and it was fascinating. The Greeks built the first temple in 560 BCE, then the second in 500 BCE and the third in 460 BCE. The Romans arrived and they didn’t fight the Greeks but eventually the Romans took over and built a number of structures. Interesting that the Roman buildings are all mostly in ruins but the Greek temples have successfully survived. We had a wonderful guide Sylvia that took us through the area including the museum. Bottom right is Sylvia showing us the Roman brick. I see you Frank Lloyd Wright! He loved Roman brick as it is longer and thinner than regular brick and invoked the prairie to him. Bottom left is Keeley inside an actual tomb in the museum. So amazing that some of the original paint has survived.

The Temple of Athena - the goddess of wisdom and war. A strong woman! Let’s channel Athena friends!

Temple of Neptune.

We stayed the last 4 nights in the town of Maiori which is a short boat ride from Amalfi. We stayed at the Reginna Palace which was right across from the boardwalk and beach. Maiori has the longest beach on the Amalfi coast because most of the towns have no beach because of the rocky coastline. It was a beautiful small town and much quieter than Sorrento or Positano. To each their own but we really liked hiking into those towns, staying for a bit and then getting back to our sweet much quieter town. The way to get between the towns is definitely the ferries NOT the road which is narrow and packed with traffic. Rick Steves my favorite European travel guru is redoing his Amalfi coast book and recommending Maiori as the best place to stay for cost and congestion. You read it here first!😂

Scenes from Maiori. The beach, center street, our pool and my morning cappuccino 🩷

If you get a drink for happy hour you also get snacks. Quite a spread for one drink. Chips, nuts, some kind of rice cake but the one in the center in a circle shape is called a Taralli. Comes in quite a few flavors and Keeley and I loved them. Kind of a cross between a pretzel and a breadstick. We liked them so much we went to a little grocery store and bought them to bring home. They come in different flavors so we bought fennel, black pepper and original. If I have to go back to Italy to get them I am willing😊

For our last dinner with the group we went to a cute restaurant called Masaniello. We had the house specialty which is an entire local fish called a Sea Bream. Is is cooked in a thick layer of rough salt. When they bring it to the table they light it on fire then use a mallet to break off the salt. The fish inside is very moist and delicious so I think the salt steams the fish. That’s my guess. We had an appetizer that was a piece of cod, zucchini flower and something with sardines on top. Keeley was braver than I and ate the sardines. I was saving room for the Sea Bream🤣 Second coarse was a pasta in a lemon sauce and the fish was served with salad and roasted potatoes. Lemon sorbet for dessert. Another great meal.

Our guides were fantastic! A 10 out of a 1 to 5 scale. They made us feel comfortable immediately, kept us on track and where we needed to be when, led the hikes, navigated the crazy marina’s with the ferries and fast boats, kept us laughing and no question was too ridiculous for them to explain. Why can’t we share a pizza or have a cappuccino after 10 AM? Really no parmigiana cheese on a pasta with fish? Thanks Chiara and Federico! You are forever a part of our wonderful Amalfi memories🩷

While we are leaving the Amalfi coast we still have a day in Napoli before heading home. One more post to go! Check back soon for the big finish!

Ravello to Amalfi 🎼

We started our day today in the beautiful peaceful town of Ravello. Unlike the other popular towns on the Amalfi coast Ravello is high up on the mountain overlooking the sea. Quiet because they don’t allow large tour buses so on a Sunday morning it was very peaceful. We had made an appointment with a local guide to take us on a guided tour of the church on the main square - Saint John the Apostle of the Toro, and then the Villa Rufalo right next door. Her name was Philomena and she was great. We spent most of the time at the villa but the church was simple and had amazing mosaics.

The Villa Rufalo was built in the 14th century by a wealthy merchant. Then like many of the palaces and large villas went through challenging times. It had fallen into disrepair until the 1800’s when purchased by a man from Scotland. He restored the amazing villa and lived there for 40 years. What made it so famous is that the man from Scotland was a friend of the German composer Richard Wagner who came to visit and fell in love with the villa but even more with the amazing gardens. He was so inspired by the gardens he composed a famous opera there and I can’t for the life of me tell you which one. I’m not an opera fan but still very cool. Now Ravello is well known for the Ravello Music Festival which takes place at the villa every year for two months - July and August. And even more impressive is that they build a stage out over the terraces under the gardens so it hangs out over the sea. Top symphonies from around the world play there for it and if it sounds like you might be interested in seeing a performance you will need to already start thinking about planning for 2026. Only 300 seats for each show so tickets go fast.

The flowers in the garden were just planted a few days ago so not in full bloom yet - but still beautiful. Bottom left picture is where the stage is built over the roofs you see.

You see these Stone Pine trees all over the Amalfi Coast. They are often called Umbrella Pines and that’s exactly what they look like to me.

A sweet street in Ravello.

Time to start the hike. And sadly our streak of perfect weather has run out. It started to sprinkle a bit and continued lightly throughout most of the rest of the day. But we had rain jackets and it didn’t stop our plans. Plus we need to get down to the town of Amalfi and our feet are pretty much the only way. The views were still pretty but sadly the photos aren’t that great.

Lots of stairs going down for the most part but we did detour to make a climb to a scenic spot. This is the town of Atrani where scenes from the Netflix series Ripley were filmed.

Back to the stairs!

We stopped for lunch in a small village called Pontone. Was like something you might picture in the movie Under The Tuscan Sun, except that it was raining😂 We ate at a long table under a canopy with an old concrete wall with pots of geraniums attached to the wall. We ordered sandwiches or bruschetta and the sandwiches came in one size. BIG!

On to Amalfi! Still raining so a little extra caution on all the stone steps going down. We had been to Amalfi briefly a previous day knowing we would have some free time there today so had scoped out where we wanted to spend our time. First stop was the beautiful church of St Andrew. Quite a complex with a cloister, museum, crypt and then the cathedral. Baroque and Romanesque style. So much to take in but really beautiful. This picture was taken on our previous visit when the sky was so blue!

Then a bit of shopping. Amalfi is known for still hand making paper and there are a couple of stores that sell beautiful journals, notebooks, prints etc. Keeley was interested in getting a journal so she found one she liked at this shop and the man who helped us actually makes the covers by hand and designs them.

He put her initial on it too😊

We got a big kick out of seeing all the clearly tourists who purchased rain ponchos and coats with the lemons! So tempting to bring a few home.

Back to Maiori on a boat - my new favorite way to commute. A lovely dinner of rigatoni bolognese but smelled too good for me to be patient enough to take a picture. In spite of the rain another great day🤗

The Lemon Trail🍋

Another great day and couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather. We hiked the Lemon Trail which is Maiori to Minori or vice versa. We are staying in Maiori (highly recommend!) which is larger then Minori but both right on the water. The lemons they grow here are different than the ones in Sorrento - who knew? We hiked up a ton of stairs and then walked along the mountain sometimes up and sometimes a bit down but always great views of the water and the terraces where the lemons grow.

There are a number of places you can stop along the way for a lemon tasting and we had an appointment at one of them. A family business for 5 generations and still many of the original trees! We learned a lot about the lemons specific to that area and what makes them so special. They were originally planted there to maintain the mountain and so really conservation of the area. They can be very large and since they use no preservatives you can consume the entire fruit - even the peel. (Don’t try this at home folks! Not the same lemons!) We tasted lemon salad which is slices of lemon salted with olive oil. Delicious! Lemonade with no sugar so very tart. Then after going into the orchard we had lemon marmalade and lemon cello- from tart to sweet.

Lemon trees are very fragile so they build pagodas over them to protect them. The bitter orange tree is very sturdy so to preserve the trees for generations they graft the orange tree to the lemon tree. This tree decided to produce lemons and oranges. Nothing wrong with that in my book. We can learn from nature. Just do you🩷I have a new appreciation for lemons but have always loved the flavor.

I like capers but never really thought about where they came from. They are difficult to grow and mainly grow wild out of places like stone walls. Actually such a pretty plant.

We continue our hike to Minori. The final descent was another 400 steps - no problem.

This is such a perfect climate for so many great fruits and vegetables. They look so beautiful and smell wonderful.

One more stop before lunch to visit the Villa Romana which was discovered in the early 1930’s when they were excavating to build a building. A large villa built in the 1st century AD. More to see than the one we visited in Capri. Interesting to tour it and see the ingenuity of people from so long ago. Still some evidence of the original paintings on the walls.

Off for another fantastic lunch at la Botte. First coarse fantastic grilled vegetables. The walls were covered in beautiful watercolors all painted by the owner.

Main course fusilli pasta in a light seafood sauce with clams and mussels. Best mussels I’ve ever had. This platter was for 4 of us but we couldn’t come close to finishing it. And I would like to say dessert was offered and for the first time maybe ever I passed. Yes it’s the truth! But it all looked fantastic. I’m saving room for gelato later. Such restraint for me.

A unique shrine along the walk.

We had a couple of options to get back to Maiori but Keeley and I and Louise decided to walk back on the Lemon Trail so up the stairs and along the path. Too beautiful to not see it twice.

The Amalfi coast has very few actual beach areas and what they do have tend to be very tiny. Maiori and Minori have actual beaches the largest being in Maiori, so when we got back we decided to spend some time there. The sand is black and somewhat rocky but so pretty.

Dinner was on our own so we ate under the lemon trees at Pinete 1903. Keeley and I had salads and shared a delicious pesto pasta with zucchini and tuna for Louise. Gelato for dessert!

We still have a few more days of this wonderful trip. More to come!

Bomerano to Positano🌸

The hike today took the lions share of the day but it was high up along the coast line with gorgeous views every minute. We drove to the small village of Bomerano and for the first time saw a fairly large amount of hikers gathering so clearly a popular hike. I can understand why. The end result takes you right onto the Path of the Gods into Positano - a very beautiful town on the Amalfi coast. I would classify the hike as moderate. Definitely a trail with plenty of rocky parts climbing up and climbing down. We had to get pretty high up the mountain in order to walk around the edge and get to Positano. We saw quite a few farms I guess you would call them but literally tiered into the mountain.

The official sign which I’m told says Welcome to the Path of the Gods.

There is still some utilization of donkeys and mules to transport things between the small villages up in the mountains and sure enough we saw them. Actually we smelled them before we saw them😂

This is where the shepherd lives that takes care of them it appears. Built right into the rocky mountain.

The trail was very close to the edge much of the time. At this spot we could see Capri where we were yesterday. I climbed up on the ledge to get a good view.

Then I looked down. Sheer rock!

Let’s keep going. Positano awaits!

We get our first good view of Positano buts it’s going to take us awhile to get there.

The group continues. We are heading to lunch. First we go down.

Then we go up!

Another defibrillator just in case. So far we all remain good.

We stopped for lunch in a small village at a restaurant called Santa Croce. Wow! A fantastic lunch and this was our view.

Fantastic food. Our first course was the cheeses and grilled veggies. Meatballs and roasted rosemary potatoes second course. A tart they called an Easter tart that had a ricotta and orange peel filling for dessert. I could only eat one meatball and it kind of broke my heart to leave the other one behind.

They brought the whole tart to Louise and told her it was her portion😂 I think Louise is thinking challenge accepted!

So many beautiful flowers everywhere.

We are getting close!

We see you Positano!

Now the stairs down. One of the men in our group attempted to count them but gave up at 1600! Not kidding! Totally worth it🥰

Positano is a beautiful town not as large as Sorrento. In terms of fancy I would say Capri the fanciest, then Positano then Sorrento. All very crowded so fun to see and walk around a bit but better to stay in a less crowded town. But it totally depends on what you enjoy. Sitting in a fancy cafe sipping an aperol spritz and people watching is great too so just do you. We had a bit of time to walk around, get a gelato etc. before meeting up to take our boat to our new hotel in Maiori.

Such a fantastic day. I feel so fortunate to be doing this with my best girl. Our guides are fantastic and the other people in the group so nice and in some cases hysterically funny. (I mean you Louise!😂) And what better way to get around than on a boat!