Day 38 Buon compleanno Pietro

Today is Peter’s birthday and thankfully the day dawned bright if a little cloudy. It appears there is no damage from last night’s storm although the chairs on our balcony have been blown a few meters along and the cushions and table cloth are sopping. Inside just a few puddles on the tiled floor, so nothing that can’t be cleaned up with a little absorbent paper.

We have decided to spend the day on the Isle of Capri and drive down into Sorrento to park in the parking station and head to the port to catch the ferry.

A short walk from the parking stations brings us to the centre square and the very, very steep stairs down to the port. Our host had told us that this was a good time to visit Sorrento as many of the tourists have departed – all I can think is that I really wouldn’t want to be here in peak season as there are crowds of people in the square and walking both the main road and the little alleyways full of a wonderful variety of shops. The descent to the port is made safely and we join the very long queue for the ferry. The ferry is extremely comfortable and takes around 30 minutes to reach Capri with sensational scenery thrown in for free.

The first stop in Capri is a restaurant for coffee and to plan our day but we are sidetracked by the idea of a Limoncello Spritz – what choice do we have?

As the sea is looking rough we decide against a visit to the Blue Grotto and head up the hill to Ana Capri. This is a lovely town high up on the island. Once upon a time it was connected to the main port only by a set of steep stairs hewn into the rock. I am glad to say that now there is a well made if extremely narrow road up the hill. We lash out on a taxi to take us up and thoroughly enjoy the ride. The driver tries to sell us a personalised tour of the island with lunch at a “special” restaurant and a delivery back to our ferry in time for departure. At 150 Euro we say thanks, but no thanks and enjoy the rest of the ride.

We have some wonderful views on the way up both of the ocean and of some wonderful gardens and homes – it must be incredible to live on this island. The road is winding and includes a number of incredibly sharp hairpin bends – the way to negotiate the bends is to drive right onto the wrong side of the road, this is the only way the car can make the extremely sharp turn. Conveniently placed mirrors allow the driver to see if there is any traffic coming down, if there is we wait our turn, if not we go.

When we reach Ana Capri we walk through some of the many twisting, delightful alleyways. We are teased by glimpses through high wrought iron fences into lovely green gardens and occasionally whitewashed walls of villas. I think I would love to live here, perhaps a little B&B? But no, I could never drive these roads and you won’t catch me on a Vespa in this lifetime. We also walk past many, many enticing shops – beautiful, summery mediterranean coloured linen shirts and pants (just thinking of the ironing cures me of wanting any of this!!), but there are some

The floor in San Michele’s church. You can see Adam and Eve around halfway up on the right. Overall they don’t feature as much as some of the animals.

beautiful jewellery shops and I do love a bit of bling, unfortunately neither of my two companions is the least bit interested so no time to browse.
We arrive at the Church of San Michele now a monument but once a functioning church. The highlight of the building is the floor which dates from 1761 and is the work of Leonardo Chiaiese. It depicts the eviction of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. It is a vast tiled ‘painting’ which includes the devil as a serpent and a range of other animals. The floor is surrounded by a narrow wooden walkway – very ingenious! Around the church are a number of 18th century altars constructed of wood but which you would swear are marble. They are painted to look like marble and even have a marble-like sheen on them.

We also climb a narrow spiral staircase and are able to view the floor from above and take in just how spectacular it is.

Once back on solid ground we wander some more and then find a restaurant for lunch. Once that ‘chore’ is out of the way we realise that it is almost time to go and catch our ferry, so another taxi down the hill and we board the ferry about two minutes before it leaves.

We arrive back at port and head for the lift which will take us back up the incredibly steep cliffs. On the way we have another insight into Italian beach life. Sorrento is not blessed with long sandy beaches but they have come up with an ingenious solution. Long piers have been built with ladders leading down into the water. The piers are packed – hardly any space is left empty and the sun bakers are all positioned to take advantage of the afternoon sun.

The blue things in the water are floating sunbeams – they were all vacant so not sure if they were for hire or just not popular.

We retrieve our car from the parking garage and safely back at home we get all dressed up ready to head out for Peter’s birthday dinner. He has chosen Inn Bufalito, a restaurant famed for its use of buffalo mozzarella and one that receives great reviews on TripAdvisor.

Our taxi driver either doesn’t know where we are going or can’t be bothered to drive the distance (fixed price rate) and drops us not at the restaurant but at their outlet shop. The kind shop assistants set us on the correct path and we arrive in time for our 7:30pm booking.

Once seated we realise that this is the very same restaurant we ate in on our previous visit a couple of years ago. The meal is lovely and the waitstaff extremely pleasant and helpful. I surreptitiously spoke to one of the staff to see if they had compleano candle (birthday candles) and they did. When Peter’s cheese platter arrives one of the waiters turns down the lights and another delivers a piece of the most sumptuous chocolate tart topped with a candle to our table. The waiters and many of the people in the restaurant sing happy birthday – a great end to a lovely meal.

After dinner we walked back to the main square to find a taxi to take us home. This turns out to be a small adventure as we are not exactly sure of the way and he speaks no English.
We tell him the address and he consults with the other drivers, obviously with success as he returns and starts the car. We are comforted to see some familiar landmarks – everything looks different in the dark. Peter translates ‘keep going this way’ on his phone and we eventually arrive home safe and sound.

Day 37 Cisternino to Sorrento

Up early today as we have a four and a half hour drive to Sorrento. We enter our address into TomTom and off we go, only to realise that the route is not taking us in the direction we want to go. Rather than via Taranto and along the coast it is taking us back to Bari – retracing much of our journey down from Pescara. So a quick adjustment to TomTom and we retrace our steps for about 6 kilometres and are then heading in the right direction.

We drive right through the centre of Maria Franca a large town and one which we discover is Trullo central! Even one of the petrol stations is built into a Trullo- they are everywhere and mostly renovated and in great condition.

We arrive at Taranto to discover it is not a small
seaside town but a huge and very busy port – as we leave Taranto we see we are heading onto the route to Calabria. Uh oh! Isn’t that the dangerous part of Italy? I’ve read The Godfather. Before we get too close to the action we head north and away from danger and our drive takes us through some (yes, more) beautiful mountain

Narrow streets present a few heart stopping close calls.

scenery where my craving for castles, fortresses and mountain scenery is well satisfied. We have arranged to phone our host in Sorrento one hour before we arrive and we attempt to do this but for some unknown reason the number isn’t working. We are now on the Amalfi Coast road and the traffic is becoming interesting to say the least. Our phone rings and it is Vanna, our host. We arrange to meet her at the local supermarket as the road to the apartment is “difficult”. TomTom tells us that we have 7 kilometres to go but that it will take 44 minutes. What? That can’t be right. In the next couple of minutes we see why it is going to take that long. We have started to descend the mountain side on a narrow – very, very narrow – road and the traffic is almost at a standstill.

Amalfi ‘car park’ – a very slow descent. TomTom was correct in the predicted timing.

The reason for this is that there are hundreds of vehicles including school buses, tourist buses, delivery vans and tourists like us. The road is so narrow that when the school bus stops to let children off everyone behind stops as well. There is no opportunity to pass the bus as the stream of traffic coming up the hill is endless. The only people getting through are those on scooters or motor bikes – and there are plenty of them.

We continue down the hill and see Sorrento spread out before us, the advantage of the slow traffic is that even Peter has chance to look at the views.

IMG_2623 (1).jpg — The view from the road to Sorrento

Eventually we track down Vanna, or rather she tracks us down and we head up to our apartameno. To say we are pleased is an understatement. It is a lovely two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with a large living area, small kitchen and a balcony with views to die for. After we recover from the view we unpack and settle in. The supermarket doesn’t open until 4:00pm so we laze around until it is time to shop for dinner. We are eating in tonight and plan to head to the Isle of Capri tomorrow.

Tonight we relax on the balcony drinking in the almost unbelievable views – it feels like sitting on top of the world and reminds us of a miniature world laid out below us. We are treated to a beautiful sunset for the first of our three nights in Sorrento. We watch the sun go down, then the lights come on and then later the moon rise. It really is time for bed but so hard to tear ourselves away from this incredible panorama laid out below us. Just to make it harder to go to bed a spectacular lightening show begins across the bay in the sky above Naples we make a number of fruitless attempts to catch the lightening on our cameras.

What we didn’t appreciate is that the spectacular show was heading our way! Around 1:00am we were awoken by thunderclaps directly overhead, lightening, lashing rain and howling wind. Oh no! We had left the windows open on the balcony and in our bedroom. We leapt up and shut windows and shutters – quite a challenge when pulling against the almost cyclonic winds.

The lights come on. You can see the road we drove down in the centre of the picture – on the bare hill sloping down from left to right – traced by the line of headlights.

Cisternino memories – a long P.S.

The phrase ‘There are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet’ has kept coming into my mind during this trip. I have always thought it as overly sentimental and probably not true. Now that our trip is drawing to an end I have to confess that my attitude has changed radically. I am so grateful for all the new people we have met, some we probably will never see again, but some maybe we will. We have had so many laughs and made warm and happy connections with people we are only able to communicate with in basic English and basic Italian and with the assistance of the translate app on Peter’s phone. I feel so lucky to have had this opportunity travel through Europe, reconnect with special friends in Sweden and then meet a whole range of new people from many different countries. It is true that travel broadens the mind, I think it also shows us that there is more than one way to live your life, more than one set of values that are important and more than one culture that is worth respecting. I feel blessed to live in Australia, but also blessed to have had the chance to spend time in some many historical towns and villages and so many incredibly beautiful places. And so, I think it is true that there are no strangers – only friends we haven’t met yet.

i want to offer some photos of our time in Cisternino that didn’t make it into the blog, but that I love and will always bring back great memories for me.

The view from our lunch restaurant in Santa Maria di Leuca

Day 36 Down at heel in Italy

Our consultation about today’s activity ended up with us taking the decision to visit the very tip of Italy’s heel. The destination was Santa Maria dei Leuca and we weren’t sure what we would find but thought it was worth going to have a look. What we did find was another lovely, ancient Italian town although the beaches were a little disappointing, much rockier than yesterday’s lovely beach.

But, hey the sun was shining, the water was crystal clear and there were lots of little fish to watch and of course we ticked off another ocean with this swim in the Ionian Sea making the a trifecta with the Adriatic and the Gulf of Tarantino yesterday.

Today we proved just how Italiano we have become by hiring an umbrella and two sun beds on the beach. Jim decided he wasn’t up for a swim today so remained in the bar under the shade but still with a stunning view of the sea.

We swam for quite a while and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, Peter decided to go and assist Jim with destocking Italy of Nastro Azzuro ( Blue Ribbon beer) while I made like an Italian and lay in the sun for a while. After such an energetic morning it was time for lunch and we made our way up to the restaurant for a sumptuous lunch. Our waitress was lovely and

extremely helpful in guiding our choices, Peter opted for the seafood fritto misto, Jim for some Sicilian prawns and at Peter and Jim’s urging I had the lobster pasta which was sensational. My plate held the two halves of a medium sized lobster and a lovely mound of pasta mixed with cherry tomatoes and pieces of lobster.

A short walk around town was in order to work off some lunch. We have noticed that at times Italy is quite conservative but at others incredibly forward thinking – solar powered street lights are a great example of the latter. But today, I think I found the best example yet. Electric votive candles! You pay your .50 Euro and the push one of the little push buttons at the front of the panel and one of the unlit candles lights up.

A quick stop at the supermarket to organise dinner and a very delicious appetiser.

This was to be our last night in Cisternino and I think we will all be sad to leave our quaint little house and the beautiful, peaceful countryside which surrounds it. The country around us has acres and acres of olive trees, some of which look to be very old. All the olive fields are surrounded by dry stone walls – kilometres and kilometres of them.