Day 8 - Goodbye Tuscany, Hello Amalfi Coast

Day 8 - August 29, 2019

On our last morning at Salvadonica in Tuscany we awoke early to get our packing completed before breakfast. When we felt like we were packed and ready we went down to the hotel restaurant and had our final buffet breakfast.

Then we packed up the Renault rental car and hit the road North to Florence (Firenze) to drop off the rental car and catch the train.

We had to drop the car off at the Hertz lot outside of the city center. We quickly dropped off the car and asked the attendant to call a taxi for us. In 2 minutes a car pulled up. She didn't speak english but we managed to come to an understanding that we wanted to go to the train station.

We drove through downtown Florence a bit winding around and around until we were able to enter the train station parking lot. We paid our taxi and went inside. This place was pretty busy and it was hot and stuffy as well. We found a spot outside in a courtyard to sit and wait.

While we were waiting I went off on a hunt for some local pizza. I found a place that sounded good and said it was open on Google. I ran over there and while they were technically open, they were not serving food. Boo. So I looked up other options and went over to a restaurant that said they had pizza.  The name of this place was La Grotta Di Leo Srl. They looked closed as well but I went in and asked about pizza. The lady had words with the cooks and a moment later she said yes and they started making our dough from scratch. I ordered 2 margherita pizzas. It came to something like $12 Euros. With pizza in hand I headed back to Deanna. We enjoyed one of them and saved the other for the train to Naples (Napoli).

When the train pulled up we made our way onto the platform and found our seats. We bought the club seats which were pretty lush and included beverages, snacks and a light lunch. We even got a mini bottle of Prosecco each. It was just as good as some airplanes. At no point in the boarding process did anyone check or confirm our tickets.

The train we were on was traveling around 155mph/250kmph and the trip to Naples took around 3 hours. We prebooked a private car to meet us in Naples to take us the rest of the way to Praiano. We used Italy Limousine, which cost 130 Euros from Naples to Praiano. We originally planned to go on the hunt for some pizza in Naples but decided that the window of opportunity was a bit tight with our arrival and our car pickup service. So we hung out in the train station until Lorenzo our driver showed up. He had a really nice black van and we got to enjoy it all to ourselves.

On our drive out of Naples we got to see a bit of how the city looked. It isn't a very nice looking place overall. The streets are full of potholes, construction and the buildings mostly look rundown. It reminded me of apartment buildings on the outskirts of resort towns in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. We continued South through Pompeii and alongside Mt. Vesuvius. The mountain is really big and scary looking when you start to realize how big it was before it blew up and also how far and wide it's destruction path was. Pompeii and the surrounding towns didn't improve much over how Naples looked, but we only got to see this from the expressway so our judgments may not be so accurate.

We began to enter the coastal areas and could now see Capri off in the distance in the ocean. We started to go through more winding and narrow cliffside roads and I was glad to not be the one driving anymore. These roads are not for the timid. Almost nobody was using their breaks, but they kept the flow going and just swerved one way or the next to let cars pass or go around someone in the middle of the road. It was quite impressive to watch. Once we got up into the Sorrento hills and over to Positano it got even more sketchy on the roads. Some areas were so tight only one car seemed to be able to get through but somehow two cars made it going each direction at many of these narrow spots. These roads were built in the 1800s, so it's amazing they are still standing. I took some video, but it still doesn't really show the extreme narrowness of these cliffside roads.

Our driver wound along the cliff's edge and we got to look out and take in the sunset and seaside views of Positano and then Praiano. Praiano is where we are staying. On the drive over I used WhatsApp to communicate with the rental manager of our AirBNB who would give us the key. She had us meet her at a cafe in the town of Praiano near the property. Our AirBNB. We paid our driver and met with her and she walked us down a short path to our house. After a brief tour she was on her way and we were finally in PRAIANO!

The views from our balcony are breathtaking and the overall vibe is amazing. She recommended a restaurant up the hill from our place so we decided we'd try that. It is called La Moressa. I texted them on WhatsApp as well and nobody responded so we just headed up without reservations. When we walked up they asked if I had reservations and I said no so they sat us on the inside seating area not overlooking the water. Bummer!

Then I looked at my phone and saw that the person I texted did respond and said they did have space for 2 at 8pm. I texted him back and said that we just sat down on the inside. They came over and asked if we'd like to move and we did. So we moved over to the cool side of the restaurant with views over the edge of the cliff to the ocean.

For dinner Deanna had the potato croquette with burrata cheese and the fresh fish. I had the octopus and a mixed fried seafood platter. We had a bottle of wine and I grabbed a affogato on the way out, which is gelato with espresso poured over.

We are happy to be in Praiano finally.

That is the end of Day 8.

Full Pictures linked here.

Day 9 - Caprese, Steps and Floating in the Ocean

Our first morning in Praiano we decided it was time for sleeping in a bit to catch up from the rushed few days before. So we took it slow and then went to the local market to buy some groceries. We found some really good looking fresh ingredients and other stuff and brought that back to make our own breakfast.

We made a caprese salad out of cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, olive oil and our Leonardi balsamic vinegar. We had that along with a fresh loaf of focaccia we bought. We found a jar of ground coffee in the house and a regular drip brewer, so we made some coffee to go along with it. What a great tasting breakfast.

After breakfast we got our things ready for a day trip to the beach. We packed up a backpack and took the walk from our house down to Marina di Praia. This is the local beach in Praiano.

To get to Marina di Praia from our place it is about a 20 minute walk. It could be faster or slower depending on your physical conditioning and tolerance for being hot and sweaty. The walk from our place begins down a long steadily descending pathway that is adorned by ceramic artwork by "Bob Art". The art is nice to look at to distract your mind and body from the walk that you are embarking on. Our walk takes us to a dead end that goes up or down. From that point we went down a flight of stairs to another long path that continues to descend. Then we hang a right at the water fountain outside of Bob Art's compound near the chirping birds and goldfish pond mounted in the wall. Down another flight of stairs we descend. This stairway leads us to a main thoroughfare of cars and motorcycles. We then would walk along the busy road with no real sidewalk as cars, busses and scooters speed by. Occasionally we would step up on a tiny curb to make space for wider vehicles. After a short walk on this road we hit another stairwell leading down to the beach and start down those stairs. After that climb we are on another descending concrete path. This one descends at an even greater pace than the ones before. The view from there is exquisite and you can stop to catch your breath and enjoy the ocean view and boats below. As we wound our way down the path we would go through a restaurant's outdoor dining area and above another one along the ocean edge. Then our final section takes us along the the cliff above the water's edge. As we approach the beach we walked under a cutout portion of stone that was so low that I had to duck to pass through. My guess is that it's 6' tall at its lowest point.

When you arrive at the marina you can rent out chairs for the day or find some open space on the rock covered beach. This beach is covered in small to large pebbles that do not feel great to walk on. We did our research and brought water shoes. Not many people did that, but we felt like pros when we put ours on. Even with them on it's still a little uncomfortable to walk on. On this first day at the beach we opted for setting our tiny park blanket down and not paying for chairs. We set up shop close to the water but just far away enough to where we felt our stuff would not get wet.

The crowd was pretty mellow and we got to have some really nice and peaceful moments out in the ocean. There weren't too many kids since it was a Friday. The water was in the 70s and felt great. When we took breaks from swimming I would head up to the Bar Mare and pick us up a couple Aperol Spritz cocktails. These are my new favorite drink when trying to have something refreshing on a Summer day. We soaked a few times and floated around on our backs, enjoying the buoyancy of the salt water helping us float.

The overall water here feels very clean and refreshing. It's comfortable and safe and definitely worth the trip to this beach. We loved it.

After we were done swimming we chose to have a snack at the Bar Mare restaurant, which turned out to be a bit more filling than we expected. We ordered Limoncello Spritz drinks. I had a mixed seafood boil with mussels, shrimp and clams in a tomato broth. Deanna ordered a caprese panini and we both shared some fried risotto balls with cheese in them. All the food here was pretty good and the lady serving us drinks all day was very nice and helpful.

We then took the long walk up the hill, which probably takes about 20-30 minutes when going up. By the time we returned to our house we were both dripping in sweat and exhausted. Thankfully the air conditioning of our house was waiting for us and hit us like a blast from a walk in freezer. "AHHHHH".

After relaxing a while neither of us were hungry enough to go back out to a full dinner. So we decided to just have some snacks and I went and picked up a carton of gelato from the nearby market.

That is the end of Day 9.

Full Pictures linked here.