As our thoughts turn to Italy, a look through the photo album reminds us of time spent around Siena. This photo is taken from the front terrace of the cottage we called home for 6 months at Casavacanza Vesta and is looking towards Siena on a warm October evening.
When we arrived the view was almost completely obscured by trees but while we were away one weekend the kind owners thinned the trees – providing us with this fantastic sunset show each evening.
Tuscany in October 2011
If you are thinking of heading overseas next year – check out the early bird airfare deals that are available at the moment. We’ve just booked our flights to Italy next August and it cost $600 less than exactly the same flights in 2015.
We’ve also booked Villa Arienzo for two weeks over Positano festival time and plan to spend a week in Tuscany when we will catch up with friends.
The fourth week? We are thinking of heading to the heel of Italy to explore Apulia as we’ve never been to this part of Italy before.
Having had a really good response to Part 1 of my Italian travel tips, here are a few more. These are tips about travelling to, and staying in, the places we know and love.
Driving to Positano
As you drive south from Rome and into Naples you see Mt Vesuvius on the left and the Bay of Naples on the right. Ahead is the Amalfi Coast and the long and windy drive over the hill to Positano. But closer to the highway you’ll see the parts of Naples that don’t appear on the tourist maps. The south of Italy is poor and driving through the suburbs of Naples you can definitely see that, with low cost housing blocks scattered among allotments.
As you approach Sorrento, village living takes over with the houses pushed up against each other and the road narrowing to a single lane in places. After the turn off to Positano you climb up over the peninsular. There are some spectacular views back towards Naples but the best is yet to come. After cresting the hill the Amalfi Coast is laid out in front of you. Sparkling waters, steep cliffs and the string of villages that run towards Amalfi are all visible as you wind along the coast road.
Eat in or eat out?
The villa we stay at in Positano has a full kitchen, and whenever we stay there is the dilemma – eat in or eat out. Going out means picking from one of the multitude of restaurants or cafes in Positano and for a short stay the decision is relatively easy. But remember to make a trip to the Alimentary and stock up on the essentials – nibbles, fruit and veg and something to drink – to combat the heat. The good news is that pretty much every grocery store sells alcohol – beer, wine and spirits. Even the butcher sells wine – which adds a whole new dimension to food and wine matching.
That’s our place
We found that taking a photograph of the villa you are staying in on your phone is a great idea, particularly if you are planning to live like a local and get groceries and the like delivered. Walking up the hill from the village on a hot day carrying shopping bags can be a chore – but get them delivered and life become easy.
Villa Arienzo has it’s distinctive windows which all locals recognise so showing a picture of the villa is an easy way of explaining where you want things delivered.
Walking to and from the villa – an adventure
The walk from Villa Arienzo to Positano is about 800 metres. But, as with many things in Italy, it’s an adventure. Why? Because the main road is narrow, cars and scooters are parked in every available spot and there are no pavements – literally none. So walkers have to watch out for cars and buses and trucks and scooters and other walkers.
At night use the torch on your phone to see your way – and be seen by others.
Hotels can organise anything – trust them
One of the fantastic advantages of staying at Villa Arienzo over other villas is the “mother ship”. The Casola family own and operate both Hotel Eden Roc and Villa Arienzo. If there are any issues with the villa, or advice you need about anything, the hotel is a phone call away and a two minute vespa ride if assistance is needed. And if cooking is a bit of a chore, the hotel restaurant (with it’s magnificent view across the bay) is always available with service courtesy of our friend Carlo.
Tours of Pompeii? A trip to Sorrento? Or a boat trip along the coast to Capri? No problem – everything is organised for you by Lorenzo and the front desk staff.
And if the day is too hot for you, call into the hotel for a swim or some sunbath in the solarium, no problem – would you like a drink with that?
Day trips
Our top four top day trips around Positano would be:
In a previous post we’ve covered our favourite day trips around Chianti and Siena – click here for details and enjoy.
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This winter everyone seems to be travelling overseas for a holiday – everyone except us that is. We’re kiwi-bound this year as other priorities push ahead of la dolce vita. So it seems appropriate to offer some advice to those who are … Continue reading
It’s a well known saying that the best camera you own is the one you have with you. More often than not these days, that will be the one in your phone.
Over the years cameras in phones have got better and better to the point where they can now do almost everything that conventional cameras can.
But there are a few exceptions. One of these is the ability to manage depth of field – to have some parts of a shot in focus and some not.
On our trip to Italy in 2014 I spent a day sightseeing around Syracuse and Ortygia with only my iPhone – a 4S. I’d actually forgotten to take my DSLR camera so the challenge was to get the best shots possible just using the phone. Overall the results were pretty good, but in a bunch of shots everything was in focus (the norm for phone cameras and not a bad thing) but the shots would have looked better if the foreground and background weren’t.
Retouching to the rescue. I used Photoshop to do the work but there are a bunch of other apps that can be used. In fact anything that can reproduce a “tilt shift” effect is ideal.
Tilt shift is a technique which makes a scene look like a miniature or model (an example is below). Not so many years ago this look could only be achieved using a special, and extremely expensive, camera lens. But with the advent of digital retouching it became much easier. It is also great for adding in depth of field to a shot where none exists.
I’ve included a couple of examples in the gallery.
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For the best part of a year Siena was our local town. We attended Italian language classes there, we were there at Palio time along with thousands of others, we learnt to navigate its many lanes and alleyways without getting lost … Continue reading
I’ve often wondered if our girls miss us when we are out of the house. Based on Poppie’s behaviour over the weekend when Jean went shopping for a few hours, you’d have to say they do.
She sat at the window, looking up the street, just waiting.
The view from Hotel Eden Roc looking out across the bay is always worth watching. Late one afternoon, on a day the sun had been playing hide and seek, the bay took on shades of pale blue as the sky and the water merged.
We weren’t the only couple watching the view.
Groom day in Siena was a major family outing. We had found a groomer just a few metres from the Campo and they would take one girl at a time. So we spent the afternoon sitting in our favourite bar firstly with one girl and then with the other.
This was no hardship and gave us ample opportunity to check some emails, watch some people and do some shopping – as you do in Italy.
So let me be clear, this post is a bit obscure – unless you were there. The photo is of a swimming pool in Sicily. We stayed in a lovely villa in Syracuse – that included this pool – with our friends Gill and Andre and the family in 2014. We spent a great week in and around the pool.
It was the centre of daily activity, but after the sun had dropped below the horizon and everyone headed off to dinner it took on that wonderful Italian evening glow. A mix of pale sky blues, harsh sunset yellows and every shade of pink imaginable. All contrasting with the bright blue of the somewhat ordered loungers.
Take a bow Syracuse, you earned it.
The holiday break has seen an addition to our back yard in the form of an outdoor couch. It wasn’t exactly what we went looking for but we think it’s a nice addition. It catches the last of the sun and is a great place to relax on a warm summer evening.
This gallery contains 45 photos.
As we do every January, here’s a quick look back at 2015. Some shots you may have seen and some new ones.
A short movie showing Bella on the couch in the study yesterday afternoon. After filming she was off to make mischief elsewhere – pretty much what you would expect from a 3 year old.
Presenting two photos that you can only take when you’ve got the time. And that’s the great thing about holidays, you have the time.
The dog shot involved two tired girls and Jean acting as a wrangler behind me. It took about 30 shots to get the one I was looking for with Poppie staring down the lens and Bella on guard.
The moon rising over Nelson shot took time because I had no tripod and the shutter speed had to be quick enough to ensure a sharp shot but still have a reasonable depth of field. In the end I pushed the ISO to 800 and managed to hand-hold the camera steady for 1/30th of a second exposure. Then it was into Photoshop for some cropping, colour balancing and exposure work.
It’s great to have time for all this faffing about.
La dolce far niente 
