Amalfi Coast

The train ride from Roma Termini to Naples Centrale station was about an hour long. We left Rome in the morning so that we would have enough travel time to get through the mountains and onto the coast. Once in Naples, we negotiated a taxi to take us to the coast. Our taxi driver spoke no English and was not familiar with that drive. Oh boy!

Two hours and a few wrong turns later (including asking a random lady walking on the road for directions), we arrived at Locanda Costa Diva Hotel in Praiano. It was a really cute, small hotel. Little did we know, all the rooms in the hotel had a balcony view of the Mediterranean. There was also a restaurant and lemon farm/orchard/grove/trees on the property. This place was paradise, just like all those pictures I have ever seen of the Amalfi coast. We grabbed a quick bite to eat on property and took in the fresh sea air on our balcony.

For dinner, we chose from a handful of restaurants that were open during the shoulder season. We asked the front desk staff for a taxi. They arranged a ride for us. As we waited for our ride in the hotel parking lot, we watched cars zooming through the tight mountain-side road and a fire burning on the hill just above us. Eventually, a van pulled up and we were told to get in. Within a few minutes, we arrived at the restaurant., La Moressa. There were only a few other guests dining at the quaint restaurant.

We started the meal off with small starter plates (that were more the size of an entree): proscuitto wrapped melon and octopus with polenta. I was already full off of the octopus, luckily my pasta dish that followed wasn’t as large. Ben got his new favorite fish, branzino. Deanna had her first southern Italian pizza. Of all our delicious plates, the pizza was hands down THE BEST. We finished our meal with some local limoncello. By this point, limoncello was starting to grow on me. It did not seem as strong and overpowering anymore.

During the meal, we happened to notice our van driver had thrown on an apron and was now serving tables. When we were leaving his twin brother announced that he would be taking us back to our hotel. We walked down a hill towards a small market. Along the way, he tried the handle of a couple of cars until he found one that was unlocked. We all got in and he drove us home. Weird! This was definitely a family-run business where the locals all know and trust each other.

The next day, we had a private car take us to Positano. We spent the day hanging out on the beach and walking through the little shops. The beach was barely crowded and lacked the colorful umbrellas and beach chairs that I have always seen in pictures of Positano.

For lunch, I did not want to eat along the beach because I felt like they would be tourist traps. We found a restaurant at the top of the hill and made out way up the millions of steps. Deanna was starting to fall behind, so Ben gave her a piggyback ride. Once we got to the top of the hill, we found out the restaurant was closed for renovations, as were all the other restaurants around there. The only restaurants that were opened were the ones back down on the beach. This is when we learned and understood the meaning of low/shoulder season. Restaurants and hotels typically shut down during the low season for renovations.

We trudged back down to the beach and ate at Chez Black. The restaurant opens up to the beach with beautiful view of the water. While we enjoyed some refreshing beverages, we noticed that there were a lot of pictures of celebrities that have dined at this restaurant. It turned out to be a good choice and not a complete tourist trap. Everything on the menu sounded amazing. The waiter warned us that we were ordering quite a bit of food. It is not everyday we get to eat fresh Mediterranean seafood, so we ignored his warning. We started off with a giant plate of octopus and head-on prawns that melted in your mouth. Deanna got her spaghetti Bolognese, Ben got a whole lobster, and I got the sea urchin pasta. We took our time enjoying drinks and polishing off our plates.

After we had our fill of seafood and browsing the seaside shops, we headed back to our hotel to relax and enjoy the views. Back at the hotel, we arranged for a private car back to Naples and inquired about staying another night, but they were booked.

For our last dinner, we ate at a tiny restaurant in on the beach called Trattoria Da Armandino. I do not remember much about this place except that we got some really good lemon-parmesan risotto. We called it an early night since we would have a lot of traveling to do the next day.

On our way back to Naples, our driver stopped in Pompeii so that we could explore the ruins for a couple of hours. It was surreal walking through the ruins. Deanna had a blast running and tumbling through the ruins. After the brief tromp through history, we wound our way back to Naples.

Itinerary (click the itinerary links below to view posts):

• JFK
• CDG
• LIN
• Venice
• Florence
• Rome
• Amalfi Coast
• Lake Como