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That was the way the view of the island of Capri from the town of Termini was described to us. “You have to go and see it, yes you do” our favourite restaurant manager Carlo had said thoughtfully when we … Continue reading
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… time for a rest. After two days out and about, Thursday we are going to go nowhere. It’s a day to spend with the girls so what better time to write about something that’s right on our doorstep but … Continue reading
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We have a confession to make. After 8 years of visiting the Amalfi coast in general and Positano in particular, we have never been to Sorrento. It has always been “that place on the other side of the hill” and … Continue reading
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This week we are getting out a bit more than usual. With only two weeks until we leave Positano there is still a long list of things we want to do and see but time is running out. Today we … Continue reading
The sun went down and the lights of Positano gradually came on over the next half hour. This is an HD move so for best effect use the “share” button and download a better quality version.
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Last night I drove about 2 kms from the villa to a point overlooking the bay to capture some sunset photos – yes, again. I wasn’t the only one with this idea as the spot was packed with cars and … Continue reading
We have a gecko which lives behind one of the front door shutters. He’s about 4 inches long, hides during the day but comes out at night to find dinner – bugs and the like. This suits us as the fewer bugs around the house the lower the chance of anything terrifying Jean.
He clings to the wall overlooking the street and being a gecko (or should that be Gekko) we’ve named him Gordon after the character in the movie. (Movie buff humour I’m afraid).
Following her cinematic triumph with the movie about our cottage in Tuscany, Jean has made a sequel and unusually for sequels it’s even better than the original.
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Friday is shopping day. The day we head into Positano with the single-minded purpose of refilling the cupboards for another week. Although the village is only a 10 minute walk, on Friday we take the car. The thought of walking … Continue reading
Over the last week or so Daisy’s coughing has got worse so it was time for a visit to a vet. The team at Eden Roc Hotel had kindly offered to arrange for a vet to call if needed and on Monday we decided it was needed.
We’ve never had a house call from a vet before but all was arranged and at 9:15 on Monday morning the wonderful Dott. Antonio Apuzzo called at Villa Greta. His english was good and his understanding of Daisy and her heart condition was even better.
He explained that in terms of the medication she was on, there were no additional pills she could take so it came down to adjusting her current medication to best treat her symptoms. He asked us to visit his practice in the village of Sant’Agata in the commune of Massa Lubrense where he would arrange for a cardiologist to visit and conduct an ECG on Daisy. Based on the results of this, her medication could be adjusted. It was decided that Wednesday morning at 11 was the time.
We had no idea what the house call would cost and Jean had walked to the village Monday morning to take out additional cash as we figured a house call could be expensive. The bill was only €30 and as he left he gave us his mobile number to call if Daisy got worse between Monday and Wednesday. What more could we want.
Wednesday morning we set out for Sant’Agata. This small town is only 15kms from Positano but the windy road meant a drive of 35 minutes. The village is located right on the spine of the Amalfi Peninsular so as you drive there you see alternatively views along the Amalfi Coast to Praiano and beyond to Salerno in the south, and across the bay of Naples to Napoli, Vesuvius and beyond in the north. It is the most spectacular drive to a vet we have ever had.
And on the way you pass the Grand Hotel Nastro Azzuro – an impressive hotel with a great view of the bay of Naples and named after Italian beer! This is my kind of place.
The village itself is delightful and at 11am, it was in full swing with the fish monger busy, the greengrocer inundated with locals and that general bustle of a busy Italian village.
We arrived promptly, ten minutes late, and met the cardiologist Dott. Antonella Sergio. Once again she had an immediate understanding of Daisy’s condition. You also get the feeling that the respect Italians inherently have for the aged in the community also extends to dogs. Once Daisy’s age was explained (nearly 15 years old – close to 90 in human years) she was treated with the greatest respect.
Despite that, she still managed to have a seizure on the table in the middle of the ECG which prompted even more care, a supply of oxygen to ensure she recovered and a modified ECG so she could stand rather than be forced to lie down.
The upshot of the ECG – her condition is a little worse than it was 3 months ago. But we now have a new pill regime and the addition of a cortisone spray to help with her coughing. We also now understand how to alter the balance of her medication depending on the symptoms she displays.
As we left, Dott. Apuzzo reiterated that we should call him if Daisy gets worse – although he joked that he hoped he didn’t hear from us.
Thank you Dott. Antonio and Dott. Antonella. We hope we don’t have to call either.
We then retired to the patisserie across the road and had a celebratory cake and cappuccino or two. We vowed to return to Sant’Agata and explore it further. There are also some great photographs to be taken on the drive there and back but this trip I didn’t take my camera. It was business after all – well as close as we get to business these days.
This morning while sitting on our terrace having that first cappuccino, Jean spotted a little lady from the village cleaning our Madonna. Our lady got the full treatment – glass cleaned, flowers refreshed and steps swept.
Based on this Jean has put away her glass polish and stopped trying to figure out how to get our vaccum cleaner cord to reach 20 metres down the road.
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Just a quick post of a few photos taken out and about in Positano recently. No real story, just bits and pieces.
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We have a Madonna. Just down the road from the villa is a short set of steps leading up to a statue of Mary set into the cliff. She is behind glass to protect her from the elements and is … Continue reading
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When we were travelling back from Amalfi last weekend we passed a spot high on the hill about 2kms outside of Positano which had a fantastic view of the village. Today I drove back to that spot and took some … Continue reading
The generally held view is that Italian traffic is bad, and that Neopolitan traffic is some of the worst in Italy. Despite driving all around Italy we had not experienced really bad traffic – until last week.
On Monday evening our visitors flew out of Naples and we drove them to the airport. The normal drive from Positano to the airport is about 1 hour and 20 minutes over winding hill roads. At rush hour or on weekends “allow 2 hours” has been the past advice from the knowledgable staff at Eden Roc Hotel.
We had visited the ruins at Pompeii Monday afternoon so our trip to the airport was a much shorter journey – according to our GPS only 30 minutes from the town of Pompei where we had dinner, and all along motorways. Sweet!
Even so we left Pompei town at 6:15pm, aiming to be at the airport by 7pm. This allowed a comfortable hour and a quarter for our visitors to get through immigration, security, do a little leisurey duty free shopping and arrive at the gate by 8:15pm. As their flight was EasyJet, the gate would close at 8:15pm – there is no room for movement.
The first two thirds of the trip were completely uneventful. Then the traffic started to get a little heavy – in fact we were at walking pace by the time we exited the main Napoli to Salerno motorway and transferred to the motorway to the airport.
But on the bright side at 6:40pm we only had about 5kms to go. Easy!
About 400 metres further on the fun and games began. Three lanes of traffic converge into two. As kiwis we know the routine – merge like a zip. Not in Italy. This was a case of merge like 4 zips, two of which are broken and two of which are twisted around each other and every driver has a different idea of which way to pull the zip.
The net result was that after “merging” we ended up with three lanes of traffic crammed onto a two lane motorway. To add spice, there seemed to be an unofficial fourth lane next to the slow lane which formed when a car needing to get somewhere in a hurry (not that we weren’t in a hurry) used hazard lights and horn to push through the already jammed motorway.
While this configuration got the maximum number of cars on the motorway it made for the minimum possible traffic flow. In fact walking would have been considerably quicker.
This became an option we seriously considered as time passed quickly and the distance to the airport reduced slowly – really slowly – snails paced slowly.
We only had 1.6kms to go to reach the airport but already the time was 7:30pm. The clever banter in the car about the state of Italian motoring had subsided and there was an oppressive silence interspersed only by terse comments “don’t let him push in”, “watch that VW”, “bastard, he just got in front of us”.
By 7:55pm thoughts had turned to rebooked flights and overnight stays in airport hotels. But then the traffic started to thin and the exit to the airport appeared. It was clear – well clearer than anything we had experienced for the last hour. So with 1.0km to the airport we were off.
Those of you who remember the final drive to the hotel in the movie Notting Hill will understand what followed. No stopping for anything, even for stop signs, new lanes were formed where necessary to get around queues, the pavement was even used at one point. If I do say so myself it was a truly “Italian” approach to driving and it got us the remaining distance to the airport in record time.
What followed was a mad dash for bags (all carry on thankfully) and the entire team headed into the airport except the driver who was then moved along by the airport police.
After parking the car – in an official carpark not just at the side of the airport road as the locals do – the driver made it back to the terminal. Just in time to see our vsitors, having already cleared security and customs, running towards their gate.
Ironically the drive back to Positano was done in record time. All the traffic jams had cleared and we had a clear run all the way. Ahh, Italy.
La dolce far niente 