Roma If You Want To: Amalfi Coasting

As if a week in Capri wasn’t enough of a vacation, I met my friend, my ‘wifey’ abroad, Marissa, at the train station in Naples and we set off for a girls-only week of traveling in the Amalfi Coast.

Our first stop was Sorrento, a quaint, tourist-friendly town built on top of the cliffs along the coast with streets full of shops to wander through. We had anticipated sunny, warm weather for sitting on the beach, but we were stuck with chilly, windy weather instead. Our hotel room had American TV shows (in English!), so we treated ourselves to some quality Jersey Shore and Bones while we waited for the sun to come out.

We moved from Sorrento to our next town, Positano, by way of a bus that swerved along a windy road that was more or less hanging off of the edge of the cliffs, barely wide enough for two cars to pass and full of nauseating, but nevertheless exciting, blind turns. Positano, a town famous for its picturesque-ness, was almost completely empty and closed up except for a few shops and restaurants, but the sun peeked out just enough for us to hang out on the beach and eat gelato for two days.

Marissa and I took another stomach-churning bus ride to Furore, where the bus dropped us off in the middle of no where (note: a very beautiful no where). We were staying at Hotel Fico d’India, a B&B that I picked out based on the pages of incredible reviews I read online that raved about the owner, Pino, and his abundant hospitality and good cooking. I called Pino from the bus stop and arrived in his car a minute later to drive us down the steep road to the B&B (which, we learned later from one of his many smiley, broken-english stories, was his childhood home). Once again, we had the place to ourselves, and we settled into our room while Pino battled the satellite TV. For dinner, Pino’s dad—we’re talkin’ real-deal Italian—cooked us a FEAST. We chatted in semi-spaztic ‘Itanglish’ with Pino while he brought out each plate: bruschetta with mozzarella, followed by homemade pasta with seafood, a plate with shrimp so big they tasted like lobster, and a fish, head and all, that Pino graciously de-gutted for us. He gave us wine and lemoncello and enough charming company to make us really miss him when we left.

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast with Pino, we bussed it to Amalfi which turned out to be a much smaller town that we had expected. Luckily, we had sunshine and warm weather that was perfect for lying on the beach. We spent our days lounging around, hanging out on the beach, and strolling up and down the only road in Amalfi. On our last day in Amalfi we hiked along a trail that lead through the valley past ruins of old mills and mountains covered in lemon trees.

We returned to Sorrento for our last day where we closed out our vacation with pedicures and a much-craved burger-and-fries dinner. When we returned to Rome, I realized that this city has truly become my ‘home away from home’, and I was happy to resume my daily routine of cappuccino and nutella-filled croissants at my favorite café...