We had the privilege and honor of our first visitor from the States this past week. Our friend, and Jesslyn's former RPI and then brief Boston roommate, Maureen (AKA “Mo”), spent time with us in Minori and Rome. It was great to see her and to have another travel companion, thank you Mo! After meeting us at the airport in Rome, the three of us hopped in our rented Fiat Panda, and headed for Minori.
There is a small peninsula that juts out from Italy near the front of the top of the “ankle”. Sorrento is near the tip, and it points to the island of Capri is just a few miles away. Along the bottom of this peninsula stretching from Positano almost to Salerno is the Amalfi coast. It has an extremely steep coastline, with a several small towns along the water and some perched high above the sea just inland. The hills are, terraced where possible and traversed by stone steps connecting the hilltop towns with the ones next to the sea. Positano is the most well known of the sea-side towns, and Ravello is a fairly well known town atop the hill. The Amalfi Drive is a road carved into the hill running along the water. I imagine there are some stunning views from this road, however, I didn’t dare to take my eyes off the road for a second. Jesslyn and Mo might have been able to appreciate the view, but they had their eyes closed as they prayed we didn’t have a head on collision with one of the buses flying around the many blind curves.
We stayed in Minori, a tiny town at the midpoint of Amalfi. It is very quiet and has relatively few tourists compared to Positano. We had a nice, relaxing time. We hiked between towns, visited all the local markets, bakeries, pasta shops, and butchers to gather ingredients with which to cook. The proprietor of their favorite pastry shop now know Jesslyn and Mo by name as the flaky Italian pastry called sfogliatella became one of our food groups. This area is also known for its enormous sfusato lemons which are put to good use in the pastry, the pasta, and the liquor.
The view of Positano from our hike...
We spent the better part of a day at Pompeii, the city left preserved by the ash of Mt. Vesuvius when it erupted in 79 AD. Going there, I knew it was well preserved, but what I didn’t expect was the size. You can visit essentially the entire city which is estimated to have been about 11,000 strong at the time of its destruction. Just like in most Roman settlements, in addition to the homes, there is a forum, a public bath, an aqueduct, and an amphitheater.
After Minori, we headed to Rome, which deserves its own post, so I will just briefly describe my first impressions and share the most drama we’ve had on this trip so far (that’s where the explicit language is). It isn’t quite what I expected, which was chaos, traffic, tacky tourist traps, and crime. I didn’t expect to like it. I was wrong. Rome is great. I am sure this is partly due to having lived in New York for the past 3 years, so even if it is those things I thought it would be, it wouldn’t seem so bad by comparison. I think I also like it because we are staying in a neighborhood called Trastevere, which feels like the “Brooklyn” of Rome. There aren’t as many tourists, and it has a lot of cool bars and restaurants with a lot of friendly locals. I like Rome, but despise a couple of Romans...
The day before we were to say goodbye to Mo, Jesslyn’s mom, Deb, and her friend Jim joined us in Rome. We were so excited to see them and meet them at the small, local train station in Trastevere. Just after the hugs of our initial greeting, a stranger approached with a map in hand, pointing at the electronic board with arrivals and departures, and seemed to be asking a question, but in another language. We tried to help, but didn’t know what he was saying, so we said sorry and resumed our greetings. At that point, Jim noticed his backpack was gone. He had his back turned for no more than 30 seconds. WTF. It was obviously a team, with the first guy diverting our attention. Several of us ran in different directions looking for the suspect or bag, but we were right next to the exit, and we didn’t even see the person who took it so didn’t know what he (or she) looked like. Jim did a quick mental inventory of the contents of the bag and realized some vital medication was in there. F*ck. We popped into the pharmacy we happened to be standing in front of on the off chance this medication didn’t require a prescription in Italy. No luck there, but as we came out, a young guy told us the backpack was in the parking lot, pointed, and said “junkies” making the needle to the arm gesture. That guy may have been in on it too, but we’re not sure. We ran over and there was the bag, on the ground between the parked cars. The only thing missing was his Bose headphones, not cheap, but non-vital and replaceable. Medication was there. Thank God. Luckily, this has been the only incident like this on our 3+ months of traveling. You hear about pick pockets and purse snatchers all the time and usually have your guard up. However, it is so easy to let your guard down after not having any problems for so long, especially at this station which is not crowded, and is well off the beaten tourist path. It really sucks and makes me angry. I wish it happened to me, and not our guests (OK, they aren’t really guests, but we feel some responsibility for them). But I am glad that we learned this lesson at the expense of some expensive headphones, and not the loss of medication, passports, driver’s license, or credit cards.
More to come on Rome, but for now, we are heading to Positano with Deb and Jim!
- Jake