Amalfi coast: a guard dog and a HUGE dinner

Tuesday April 8th.

Today we woke up to a heavy, dense fog that descended over Bomerano in the early morning. Oh no! Well, we sat and ate our breakfast (note, it was the only hotel that offered an entire breakfast tea station- those Brits!) and they had a boiled egg station as well (Brits again!) with handmade ceramic egg cups. While I despise black tea at breakfast with every fiber of my being (coffee it most certainly is not), I was thrilled about the eggs because this was the first spot that gave us the opportunity to have some protein at breakfast.

We decided to see how long we could wait it out before the fog would lift… or would it?

The place where we had lunch yesterday had amazing smelling coffee so on our way to the town square we stopped for cappuccinos.

Then we sat in the square. A huge group of Italian high schoolers got out of a bus, they were doing the same hike we were! It's called The Walk of the Gods (cue dramatic music), and it's super popular.

A dog came and found us while we were sitting on the square and he guarded us well, he was so awesome I wanted to keep him:

There are lots of stray dogs and cats in the area. It is kind of a problem.

But some of the dogs are such guard dogs that it's hard not to love them. This guy kept us company all while we waited for the fog to lift. Keeping watch. Making sure the Italian teenagers didn't bother us too much.

Eventually, the clouds weren't really showing any signs of lifting, so we decided at least to leave the town square, but we waited until well after the huge group of Italian teenagers had left.

Then we hiked the sentiero deli dei (walk of the gods), which went through Nocelle, the village where we were staying the night after.


The walk of the gods was great. We ended up hiking that path about 4 times! It was peaceful, had amazing sea views, and it was steep but not impossibly so. The view of the mountains was great:

It was probably a little easier than our hike on Sunday. Max hung back and read his book, hoping that more of the clouds would go away. I hiked ahead because didn't mind the clouds. I bumped into the huge Italian teenager crowd.


Oh my goodness, y'all. The girls wore sequined black shirts and leggings, had huge designer purses and clutched iPads in their manicured hands WHILE HIKING. I felt like I was galumphing behind them (and I was) in my trail appropriate boots, hiking pants and waterproof Marmot jacket (which I love!) If there's someone who knows how to sacrifice style, it's me:

Yes, that's me. After we arrived in Nocelle. 

Eventually the trail gave way to the town of Nocelle. Steps began to appear and a paved walkway between the cliff and a wooden fence was pleasant after the up-and-down of the trail. A little wooden sign appeared "Sentiero degli dei (walk of the gods) snack shop"
Sure enough, a Nocelle man had a little stand with sprite, coke, local lemonade soda and wine/beer. I think lemon ices as well. He manned the shop and talked with his friends. There was a little patio with smooth wooden beams overhead and vines crawling over them where people could sit and look at the ocean. Positano was starting to become visible down below and further along the coast.

Max caught up with me right before the snack shop, and we meandered down the "streets" of Nocelle, walked past our next B&B and the town square. It was tiny, only 20 feet across and had a big olive tree in the middle which shaded the cement benches. The stucco wall that jutted out from the only building was large and white with a painting of padre Pio on it:

We decided to keep going, because the one and only restaurant in Nocelle was closed for maintenance before the tourist season started. We learned that it would open the following week. Needing lunch, we pushed on via a step path on the cliffside over to the next village called Montepertuso, which also hovered above Positano.

We saw two restaurants while walking on the road, one called La Terra and the other La Tagliata (la Tagliata is beef steak sliced thinly and grilled, it is sort of a specialty here). We opted for La Terra and it was lovely:

We were there early-ish, so I got a good photo of the place

After a nice relaxing and bright sunny lunch (the grandmother of the owner came over and spoke with us, saying that she had been to Boston before) we walked along the road a little more. We decided to take the bus down to Positano instead of going the steep path down on the annoying/narrow road. Whenever a car comes around the corner your life flashes before your eyes, no joke.

So we waited in Montepertuso for the bus. On a lot of our hiking/walking trips, Max and I have spent an inordinate amount of time wondering if the bus will ever come. Like... are we standing in the right spot? is that north? what is that cluster of people waiting for? And so on. This trip we have the added experience of wondering which boat is ours, did they give us the right dock number (the answer is no, no they didn't) the ship is running late, etc.


In Montepertuso, at least, we knew we were standing in front of the bus stop, but who knew if we could buy tickets on the bus or not.

A couple wandered up to us. "Parlez-vous Français?" I was asked. "Un peu" I replied. I gave them the directions they wanted. Second time my limited knowledge of French came in handy on this trip. Not a bad thing.

The bus finally came. Normally in Italy (or this part of Italy) you buy your bus tickets ahead of time from tobacco shops (Tabacchi, always with a big sign out front bearing a 'T') or at the bar (cafe) nearest to the bus stop. It is strange, but every so often the driver will let you buy tickets on the bus.

The twisting and winding road down to Positano was an experience! We landed in Positano at around 4pm. Already I was missing the mountain village. Positano is touristy, expensive, and full of shops with the kind of ugly artwork that only rich people buy.  

But I wouldn't want to paint an unsavory picture of the town. The town itself has a lot of character and merit and is beautiful. Darn you, Positano, for playing with my emotions so much! On the one hand, the expensive-just-because-we-can-and-you're-tourists got to me, but on the other it was just so heart-achingly beautiful I didn't know what to think about it, truly. 

Because this is Positano, on a later / sunnier day: 

Positano is the linen spot of this coastline. Of course you can buy the linens, lemons, and brightly painted pottery/ceramics anywhere. But it is mainly in Positano that the linens are made, so there were more shops here. Ravello had more ceramics. Sorrento had more lemons. There was actually even a lace makers shop in Positano as well, which was cool.

The church in Positano was gorgeous, on the sea:

We then got our bus tickets and boarded the bus that would bring us back to Praiano, where we were staying that evening at Locanda Costa Diva, and we took these photos at dusk right before eating dinner:

It was very close to the water, and had a long terraced garden area with the restaurant nestled under a bunch of overhanging wisteria. 

Olive trees, with lemons growing next to them

Our room had nice tiles on the floor and in the bathroom, and outside our door (above it in an alcove) there were 4 blessed Virgin Mary statues 

We ate at the restaurant, and had anchovies, scialatelle pasta, and fish. The house white wine came in a ceramic pitcher. At the end of the meal they brought limoncello and espresso and we felt so full that we opted out of dessert.


The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel Costa Diva, and then checked out. It is nice when they give you a discount for paying in cash.

We split up on this day because I really needed to do laundry. I only brought 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts and a dress. (In fact, at our later hotel in Capri, the owner Ettore carried my backpack into the room for me and was like "so light! This is nothing, wow!" I felt very proud.)

By this time, Max was almost out of clean socks and the laundry just really needed to be done. So he decided to do the Walk of the Gods again and I walked up above the village of Praiano to the self service laundromat. When I walked in, there was a girl working in there. She asked me if I wanted her to do it, 'i am more than capable of putting clothes in and pressing "start" by myself' I thought. The whole operation cost 12 euro. Not as bad as sending your laundry off to someone or dry cleaning it, so it was all good to me. I piled everything in and set my phone timer to come back at 11am and went for a walk.

I went in to the local pharmacy and checked out products because I'm a label person and I could read labels forever. I love figuring out the different names for things in Europe. My favorite of all time is the French for "wheat flour" that you see on ingredients labels: farine de blé ---- I always think of a French person saying it with emphasis on the "blehhhhhh" part. Farine de bleeehhhh. Lol. It takes very little to make me laugh, I know.

Anyway, I walked further along and went down to a tiny corner store and bought a snack. Then I walked back up to the laundromat and finished it all up. I chatted with the girl working there and asked if she wanted some of my snack. She said no because she doesn't like spicy things. She said she is from Montepertuso, the town next door to Nocelle where we ate lunch.

The laundry was finished (I noticed someone forgot a sock. Someone always does. I wish I knew why socks are so lose-able).

I hiked back down to Praiano to take the bus to Positano. Then I would hike up and take the bus to Nocelle. Once I landed in Positano I realized that I skipped breakfast and my snack was not enough to sustain me. So I went to one of the restaurants on the beach.

Afterwards, the fog in the mountains was so thick that as the bus drove higher and higher up we lost sight of everything completely and could hardly see the next car in front of us. This isn't a huge problem since the bus and cars honk at the turns anyway.

As we drove closer and closer to Nocelle, who should I spy with my little eye but Max! Walking on the side of the road in search of snack, he said. He didn't find one. Most places (and there weren't many up there) were closed for a siesta.

I got dropped off in the parking lot above Nocelle. It is a car-free town. I knew exactly how to find my way to the town square, having been there, and I was in front of Casa Cuccaro within 10 minutes on foot. Very easy:

I walked in to the house, and was greeted by a kind looking woman, the owner Margherita. She said eagerly "did you see your husband?" With a thick Italian accent and I said that I had waved to him from the bus. She laughed at that. Then she showed me the room. The view from our private balcony was amazing! From where we were situated, you could see the church and terraced gardens all the way down to the beach:

When the sun was sitting through the cloudy fog that had descended in the late afternoon, we snapped this picture from our balcony, and you can see Positano in the distance on the beach:

Heaven

We walked through a dining room/living room to get to our room. The whole place was split leveled, here and there. Outside our room this large, framed picture hung:

Then I realized later it was the owner, and Margherita's husband! Multiple copies of this photo hung around the place. He was proud. She must've found him sexy. I don't know. But once I met him, later that day, the photo kind of made sense. He has lived in Nocelle his entire life and is so proud to be Italian and hardworking. He was such a nice guy!
So anyway, Max returned and sadly said that no place had been open for a snack. We would have to wait until 7:30 (at the absolute earliest) to eat.

The two restaurants between Montepertuso and Nocelle, "La Terra" and "La Tagliata" were fresh in our memories and we really wanted to try La Tagliata for dinner. And we were starving. And it was a 25 minute walk. So we waited until the soonest possible moment to walk over and we did. We even walked a lot slower than usual to kill time before we arrived. 

We went back through Nichelle's narrow corridors of stucco and cement and tile, up the steps to the road, then walk on the road by the cliffs and inlets and still arrived at La Tagliata at 7:25. They of course opened at 7:30 and didn't really get in full swing until 8:30. But we didn't care: at 7:31 We walked in and I made probably one of the biggest mistakes of our 25 years on this earth: we said to the super friendly owner-

"Buona sera, we are VERY hungry!"

What happened next was the largest -- THE LARGEST -- amount of food I had ever been given at a restaurant to date. First of all the owner guy shook our hands and introduced himself. Said that his sister and brothers worked here as well, his mama was cooking, and it was a family affair-
No menu. He went over the progression with us, a devilish gleam already in his eyes due to our stated hunger. We would have antipasti, then pasta (primo), then meat (secundo) then dessert, limoncello, and coffee.

A group of 10 people walked in after us, and Max and I both swear that we were served half as much as they were. Essentially, we were eating for 5 that night. On top of this, Max had not eaten since breakfast, so everything he ate made him feel more full than he thought it would, and by the time the main course rolled around, the burden of eating fell on yours truly. That's right.

We posited later that we weren't expected to finish each plate, but we scraped them clean not wanting to appear rude (and because it tasted incredible. Who knew grilled vegetables or bean salad could be so freaking fantastic??). Let's be real here, an Italian couple who walked in later ate only half the food they were ever given. But seriously?? Waste not want not! There are starving people and I think that food is a terrible thing to waste. So finish everything we most certainly did….except for (hangs head in shame) dessert. I just couldn't. 

Max actually had to take a break and go outside and walk around a bit to let off steam, we were chortling as they continued to bring us more and more plates of delicious, homemade food, and then even I took a break and went outside as well -- to breathe deeply, and mutter incantations to help my body digest faster. I was reminded of everyone's overeating stories at my wedding, which was a food day like no other!

So what, in total, did we consume that night??
Note- the portions were NOT small.
Antipasti:
Braised cabbage greens, garden peas, spinach and sliced broccoli
Chickpeas browned with onion and garlic
Fagioli and Pasta al fagioli which looked kind of like this
Golden potato salad
Housemade bresaola, sliced thinly
Housemade mozzarella
Bruschetta, two pieces of grilled bread topped with chopped tomatoes and onion/garlic
Ricotta cheese 
grilled egpplant (melanzane) and zucchini
Two mini pizzas (about 2" across) topped with tomato sauce made from their tomatoes

Primo: 
1 round dinner plate containing the following:
homemade gnocchi, manicotti, scialatielli, and ravioli (which contained sage and browned butter)

Secundo (mixed grill, the house specialty):
Roasted potatoes
2 Lamb chops
1 large pork chop
rabbit 
beef steak (about 8 ounces)
homemade sausages
kebabs with lamb and vegetables

COMMENCE FOOD COMA

But wait, what about dessert??

Since I forced Max to eat most of the pasta, I had to eat most of the meat. No problem, I could handle that. But when Max decided after being in pain from full-ness that he couldn't even touch dessert, we laughed so hard when we were brought a large plate with big slices of:

Pistachio sponge cake with an Italian buttercream
cinnamon almond bar topped with brown sugar
a fruit torte with strawberries
very alcoholic, dense chocolate ganache cake
and fruit

yeah, the fresh fruit was about all I could force myself to eat. although we took minuscule bites of all the other desserts. 

then the coffee and limoncello came. 

the rest, as they say, is history. up to 1 week later, Max said he still hadn't quite recovered from this meal. you might be wondering how much this insanely large amount of food cost, right? 35 euro pp, including a bottle of wine, coffee, limoncello, EVERYTHING. 

ah, Italia.