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!

Capri🩵🩵🩵

Wow Capri did not disappoint. I have heard so much about it over the years and luckily the weather was perfect today to make our trip there for the day. Did I mention the traffic is crazy here on the Amalfi coast? Well it seems everyone was trying to get to Capri today but apparently that’s just how it is all the time May to October with increased crowds in the summer. It took almost an hour to get to Sorrento and then a massive amount of people getting on various boats and ferries to Capri. We had tickets for a hydrofoil which was a bit bumpy but got us there in about 30 minutes. That’s our boat behind Keeley.

Capri is glitzy so normal taxis just won’t do. This is what we rode in from the marina to the town square.

Automobiles, vans, small trucks etc. are only allowed around town and not in the town. Capri is super hilly so lots of stairs and no getting around that. The taxis get you at least part of the way up but then you’re on foot. The square is beautiful and there are many expensive shops and restaurants. Our goal was mainly to hike and see how truly beautiful the island is so we headed up to the Villa Jovis first. One for the amazing view, and two to see the famous ruins from the emperor Tiberius in 26-37 AD. Yesterday we saw the wild horses and today we saw wild goats. Did you know Capri means goat in Italian? Now you do!

The Villa Jovis at this point is mainly ruins, but you can pick out some of the spaces and see original brickwork and mosaic floors.

You can go a bit higher to a church and have a spectacular view of all the boats heading to Capri along with Mt Vesuvius and all the way to Naples.

As we were heading down and to our restaurant for lunch we could see amazing villas with gorgeous manicured gardens, lemon trees and beautiful flowers.

The restaurant was in such a gorgeous setting away from the square which is so crowded, built actually into the rock itself with an outdoor seating literally suspended in the air. And we were sitting at the best possible table for a fantastic view. It was my favorite meal so far of the trip. Eggplant Parmesan first course, roasted chicken with rosemary and potatoes for second coarse and a lemon pie for dessert. Magnificent!

My favorite traveling companion🩷

After lunch we took this challenging hike down more stairs than I could count and through some natural caves that monks lived in for years. If you look closely you can still see some of the drawings inside the caves.

So many stairs in fact that they actually had a defibrillator in case it was needed right on the trail! Thankfully we all did fine.

Everywhere you looked was so beautiful!

You don’t want to miss seeing the three famous rocks that are always in the pictures of Capri. They are called the Faraglioni Rocks and small boats take people through the opening I’m sure for a significant cost.

We ended up heading back to the main square and walking through a street of all designer stores. The Rodeo Drive of Capri.

Also some amazing hotels.

Good bye Capri! We had a fantastic time and it’s definitely worth a trip if you’re on the Amalfi coast.

Tomorrow we do the Path of the Gods. Fingers crossed the weather is pleasant and no rain🤞🏻Thanks for coming along🤗

Monte Faito

Today’s hike was up to Monte Faito where we were planning to hike around the upper trail with fantastic views of Sorrento and Mt Vesuvius. We drove up so many switchbacks and around curves where we were almost hanging off the side of the mountain. The driver did a great job honking his horn before approaching every blind curve as the road was pretty much one lane. So glad to have a driver! The views started out great.

But then some clouds rolled in off the water and our views were like this!

But on the bright side it never rained and the trail was so pretty. Not as rocky as yesterday and I never expected to see huge trees and a forest on the mountains above the coast here.

This area of trees is over 400 years old and big enough for Keeley to get inside. 😊

We hiked up to a church honoring St Michael the Archangel that had this beautiful statue with the two patron saints of the area.

While we didn’t get the views today we did get to see a few of the wild horses that live in the area and I have always been fascinated by wild horses so that was a bonus. They appeared to be bewildered by the clouds as well.

We had a late lunch up on the mountain at The Hotel Sant Angelo that was fantastic. A charcuterie plate for two, bruschetta with the most delicious tomatoes, Rigatoni Alla Genovese (the specialty of the area that we had in Naples that was so delicious) and tiramisu for dessert. Now that’s a lunch!

When we got back to Vico Keeley and I took a walk down to the local beach. Where they have beaches they are quite small compared to what we have in the US, but so pretty to look back at the towns from the water and see them perched what appears to be quite precariously on the cliffs. Oh and it was a mere 250 stone steps to get to the beach! That’s 250 down and then 250 up.

Back at our hotel we had a lovely aperitvo on the patio at our hotel that came with a bowl of these little crackers we see here - kind of like a small breadstick with a much better flavor. We are going to research and find some to bring back with us.

Dinner on our own tonight and after such a big lunch went didn’t want too much. Found this cute restaurant and shared some grilled veggies and a margarita pizza and lemon sorbet for dessert. We learned from our guides that a pizza here is meant for one person and not to be shared. Oops! Half a pizza is the perfect amount for us!

Such a great day. Tomorrow we are off to Capri! Arrivederci🤗

Vico Equense and Sorrento🍋🍋🍋

Just a quick update as we have met up with our hiking group and the trails are calling! The Amalfi coast does not disappoint and we have a nice group of 8 other people and 2 guides to help us navigate the heavy traffic and tricky roads. When time is precious sometimes it’s definitely worth it to pay for the services of the experts and we are finding that to be so true. We are going to get to see a lot but not have to worry about transportation because we aren’t the only ones trying to have memories of this gorgeous area.

Monday was mainly a travel day from Naples. Getting back to the airport to meet the group and get to our first home base in a sweet little town called Vico Equense. Had a chance to explore the town before the meeting covering specifics for the hike and dinner. The views are pretty spectacular!

Our first hike was from Nerano up a rocky trail with beautiful views and down to an organic farm close to the water.

We had a tour of the farm which was so interesting. They have olive trees and produce a delicious oil which we got to sample. It’s challenging to farm on the steep terraces but the quality of the produce is excellent. They have lemon trees and quite a nice selection of other vegetables. Can you see the artichokes on this plant? Also a small beach which we walked down to and got to touch the water for the first time. The Amalfi coast is mostly rocky cliffs and plateaus so beaches are in short supply and typically in nice weather packed.

We had a picnic lunch at the farm and then hiked back up and down to Nerano where our driver met us and took us to Sorrento. We had some time to get a gelato and browse a bit in that pretty but extremely crowded town. It’s not even the busiest season yet so I can’t imagine what it will be like in June! Sorrento has no beach at all - in fact there is only one small spot where you can even get close to the water. But they have figured out a solution. They have built a number of piers out into the water that you can access by purchasing entry for a chair. Ingenuity!

There is an old area in Sorrento as the town itself is over 2000 years old. The streets are very narrow filled with lots of shops selling tons of stuff with lemons on them because it’s what they are known for - amazing delicious lemons. But it was so crowded I didn’t even want to take my phone out so we took a quick walk through and then escaped to a wider less crazy street.

Not my best pictures but I will try to do better. It was overwhelming with the mass amount of people so while I’m happy we got to see a bit of it glad we were staying in a smaller town close by. We headed back to our hotel which is no easy feat with all the traffic on basically one two lane road along the coast linking the towns. Time for a shower and then a great dinner at a restaurant that serves delicious pizza by the meter!