Tag Archives: Italian

Two weeks in the sun

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We’ve now been in Positano for a fortnight and have gone from a pasty white colour to a burnished brown (Jean) and a slightly brown tinge (Me). Our stress levels have dropped and our ability to spend time doing next to nothing has increased.

Positano is busy but less busy than last year. The number of people in the village each day seems less and everyone – including the locals – seem happier about that. The general consensus seems to be that 2024 is a return to 2022 visitor levels.

The main reason for this seems to be a reduction in the number of American visitors holidaying this year versus last year.

By coincidence, there is an article on stuff.co.nz today (originally from the Washington Post) looking at tourism on the coast and painting a pretty grim picture of the numbers and the crowding. Some of it rings true but, based on our two weeks, some of it seems to be more about last year than this year.

This last few days we had a visitor from the north staying with us. Our friend Tina has been on holiday in Tuscany and she came down to stay in the casetta for a few days. Days of wine and … more wine.

After two weeks it is time for us to move on to Tuscany – high speed train from Napoli to Firenze, then a rental car to Radda in Chianti and our place for the next few days – Relais Vignale.

As a farewell to Positano, here are a grab-bag of images from the last week.

Casetta Arienzo at night
Bloke trying to look cool
Woman trying to look cool
Shopping
Casa Bottega lunchtime view
A friend from home joins us for a few days in Positano – Ciao Tina

Carved out of the cliff

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When we say that Casetta Arienzo is carved out of the cliff, we are not kidding. The best place to see this is in the laundry/downstairs toilet. I’ve posted about this before but it still amazes me the work that went in to building this place. You can still see the holes where the builders drilled into the cliff.

Has anyone we know invested in a local villa recently?

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We spotted this lovely villa on our walk to the village in Positano.

Tax – boring but worth it

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For those of you heading to Italy – or the rest of Europe, tax is an important subject. Sales tax specifically. Anything you buy which is coming home with you, and which you paid more than 70 Euro for, you can claim the sales tax back. This averages around 12% of the sale price. On a 600 Euro purchase that can be around 75 Euro back.

This can mount up and become a welcome refund at the end of your trip.

The place you purchase the item from does the paper work (which is mostly automated anyway) and all you need to do is visit the relevant tax refund kiosk at the airport you are departing from to claim the refund. Simple.

View from the pool

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The hotel pool has a great view. Yesterday afternoon at 5pm the dock was busy with ferries coming and going. Beside them, the smaller boats dropping off their day trip customers – returning from Capri, Amalfi or other places along the coast.

Further down the coast a gaggle of super yachts are moored up as they prepare for another night on the water. I have to say – the slide? Really?

Sweet treats

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Tony works at Eden Roc hotel and, among other things, manages the breakfast service. He is a lovely man with a happiness and joy about him that is infectious. Even the grumpiest breakfast customer is inevitably won over by his charm and eagerness to make “Tony’s breakfast” the most important meal of the day.

Even on days that we don’t have breakfast at the hotel but come later to spend time around and in the pool, he appears with a small box of sweet treats for us (well me actually) – a selection of the cakes and pastries he knows I like – that we can bring back to the casetta and eat later.

A trip to the dairy

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Yesterday we were running a bit low on essentials so Jean decided to walk to the corner dairy and pick some stuff up. It’s a great walk, even dodging the traffic on the narrow road is a sport in its own right. Here she is returning triumphant with milk, eggs, wine and beer. She forgot the tonic, bugger.

Good Morning Positano

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Get up. Put the kettle on. Open the front door. Not a bad way to start the day.

Sorrento for the day

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Our driver arrived promptly at 10:30am and we were off to Sorrento for the day. Alberto was a great driver, just the right amount of chat and info, and great skills getting us over the hill to Sorrento feeling good – it is a twisting road and can cause a queasy stomach.

Because he is from Sorrento Alberto drove a route that took us along the edge of the cliff past some great views and some stunning hotels and homes.

It was hot today in Sorrento, either 28 degrees if you believe Apple’s weather app, 32 degrees if you believe il Meteo which is the equivalent of our Metservice app, or 39 degrees according the sign outside the Farmacia in the main square. It felt like the Farmacia was closest. Ideal weather for shopping.

Alberto dropped us in the middle of Sorrento at which point the shopping began.

Jean stumbled across Marella last year when we were here. Its parent brand is Max Mara and it has the essence of that top end clothing brand with somewhat more reasonable pricing. The clothes look great. And there is one in Sorrento.

So while I sat in the “husband chair” she was dazzled with options. One thing we notice is the sales assistants are also fashion experts – this goes with this, and with this and when we add this, and what about this … so half an hour later Jean has a selection of clothes being rung up and a bag so full the handles break after leaving the shop.

“The husband” also did a little shopping bagging a rather nice Bulova watch for the collection.

Lunch was at Fauno bar, followed by a few more hours shopping while “the husband” found himself a nice quiet bar and an endless supply of Heineken to fill in the time.

Alberto then took us home and the purchases were unveiled one by one. For you to see the purchases, gentle reader, you’ll have to wait for our return.

Jean in Sorrento
Watching the world from Il Fauno Bar in Sorrento
Shopping
Bulova – the other moon watch

Casa e Bottega – revisited

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One of our favourite places in Positano is Casa e Bottega. We wrote a story about it last year and we were keen to revisit this year. Checking our schedule of events – yes we have one, but that’s another story – Tuesday was the allocated day we walked down to the village for lunch at the cafe.

Casa e Bottega is both a cafe and an arts and craft store which, for one of us is dangerous. Last year we bought a ceramic jug for the kitchen which Jean then nursed home wrapped in copious layers of bubble wrap in her carry on luggage.

Bad news, this year the moment we walked in she spotted this years purchase, another jug which will go well with the one we bought last year. I am seeing the start of a dangerous trend here.

As always the food was excellent and the company of the staff and owner, the lovely Vito (who also owns the Palazzo Murat Hotel) was delightful. He confirmed what we had felt from day one, that the village is less busy and more relaxed than last year with less people visiting on day trips.

For him that meant a hotel that was still fully booked during the peak season but less people spending at the bars and restaurants. Given how frantic last year was, he genuinely thought this was a good thing. A sentiment echoed by everyone else we have talked with this trip.

One thing about the Casa I had forgotten were the two resident dogs who have free rein of the cafe, sleeping in their beds in one corner, walking around being patted by the patrons, or simply lying down wherever they want. Being dog owners separated from our girls, it was great to be able have a pat or have a head laid on your knee for a gentle rub.

A broom, a broom, my kingdom for a broom

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Those of you who know Jean well are aware of her need to clean. She cleans the house after our cleaner has been, she vacuums on a regular basis – daily over the weekend. It’s a type of therapy I think.

When we returned from Europe after our stay in 2011 one of the few items shipped home was the vacuum cleaner Jean had bought in Italy and which was in the back of our car and visited 4 countries with us (all of which were cleaner when we left) before it was shipped to New Zealand. We have it still.

Jean cleans not because she has too, but simply because she can.

So yesterday afternoon she was at the reception desk in the hotel trying to ask two slightly bemused and confused staff members for a broom. No not a cleaner to come to the villa, just a broom and a pan so she could keep the terrace and the apartment tidy. To their credit, there was a broom and pan waiting for us when we got back to the villa about 30 mins later. Much to her delight.

Flying High with Emirates

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Thank you Emirates. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in your business class cabin on route to Rome. It felt like the golden age of flying when it was more than just a way to get from A to B, but rather was an experience in it’s own right.

There was room to spread out, great food and drink, and service that was unmatched. Nothing was too much trouble for your wonderful staff and how you managed to produce my pan-fried beef tenderloin served with thyme jus, mashed potatoes and blanched broccoli in an aeroplane at 40,000 feet is a mystery to me.

Emirates pride themselves on their diversity of crew and our cabin was served by a team brought together from all corners of the globe. All with a single-minded focus to ensure our trip was as relaxed and enjoyable as possible.

And to top off the experience, there is the cocktail bar at the rear of their cabin. The ideal place to stretch you legs, meet fellow travellers, enjoy a quiet drink and, in Jean’s case, make new friends.

I said previously that we were Premium Economy travellers – and while that is a great experience, this was special. The chance to upgrade was well worth the extra cost and has made us rethink how we will travel in future.

And yes Emirates, this post is a shameless attempt to get the offer of an upgrade when we return home in September.

Jean making friends at 40,000 feet
There’s even a place for your hat
Champagne seemed to feature large in our trip
Me trying to look cool but failing dismally

Photos and more photos

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We’ve been home from Italy for just over a month. Time for us to settle back into home life, sort through all the photographs we’ve taken, and load a selection into a holiday gallery on SmugMug.

If you’d like to see some shots from the blog and some new ones you won’t have seen, click here.

All the photos were taken using iPhones – as opposed to the usual Nikon camera back and lenses I have lugged to Europe in the past. All in all, apart from not having any real control over the depth of field, they look pretty good.

Food glorious food

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We left Rome on a high note – from a culinary viewpoint. Our two last nights were dining out – at Aroma next to the colosseum and then at La Pergola in Hotel Cavalieri.

Aroma has one Michelin star and La Pergola has three – so we were expecting fireworks. And we got them.

Aroma offers a range of degustation menus to choose from, excellent service and a view from your table that is quite spectacular. La Pergola offers both degustation and al la carte menus, immaculate service and views across Rome.

The staff at Hotel Barocco were interested in our comparison between the two as one of the front desk staff is the cousin of the chef at Aroma.

it’s fair to say that both provide exquisite food and a fine wine list. And both delight with small surprises as the meal progresses.

There is a formality at La Pergola which comes with three Michelin stars – there’s someone to escort you to the toilets, just to make sure you don’t get lost and while you’re gone a fresh napkin is provided at the table for no reason other than your old one was wrinkled. Their mineral water list is longer than almost any other restaurant’s wine list and your meal is timed to perfection – they know how long to leave between courses – so all you need to do is concentrate on the food.

Aroma feels younger and slightly edgier. There is a fraction less precision but that comes across as less formality. Given their menu approach, food and wines are matched which is a real treat and we lingered longer there to chat with the staff.

Which one is better – we couldn’t call it. So the question we posed ourselves was – if we were taking someone out to dinner in Rome and wanted to surprise and delight them which would we choose?

It would be Aroma, but only by a wafer thin margin.

The view from Aroma
Chef’s start at Aroma
Watermelon, oyster and sea lettuce
Raw red prawn veils, warm Provolone del Monaco cheese and truffle
Mezzi naccheri pasta, marinated scorpion fish, lemon gel and black garlic
Sweet surprises
Apricot, caramel and elderberry
Cheers Aroma
The terrace at La Pergola
Turbot, marinated sweet pepper and Mediterranean flavours
Fillet of veal on tomato and basil textures
A filing cabinet of sweet treats
The terrace at La Pergola in Rome
The view across Rome from La Pergola
Drawers of sweet treats at La Pergola

And now we are home

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After 7 weeks away, we landed in Wellington a few days ago. As you get older the jet lag becomes harder to recover from. I’ve been waking early in the morning with an overwhelming desire for dinner and then falling asleep again mid afternoon. Quite normal some might say.

On the way home we stopped in Dubai for 10 hours. Our lovely travel agent Petra, had organised a room at the Dubai International Hotel so we could shower and grab a few hours sleep. It was brilliant. Because the hotel was air-side we were met at our arrival gate and taken to the hotel with no need to enter Dubai. The hotel operates 24/7 – so we were able to have dinner at 1am before grabbing some much needed sleep.

In the room was an electric massage chair which one of us couldn’t resist trying – even when jet lagged and tired.

Tired Jean in the massage chair