Off to Italy and the Amalfi Coast 2004

 [25-26 February 2004]

We leave JFK at 7:30 PM 25 February on ALITALIA. The flight is a bit bumpy, the food lousy, the wine OK (a white from Sicily), the attendants grumpy, and minimal communication between crew and passengers. 

Our plane arrives Roma Da Vinci airport at 9:50am Thursday. Luggage retrieval slow, but we use the time to get Euros from Bancomat, sit and have a (decent) cup of coffee. Go to Avis for our rental car, a Ford Focus (upgrade) wagon with zero deductible. Hit the road for Amalfi. 

Drive to Napoli: from FCO “ring road” to the A1; switch to the A3 in Naples for Salerno. Rain off and on but not bad weather. Naples is not terribly impressive; very industrial and generally unattractive, at least from the autostrada. The A3 is a tight drive through Naples, due to massive construction but traffic moves swiftly – and you had better do so as well. 

 We exit the A3 at Vietri sul mare, onto SS163 for Amalfi and follow signs; still rainy and very overcast. The drive to Amalfi is slow and tedious, very curvy and lots of switchbacks, just a hint of what lies further down the road as we will find out the next day. Still traffic is not bad. Anyway, after 3 hours and about 300 kms we arrive at our hotel in Amalfi, the Luna Convento. 

that's our hotel in the far distance at the outcrop of rock

Perched on a spur of rock as you come into Amalfi, the Luna Convento was originally a 13th century monastery reportedly founded by St. Francis. The entrance sneaks up on us but unlike many other places along the Costiera Amalfitana we can at least pull over off the road to the hotel door. We step inside and take the elevator to the 2nd floor where the reception is located. Very friendly and very efficient, Mr. Ciccone the manager checks us in and takes care of our car; we decide not to use it for this leg of the trip and will rely on public transport. As it turns out this was a wise move. 

We relax in our room, get showered, cleaned up and have dinner at about 7pm in the hotel dining room (their other restaurant across the road and perched on the rocks overlooking the sea is closed until after Easter). Giovanni is our waiter, and there appears to be only one other couple dining (and probably staying) at the hotel this evening, although this will change by the weekend. 

For dinner Susan starts with the Cream of Asparagus soup and I have the homemade pasta, stubby thick spaghetti about six inches long, with tomatoes and mozzarella. The soup is light, but rather rich in flavor, very smooth in texture and in flavor as well. The pasta is nicely al dente and the mozzarella in small bits just melts right into the sauce; a wonderful idea for sure. For the secondi Susan and I both have the sea bass, poached in what seems to be a very light blend of oil and lemon. The vegetables on the side are absolutely delicious: artichoke hearts and potatoes sautéed, or so we are told but like the vegetables from the following night we were at loss to explain exactly how the artichokes were prepared since they were extremely tender and yet not “mushy”. 

We go to bed at about 9:30 pm, sated and ready for rest but are both awake by 1am! We read for a bit and finally turn off our lights at about 3 am. Very windy and rainy in the night; this too will be a harbinger of what lies ahead for the next couple of days. Also we discover that just the right amount of wind/air is getting through the seemingly impenetrable walls and under our door, which in turn makes an ear-piercing whistle. At first we are at a loss as to what it may be but after finally deciding that the culprit is our door we shove a towel under the door and the sound stops. We will have to do this every night we are in Amalfi since the wind rarely diminishes.