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It’s amazing what you take for granted. Our short walk from Villa Greta to the village is along the main road through Positano which twists and turns with the contours of the cliffs. Although that walk is only a few … Continue reading
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Half way down the hill on the way to the beach at Positano there is a restaurant called Bruno. It started as a small indoor restaurant and, over the years, developed a great reputation for it’s food. In the last … Continue reading
We just want to say a huge thank you to the team at Eden Roc hotel for their help when Jean fell sick. Within 30 minutes of us contacting them and asking for a doctor one turned up on our doorstep. Dr Buonocore you were fantastic.
Later that day we had a visit from Dominic, the head of the Casola family, asking after Jeans health and stressing that if there was anything we needed we were just to ask.
As a result, dinner that night were Eden Roc takeaways – not something that is usually available to anyone as far as we know.
Stunning Penne Carbonarra accompanied by crispy bread and some beers for the caregiver, all transported from the hotel on the handlebars of a Vespa to make sure it was still piping hot. As the young hotel concierge said – Carbonarra is always best hot – which it was.
Grazie mille Eden Roc.
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Firstly, it’s not really our place – Villa Greta belongs to The Casola family who also own our favourite hotel in Positano – Eden Roc. But for this week it’s our place as we settle in, slow down and adjust … Continue reading
Gentle reader, please accept my apologies but it has been almost a week without a post. Put it down to jet lag or simply the frantic activity involved in doing very little, but rest assured a stream of posts will follow.
We arrived in Positano last night and are now resident at Villa Greta.
As I write this the temperature is a warm 29 degrees, the sun is shining and I can just glimpse the Galli Islands above the Bougainvillea covered railing running around the patio.
This afternoon is planned – a late lunch at Eden Roc and an afternoon by the pool.
Enough said.
Mt Etna erupting with Catania behind in 2001 – courtesy of photographer Carsten Peter
What do you know about Sicily? Probably more than we do.
The furthest south we have ever been in Italy is the Amalfi Coast just south of Naples. But not this trip because this trip we are spending a week in Sicily – the island known for Mt Etna and the Cosa Nostra.
We fly into Catania which lies in the shadow of Mt Etna (which is still classified as an active volcano). From there we drive south for 2 hours to Noto where a villa and our friends Gill, Andre, Josh and Jordan are waiting.
We have a week to discover our corner of Sicily. What should we do? Where should we go? Make us an offer we can’t refuse.
Over the weekend we took the first steps towards Italy. Our suitcases came out of the cupboard and we started to think about packing. For me that involved a lot of T-shirts and shorts and not much else.
For Jean it began closer to the ground. Darling, you’re packing how many pairs of shoes?
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We are now only 2 weeks away from our holiday. All the bookings are made and it’s just a matter of packing, extracting ourselves from Wellington life, and heading off. Memories of Italy are flooding back – places to see and … Continue reading
Positano from Villa Greta’s roof terrace
Our Italian holiday is less than a month away and we are in the final planning stages. Rome, Tuscany and Sicily are all places we will visit but our base will be Positano.
Ahhh, Positano.
We have booked Villa Greta for a week in August to coincide with the Festival of Our Lady of the Assumption on August 14th and 15th, which is one of Positano’s most important festivals. To quote the Positano.com website:
The festival both honors the town’s protector and commemorates the ancient legend of how a ship carrying a Byzantine icon of the virgin Mary was beached in the bay of Positano. Not until the sailors gave the icon to the local inhabitants were they able to set sail once more.
On August 14th, the celebrations begin with the so-called “Alazata del Quadro” (“The Lifting of the Painting”) in front of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta. In the evening, a spectacular procession of illuminated boats heads to the “Mamma e Figlio” rocks by the beach of Fornillo before returning to the Spiaggia Grande beach and the Cathedral.
On August 15th, the festivities continue late into the night and conclude with a magnificent firework display over the sea, which lights up much of the Amalfi Coast.
We will be watching from the terrazzo of Eden Roc hotel – one of the best vantage points in Positano.
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June 1 is officially the first day of winter but clearly no one told the weather gods as Wellington was treated to a stunning day. But those of you familiar with our place will know that we lose any sight of the … Continue reading
Siena from the Torre del Mangia
For no reason, a photograph taken from the top of the Torre del Mangia in Siena looking towards the Duomo and the countryside beyond. The view, after climbing the tower’s 400 steps is absolutely wonderful.
This shot was taken 12 years ago and has survived a transfer from film to print to scanned image. The scan was state-of-the-art for 2002 (for that read low res, and full of noise) but, with a little Photoshopping, it can be brought back to life.
Just north of Pienza in Tuscany is a stand of Cypress trees that have been photographed more often than most others. The reason is they seem to represent Tuscany to tourists and they are visible from the main road. In each season they summarise the beauty of the region.
It’s not unusual to see half a dozen cars stopped at the side of the road with the occupants out shooting the grove of trees.
Interestingly very few people turn around and look the other way to a view that, in my humble opinion, is even more Tuscan. Captured here in late Autumn.
Those of you who know me, know that I’m not a morning person. The thought of getting up early (for whatever reason) is something to be avoided – unless lives are at risk or the end of the world is nigh.
Having said that, there is a brief period of time at the start of every holiday on the other side of the world when waking early is inevitable. It’s that 2 or 3 days when jetlag is ruling your life and waking at 3am with an overiding urger to eat dinner is the norm.
A few years ago we were in Rome when this short period was affecting us so – for the first time I can recall – I was up and out with a camera and tripod in Rome at 4am waiting for enough light to take some shots . Unlike other major world cities like Tokyo and New York, Rome sleeps at night. So the only people up at that time were newspaper delivery men, the occasional taxi driver and the even more occasional polizia – and me.
It was eerily quiet and I could hear my footsteps echoing off the building walls as I walked.
Within a few minutes of our hotel were the Spanish Steps and Piazza Babarini, both completely devoid of life, an amazing contrast with the rest of the day when they are full of tourists with struggling locals trying to make their way through the crowds.
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Since April 2011 there have been 299 posts to this blog so this one is officially number 300. Over the last 2 and a bit years we’ve covered our trip to Europe – which was the reason for starting this … Continue reading
Having successfully survived Wellington’s recent storm, we started to think of other storms we’d been through – and the one that sprung to mind first was, funnily enough, an Italian storm.
It was during our stay in Positano in November 2011. After unusually good weather we were warned by the locals that the weekend was going to be stormy. It happened to be a weekend when we had visitors from the UK and New Zealand staying with us at Villa Greta.
Now, please understand, by storm we mean weather that was less than idyllic. Which involved wind (a bit), rain (not a lot) and seas that were rough (all to be taken in context of the Med just being a giant bath).
Our Saturday started with a visit the the beach at Positano and a late breakfast at Buca de Bacco. Apart from a strong breeze and the overcast conditions the only clue that there was a storm was the surf hitting the wharf. But despite the poor weather the resident beach artist was painting – as he does every day – a beautiful sunny vista full of blue skies, blue seas, bright sun and Bougainvillaea cascading down the sides of houses on the hill, somewhat at odds with reality.
In the afternoon we drove down the coast to Amalfi. The roads were treacherous and largely awash in places. The Amafi Coast has no real storm water drainage system – other than the water rushing downhill towards the sea as fast as possible – down streets, across roads and over cliffs until eventually ending up in the sea. This system meant we were often driving along roads more like rivers and through villages where every lane was a steam cascading towards the sea.
In Amalfi the sea was crashing against shore and the sea side carpark that we had used only a few months previously in summer was now forming the breakwater and largely underwater. The wonderful thing was that, by the time we had driven up from Amalfi to the top of the cliffs to Ravello the weather had cleared and we had magnificent views looking east along the coast towards Salerno. Normal transmission had resumed.
Toscanakiwi 