We are lucky enough to have friends in Tuscany and we all got together for dinner at San Felice. It was a wonderful night, great food, great wine and great company.
Three Kiwis and four Italians, what a special experience.
Friends in Tuscany
Tag Archives: Italy
Today we leave Tuscany
Today we leave San Felice and travel to Rome. It’s an early start, but the upside is capturing the view of Tuscany from our front door at 7am.
Welcome to San Felice
On Tuesday we moved from Relais Vignale in Radda to San Felice for a few days. Jean has really been looking forward to getting here and was like a kid on Christmas morning – up early on Tuesday, packed and ready to go before breakfast, just wanting to get here although it is only a 20 minute drive.
For those who don’t know, we visited San Felice last year and Jean fell in love with it – so this year we get to stay a few days.
San Felice is a hotel which is made up of an entire traditional Italian Borgo (village). It retains a village feel but has around 50 rooms and suites in the old buildings as well as two restaurants (one of which has a Michelin star), a pool, indoor and outdoor bars, shops, a wine tasting room and two churches.
Jean fell in love with the room, so she shot one of her famous one take videos.
After a couple of days by the pool and a dinner with friends last night in the casual restaurant, San Felice is living up to expectations. Jean doesn’t want to leave – which could be a problem on Friday when we move back to Rome.
From seafood and bustle to meat and quiet
We have been in Tuscany for a couple of days and the contrast with Positano is dramatic. Gone is the bustle and noise of the busy seaside town, replaced by the quiet of rural Tuscany. The noisiest thing we hear are the church bells ringing out on the hour or the distant sound of tyres on white roads (gravel roads).
The constants are the long lasting summer weather and the incredible sunsets.
We moved into Relais Vignale in Radda in Chianti a few days ago and it felt like catching up with an old friend. We booked the same room as last year so enjoyed our own private garden and a room with enough room to swing many cats – if we so wished.
Marco still runs the bar like a military operation and remembered us from last year. The pool was still there but with new seats and loungers. The big change was the restaurant – Vignale Ristorante – which has a new manager, who has taken it’s slightly tired and stodgy menu and reinvented it with traditional local cuisine with a modern feel.
The restaurant uses its terrace view to great effect and we spent the first evening enjoying some delicious food – lots of meat and not much seafood, excellent local wine and the view of the sun slowly setting beyond the olive trees.
If you’re staying at Relais Vignale in the next wee while (that would be you Tony W) give the restaurant a shot. I’m sure you’ll be in for a great evening.
We have also been able to catch up with our friends Olga and Dani. We’ve had meals out and meals in – including a traditional kiwi barbecue at their place, with an Italian flavour. Marinated chicken, Italian sausages and a huge slice of prosciutto went on the barbecue, accompanied by arancini, courtesy of Dani, focaccia courtesy of our NZ friend Tina and everything else courtesy of Olga.
There was food for a dozen people but the 5 of us made a good dent in it.
Good morning Tuscany
Sunday morning in Tuscany, not a bad way to start the day.
Two weeks in the sun
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.
Carved out of the cliff
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?
We spotted this lovely villa on our walk to the village in Positano.
Tax – boring but worth it
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
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
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
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
Get up. Put the kettle on. Open the front door. Not a bad way to start the day.
Sorrento for the day
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.
A day at the beach
On Friday we went to the beach. There were three options – Arienzo beach – 239 steps below our villa, Spiaggia Grande – the main beach in Positano and Fornillo beach which is one bay on from the Spiaggia Grande.
Arienzo beach is home of the famous Arienzo beach club which we have visited before. It is close to the casa and private but has changed in the last few years. It used to cost 10 Euro for a towel, lounger and umbrella plus whatever you spent on lunch and drinks. Since Covid, it has become an Instagram hotspot and now only offers packages which start at 350 Euro for the “basic experience” which includes loungers, umbrellas, lunch and a bottle of bubbles, and goes up to 850 Euro for the “VIP experience” which include a 20 minute photo shoot, vintage champagne and caviar. Yikes, that makes for an expensive day out.
Spiaggia Grande is the beach you see in all the classic shots of Positano. Rows of loungers and umbrellas all lined up like soldiers. It is close to the village but is very busy. It seems better value for money than Arienzo beach but we have tended to avoid the hustle and bustle that comes with it’s hundreds of keen beach goers.
Which brings us to Fornillo beach, the quiet alternative to the main beach and where we spent a day last year.
It is a longer walk to get there and back on a hot day but it’s worth it. Jean got to swim in the sea, taste the salty waters of the Med, and fulfil her piscean needs.
Toscanakiwi 