On day 3… well, let’s just say jet lag caught up with us, not so much Julie but she was more than willing to slow down.
In the morning we walked over to the main piazza in Amalfi. We had a cup of coffee, eggs, bacon and toast while we sat in the town square and watched the morning life in Italy pass us by. Our only main goal for the day was to find a market for a few staple items to have in our villa.
One thing I want to point out is that there are no fast food restaurants on the entire Amalfi Coast. No McDonald’s, chick-fil-a, etc… nothing… NADA. Do you want to know why? They just don’t need or want them here. The closest thing to fast food are small deli counters where you can pickup a panini or grab a slice of pizza. The patisserie could be considered fast food because you can grab a pastry and coffee but since the coffees are so small you can finish them in a couple sips, there’s no need to take it to go. We were successful in finding a market,, very small, half the size of an American party store. From there we just sat on our balcony, staring out over the Mediterranean Sea. I might have even dozed off for a few minutes.
My stomach seemed a little uneasy so I went with a simple panini for lunch. I have to admit that while the prosciutto was tasty, there wasn’t much meat on it but it did have a nice hunk of fresh mozzarella. For dinner we found this very small restaurant. The Nona greeting us spoke no English so we made our order very simply. I had rigatoni bolognese and Julie had gnocchi. Both were tasty but the best part of the meal was the dessert, a cream puff smothered in a chocolate fudge. Inside the cream puff was the best whipped cream I’ve ever had, it was almost like ice cream. Of course Julie said she didn’t want any dessert, but we ended fighting over the last bite. Next time I’m ordering two. Since we had a full day scheduled for Friday, we both decided to call it an early night.
Friday morning, bright and early, we met up with a tour guide named Gennaro. He was taking us on a four mile hike called, Sentiero Degli Dei, Path of the Gods. It’s a cliff top trail that runs between Bomerano and Positano. The trail is about halfway up Mount Sant'Angelo a Tre Pizzi, around 1,640 feet above sea level.
The hike took us about 4.5hrs and we were able to visit a shepherd friend of Gennaro along the way. The shepherd invited us into his house which was very rustic. He was very hospitable, offering us wine and his special tomatoes. The tomatoes, which I’ve included a picture of, were picked last July but were still fresh and tasty. When the tomatoes are planted they can only be watered for the first two days and must grow in very dry soil. He usually has cheese as well, but unfortunately he didn’t have any for us to sample, as it is all sold to be used in an Easter ritual. He was also very proud of his pizza oven and claimed that it made the best pizza in all of Amalfi.
The pictures I’ve included of the hike are all at points where the hike was at a relatively easy phase. There were other parts where we needed to use all of our concentration, watching our step was required. It was actually moderate in difficulty but there were sections where you had to be extremely careful.
The hike ended in Positano so we took advantage of our time there and had lunch by the beach. In total, we had walked 24,000 steps, around 10 miles… it made my dinner taste even better.
What was dinner you may ask? Well let me show you…
Linguine al limone, it was our first time ever having it. Yes, just like it sounds, linguine with a lemon sauce. Molto Buono! Julie went with an old classic, linguine with marinara and parmesan. Our appetizer was bruschetta and my dessert was what seemed to be a giant, homemade ferrero rocher. Wasn’t quite as good as the chocolate covered cream puff but still, I didn’t learn and had to fight Julie for the last bite. Next time, I’m ordering two.