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.