As you already know, mama came to visit me over here for 2 weeks. Or maybe I should say my sister, because everyone we met on our trips insisted that she was just my older sister. It was a recurring theme for sure. Reaaaal original, people; like I’ve never heard that before!!! Anyway, We met in Rome the first night, a Wednesday, and our first meal of the trip was at a tiny little restaurant that we accidentally stumbled upon, and it turned out to be one of the best meals we had on the whole trip- authentic Italian cheeses, the best prosciutto either of us have ever tasted, a big plate full of pasta, and of course lots of red wine. It’s a very good thing I’m not studying abroad in Italy or I’d be coming home and going straight to fat camp. We were only supposed to spend 1 night in Rome and leave for Positano the next morning, but due to lost baggage, we had to stay 2 nights in Rome. I was actually happy about this because I’ve never been to Rome, so I wanted to see a few sights. We toured the Coliseum, a bunch of the ruins, the Pantheon, and the Trevi fountain. I’d say we did pretty good for 1 day!
We woke up Friday and took a train down to Salerno, where we then took a ferry to the fairy-tale town of Positano. Tucked away into the mountainous coastline of Amalfi, this sweet, little town was unlike anything I’d ever seen. All of the buildings are built into the mountains, each and every one of them promising an amazing view of the Mediterranean. Since the whole town is built into the mountain, you have to take steps and winding pathways, overhung with vines and flowers, to get anywhere. We stayed at a cozy bed and breakfast called La Fenice, run by a man named Constantino, his wife, Angela, and their 2 sons. Paradise found. Once past the gate, you climb a steep, winding, vine-covered stairway to the main house, turning around all the while so as not to miss a single view of the sea and landscape.
Our first full day in Positano, we hiked around the town, taking in the sights, and doing a little window-shopping. We ate at a beachfront restaurant called Chez Black where my mom was served the biggest portion on pasta I’ve ever seen, so big that they brought her a bib to wear while indulging. I ordered a pizza and it came in the shape of a heart. This is what happens when you smile at people over here. It’s interpreted differently than it is back home. Mama and I looked around and everyone else’s pizza was just in plain ole’ circular form. And I had made eye contact with the pizza chef earlier so I smiled at him, just like I do everyone that I make eye contact with!! So, tip for tau- If you smile at a European man, he will think that you like him. And then he will make you a heart-shaped pizza.
For dinner, we went back down to a restaurant on the beach and had drinks after at an outdoor bar. There are a couple of “stray” dogs that roam around the beach and like to just mosey on in and visit with the tourists. (I put stray in quotes because everyone that works on the beach takes care of them and feeds them.) There was a German Shepherd mix named Nando who came right up to us to visit, and when he obviously sensed that we were dog people, he hopped right up on the booth with mama and put his head in her lap. We made fast friends with Nando and a little, black dog who’s name we never knew; such fast friends that when we started heading back up to the hotel, they followed us. It didn’t take long for me to notice that the little dog was very sick. He was trying his hardest to keep up with us but he kept stopping and going into coughing fits. Well, you better believe I told mom that we had to carry him because he couldn’t make it up all the steps. And by we carry him, I mean her carry him. Considering she works out with a big, ex-Ole Miss football player twice a week, she was the better candidate for carrying the 20-pound dog up the town of stairs. When we got halfway back up to our hotel some men asked us why she was carrying the dog and we told them that they were going to follow us either way so we might as well carry the little one to save him the trouble. One of the men said he’d drive the little dog back down to the beach in his truck, so mama put him in the truck bed and we went on our way. We were just barely around the corner when we heard little man running after us yet again. He had jumped out of the truck bed to follow us! We had heard earlier in the night that Constantino (the hotel owner) used to be a veterinarian, so mama scooped up the little dog again, thinking that Constantino wouldn’t mind too much if we brought them home. It wasn’t until we got back to the hotel and had 2 stray dogs sitting on our beds that we looked at each other and kinda went, “uhhhh what have we done?”. We finally came to our senses that as much as we wanted to cuddle with them all night, they just couldn’t stay in our hotel room. So being the dog-lover and marathoner that she is, Mama put on her running clothes at midnight to take the dogs back down to the beach so that they wouldn’t get run over on one of the winding roads by our hotel. All I have to say about this story is that some things just never change! It’s reminds me of the saying from “Sweet Home Alabama”, you can take the girl out of the honky tonk but you can’t take the honky tonk out of the girl!
Sunday found us in a small town up the mountain called Ravello. This is where we took the most beautiful pictures that you may have seen on my facebook page. The town is so tiny that I think the only reason people go there is for the views and to eat at a restaurant called Cumpa Cosimo. We had read about it in Fodor’s and we followed their recommendation to order the mixed plate of pastas of the day to share. Best recommendation ever. They brought over a huge plate full of 5 or 6 different types of pasta and divided it evenly onto each of our plates. Mama cleared her plate first and the owner’s son came over and asked her if she wanted more. She unconvincingly said no but he grinned at her and said, “Yes, I bring you more.” Being the Italian that he is, he was not trying to hide that he had a crush on mama in the least. After the pasta refills, he brought us a plate full of desserts and 2 shots of Limoncello on the house. It was hands down, the best food of the entire trip.
We left Positano early Monday morning to head to Spain, and the day just started out bad from the get-go. We had to be up at the crack of dawn to catch a bus to Sorrento, where we had to take a train to Naples, where we had to catch another train to Rome to get to the airport. It was just one of those days where if something could have gone wrong, it did. When we got to Rome we wanted to take a taxi to the airport instead of the metro because our bags were so heavy. Well go figure that there would be a marathon going on in Rome and so most of the main roads were blocked off and traffic was horrendous. Our cabdriver took advantage of the fact that we were female tourists and acted like he didn’t know which roads were closed so that he could take a big 25 euro loop just to end up right back at the train station. So basically, he started the meter at 25 euro and wasted 30 minutes of our precious time. When we finally got to the airport an hour later, we only had 1 hour before our flight, and the lovely creature dropped us off in the pouring rain (not underneath the overhang), and told us it would be 100 euro. This is a time when you wish with all your might that you could speak “slang” Italian but considering I was getting drenched standing out on the sidewalk with all the bags, mama wasn’t really in a position to argue; so the asshole got the better of us. Excuse my French… Or should I say Italian?? Once inside the airport, the geniuses thought they had no record of us, but ended up finding our reservation. We were connecting in Barcelona and it wasn’t until we got on the plane that we realized that they’d only checked our bags through to Barcelona. It was really an unbelievable day. To wrap things up, we ended up missing our connecting flight in Barcelona since we had to go out and get our bags, but fortunately the airline put us on a later flight free of charge. We made it to Sevilla, bags and all at about 8:30 p.m. As wonderful as Positano was, we learned that it is VERY hard to get to and from, and that one should leave much room for error when traveling. Thus ends Part 1 of our adventures in Italy. Stay tuned for Part 2 Spain edition. Ciao bellas!
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