WE'RE ALL GOING ON OUR SUMMER HOLIDAYS!!
POSITANO - AMALFI COAST
A couple of years ago we rented an old fiat from a friend of Alfredo and drove from Atina to the Amalfi coast. Bru's Zio(uncle) Lello gave us directions and told us which exit to take off the motorway. As we were approaching the exit I thought it strange as it seemed to go into the heart of Naples and all the signs for Amalfi said straight on but when a local gives you directions you follow them and of course it was the wrong exit. All I can tell you is that I have never been so afraid in my whole life, we were bang in the middle of one of the worst parts of Naples. We were lucky because it was about 3pm and all the baddies had gone to lunch, even the Italian baddies take long lunches, food is more important than crime at lunch and dinner.
We eventually pulled into a really dodgy garage to ask for directions as Bru hadn't put his Italian card in his phone so we couldn't ring his uncle. You can imagine how happy I was and what I called him!!!! We eventually got back on the motorway and later found out that the area was one of the most notorious crime areas in Napoli and we were so lucky to have the local registered car as we weren't obvious tourists and car hyjacking at gun point is rife there.
Anyway with the help of a few g&t's we recovered and had a fantastic week. Positano is absolutely beautiful and is built on a cliff and of course our hotel was at the very top. We had over 200 steps to the beach. We did it once and took the long way through the town after that. Our hotel was fab www.marincanto.it , it doesn't have a restaurant but we prefer to eat out anyway so we didn't mind.
There is a great selection of restuarants on the beach, the only one we didn't really like was Tre Sorelle,Chez Black seems to be the most popular and you normally have to wait for a table. We had a private section of the beach for our hotel and had a lovely lido that did great fresh food so we ate lunch there a lot. We ate in a lovely family restaurant above Positano called Da Costantino which served really good home-made food. They even provide a bus to pick you up as they are so high up the cliff - fab views. The owner is a bit of a character and likes to chat!!
There is a really upmarket restaurant in the centre of the town called Palazzo Murat www.palazzomurat.it . We decided to treat ourselves and go there for dinner and I would recommend it for the setting alone. It's the most beautiful place I have ever eaten, the food was very fancy but average unfortunately and not cheap!!!Even if you don't go for dinner go for an aperitivo just to see it!
The only complaint I have about Positano is the lack of bars, there is one place www.musicontherocks.it but you have to pay in even for one drink. There is an expensive pretentious restaurant there aswell called Le Terrazzere but I wouldn't recommend it even though the setting is amazing.
On our way back we stayed in Sorrento for a night but we found it a bit touristy, it's still beautiful but not really our "cup of tea" or should I say "espresso". We found a really nice bar beside our hotel called Photo where we had a really nice meal, cocktails and free nibbles.
We got home alive and didn't leave the motorway until we reached the exit for Atina.
-fest thats going on at the moment; one of my favourite porn, sorry food magazines delicious has it's annual Italian issue on sale at the moment; Giorgio Locotelli for Sunday brunch anyone? How do you say woo-hoo in Italian? (Comment this)