Tag Archives: europe

Come in Camogli

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After leaving Tuscany we drove north to Firenze, looped around the city to the west and headed towards Pisa then turning north towards the Ligurian Coast and Camogli. Three hours, one lunch stop and one toll stop later we arrived at Cenobio di Dogi – our home until September 8.

This is the largest hotel we will stay in – many rooms, three restaurants plus bars, a salt water pool and a private beach. Even given its size it feels relaxed and friendly and nothing is too much trouble.

So far we’ve spent a day on the beach and a day by the pool, we’ve relaxed on the terrace with many drinks and experienced the organised chaos that is breakfast, twice.

Our first night we ate out at La Camogliese just a few metres down the road.

we’ve eaten there before and the seafood has been superb. As a surprise I booked a table there months ago and didn’t tell Jean. It gets incredibly busy and we’ve actually been turned away in the past so I thought booking was a great idea. Making the booking was a challenge from 18,800 kms away but we got there in the end.

The surprise didn’t quite go to plan however.

“Darling, seeing it’s our first night, we should go out” I said. “Maybe try that place we like – what was it called? La Camogliese?”

“Really do we have too go out? I’m tired. Maybe we just grab some takeaways and eat them in our room. I can’t be bothered getting dressed up and putting on makeup” Jean said.

“Come on, you don’t have to get dressed up, let’s just go as we are.”

“I really don’t want to …”

Things were going pear-shaped fast.

“Darling, you remember I said that I had a couple of surprises I’d arranged? This is one of them – I’ve booked us dinner tonight at 9pm”

An extended silence ensued. “How lovely. Let’s get ready…” she said.

Anchovies three ways
Fish Ligurian style

Li Galli Bar and Bistro

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Li Galli is situated about half way between the village centre and Casetta Arienzo. It has both an inside and outside area which are split by the main road through Positano so serving has the added excitement of dodging traffic. The outside bar and dining is spread along the footpath and has the most spectacular views of Positano and the bay. Stopping for a drink is a must do.

It is also the perfect place to take a break on our walk home and on a hot day, it’s a life saver. Ice cold beer and Gin Tonica are the best way to beat the heat.

We have grown to know the team over many years – Gio, Ciro and Giuseppe – and as we stagger up the hill, hot and sweaty we are spotted and a table is ready so we can collapse into a seat. Orders are known and drinks arrive as if by magic.

We’ve also had dinner there a few times over the years. This time it was special. Great food and wine and that beautiful view of the village at night. I would challenge anyone to find a better bistro meal in Positano.

The starter was salmon on bread cake (the description doesn’t do justice to the dish and, of course we ate it before we photographed it) followed by a main course – mixed seafood grill – which showcased the best of the coast, everything from langoustine through to sea bass with squid and baby octopus thrown in for good measure. Molto buono.

Jean was also tempted away from her usual Chardonnay with a local white that embodied all the best of the coast, ideal drinking for a warm summer night and a seafood meal. It was so good I even deserted beer for the evening.

One thing that makes our trips special for us are the connections we have made. And I think we can call the team at Galli our friends. In fact the lovely Gio and his partner have a standing invitation to stay with us if he ventures as far as New Zealand – plus a choice of Porshce to drive. It would be lovely to see them at our place.

Gio kindly gave us a gift when we left – an excellent bottle of red wine – which we will now take home. One evening over summer we will open it and enjoy it on our front verandah looking out across Wellington harbour – reminding ourselves of our trip and our friends on the other side of the world.

To us that is the essence of travel, and why we return.

One of the challenges at Galli Bar – working across the main road
Mixed Fish Grill – delicious
Dinner at Galli
Throwback to 2011 – the view from Li Galli

Positano content creation

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It’s around 30 degrees in Positano – enough to make any sane person wear as little clothing as possible and to stay in the shade as much as possible. Unless you’re a content creator for Instagram (or similar) when you’re dressed up, in full makeup searching for those “instagram locations”.

One such location is a collection of ceramics displayed by a local shop on a terrace with the village in the background. You’ve probably seen the shots, I’ve included a couple below.

Copyright – Passportinstyle.com

Now it’s fair to say that these shots – and the reality of taking the shots – are a bit different.

This location is right on the main road through Positano which is very narrow and at a point where steps run down to the main piazza so it can get very busy.

There’s a queue to get onto the terrace which lasts all day and gets longer and shorter as the light moves – apparently mid morning is the best time to go because the angle of the sun helps throw a soft light on the faces of the those being photographed.

The terrace used to be roped off so shots could only be taken from the entrance which meant a degree of “sameness” and also a degree of competition as only one person could be photographed at a time.

But now someone from the ceramics shop manages entry to the terrace and the ceramics are laid out in such a way that content creators can set up multiple shots ensuring everyone has a unique view. It also opened up the opportunity for video to be shot as content creators moved across the terrace.

It costs 10 Euro or a purchase from the ceramic shop to access the terrace. But shots can still be taken from the entrance for free so there is always a degree of chaos as the queue runs along the footpath onto the road.

Instaglam? You decide.

Spoilt rotten in Rome

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Gentle readers, as you may know we have a favourite place to stay in Rome. Hotel Barocco is a boutique hotel with 38 rooms located on Piazza Barberini at the bottom of the Via Veneto in the cities historical centre.

Our first stay was in 2011 when we lived in Italy for a year. We picked it from Booking.com’s list of hotels as it is dog friendly (so Daisy and Poppy the Bichon Frise could stay with us whenever we travelled from our rental in Tuscany to Rome) and because it looked ‘quite nice in the pictures’.

Since then it has become our place to stay in Rome. It has never disappointed and has always gone the extra mile for us – ensuring that we had a room with a terrace when the girls stayed in 2011 so no one had to go onto the street for comfort stops at 5am, or by making our delayed stay in 2019 (as the student riots forced an extended transit stay in Hong Kong) easy and worry free despite our booking being non-changable and non-refundable.

Jean and Poppie outside Hotel Barocco on a visit to Rome in 2011. Look closely and you’ll see the lead is a camera bag handle as we’d left the proper leads behind in Tuscany

This trip when we arrived at 9am tired and jet lagged our room was ready for us (which definitely is not the norm in hotels) and we had been upgraded to a room far superior to the one we booked. Thank you to all at Hotel Barocco, what a great start to our holiday.

One of Jeans famous ‘one take’ walk-through videos.