OFF TO THE AMALFI COAST!
Many people have asked me why we decided to only spend one night in Rome instead of a few days at the beginning. Well, great question! We actually created our entire Itinerary around one special event… Festa Del Patrocinio Di S. Andrea, or as we know it, The St. Andrew’s Feast in Amalfi on June 27th. I’ll get more in depth on “Feast Day”, but my grandmother’s family was from Amalfi and settled in New Haven, Connecticut. Her father, Salvatore Del Prete, was one of the founding members of the St. Andrew Society in New Haven, honoring their Patron Saint from Amalfi. My family has attended the festival in America for years, and it was a dream to attend the festival in Amalfi, so yup, planned the whole itinerary around that!
ROME TO SALERNO
Well on to day 2… We found taking an Uber to Rome Termini was super easy. We had to catch a 7:30 train, so we took a 6:30 am Uber and had time to spare. Our Airbnb was about 15 minutes from the station, and when we arrived, it was very easy to navigate the station and find where we needed to go! The Seven Suites Airbnb offered breakfast in the morning to each guest, which was an espresso or cappuccino and your choice of 2 pastries (each!) from a little cafe right next door, the historic Bar-Pasticceria Linari (https://pasticcerialinari.com/). The espresso and the pastries were delicious!
We booked our train tickets weeks in advance on Trainline (https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us). We were told to book as much in advance as possible as prices tend to increase as dates approach, so we did. It was super convenient, as everything was right on our phones. However, this was our first experience with overpacking!!! The pictures below tell the story…The train ride was about 1.5 hours through beautiful country. We left at 7:30 and arrived in Salerno at 9:05. We then walked about 10 minutes to the dock to board our ferry to Minori. We also booked this beforehand on Ferryhopper (https://www.ferryhopper.com/#/). Again SUPER convenient and easy to use!
MINORI
We arrived in Minori about 10:30 am. In Latin, Minori means “tiny”. It is also the oldest inhabited town on the Amalfi Coast and our home for five days. Our Airbnb host met us at the dock. He walked us through town, showing us all of the local places to visit, shop and eat. It was great! We were able to drop our stuff until check in at 3:00, which was super helpful.
PATH OF LEMONS
With a bit of time to wait, we decided to spend this time walking The Path of Lemons. This “path” is a walkway between the towns of Minori and Maiori. It actually does continue on, however, we felt accomplished after our 45 minute journey as we reached the pinnacle and were able to look down on Maiori. In my head I envisioned numerous lemon groves and walking under lemon filled pergolas. In reality, it is a breathtaking walk, where you see much more of ocean views with a few private lemon groves along the way. The path actually got its name because donkeys would use this path to transport lemons between towns. We actually did see this on day three…video to follow… There were lots of pit stops for photos along the walkway, including the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel which was located right on the path. I will not lie, we were definitely winded and our thighs were burning, but it was worth it, and definitely not as grueling as our walk on day three…
We took some beautiful pictures along the way, but the two highlights were meeting Fortuna & Nadia. As we reached the “top” of the path, we came upon a little house built right into the mountain. A woman named Fortuna was selling some crocheted items from her home. I couldn’t help myself and felt the need to purchase an adorable little lemon crocheted hanging. She was so sweet and invited us into her home and out onto her patio to look at the unbelievable view of Maiori.
After visiting our new friend’s home we continued up a slight hill and a few more steps to Agricola Ruocco’s (https://agricolaruoccos.it/) …the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! They had a little cafe of sorts called ‘The Lemon Point’. We came upon it just in time as we were dying of thirst!! It was an adorable little area with a small bar, some chairs and tables and some small areas for pictures. We enjoyed some freshly squeezed lemonade and lemon granita and they also gave us some samples of lemon marmalade on bruschetta. It was delicious! Here we met Nadia, the daughter-in-law of the owner and she was sweet as could be. She told us because we purchased something we were able to follow the hill a little ways up to a door that would lead to their private lemon grove, where we could take as many pictures as we wished!
EXPLORING MINORI TOWN
We then headed back down the mountain and strolled the little streets and found “our” deli Macelleria F. lli Mandara for the next 5 days, with the most wonderful owners, the Mandara brothers. They were so welcoming, funny and made the BEST sandwiches at such a reasonable price. For €7 we were able to get subs with Prosciutto di Parma, fresh mozzarella, tomato and pesto… some got salami and they were huge. By the end of our trip, they referred to us as “La Famiglia” and even gave us enormous lemons from their garden. If you go to Minori, you MUST stop by this sub shop! Here’s a great little article about them: (https://www.maiorinews.it/it/echi-e-faville-42/inaugurazione-della-nuova-macelleria-dei-fratelli-149640/article). We also made a pit stop at a grocery store Mini Market Dieci Più down an alley where one of the employees (who was about 75) offered to deliver our groceries on a hand truck, but instead gave it to the guys to use as long as they promised to return it… you can’t make this up!
MINORI AIRBNB
By 2:30 our Airbnb was finally ready and we were given a tour by our other host, Greta. The house was wonderful! Enough for our group of 11. First floor Double bed with a bathroom. Second floor a little kitchen. Third floor a king bed with a pull out double and a bathroom, but then head out a little door to a patio and through another door to a little apartment with a room with a King bed and bathroom and a large kitchen with a huge pull out couch. Heading up to the fourth floor was a kitchenette and another bathroom, then finally the last bedroom with a King bed and a pull out couch. And then the bonus…up the stairs a bit more (yes more stairs!!) to a big patio overlooking the town with an outdoor shower! The home was clean and highly recommended with just a 5 minute walk to the beach and the main part of town. The only downside was when stepping out the front door, you were on the street… we embraced this feature as more of a challenge than a downside 🙂 (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/24517366?source_impression_id=p3_1754484088_P3etuYZrkjNDre1w).
DINNER & NIGHTLIFE IN MINORI
Once we unpacked and relaxed a bit we headed out to dinner. Dinner in Italy is anytime after 8:00. We headed to La Botte (https://ristorante-la-botte-1.wheree.com/). A restaurant recommended by our new friend Fortuna (the owners are her cousins). The restaurant was on a side street and you needed to go down the steps to a beautifully decorated patio. Unfortunately, there were no more seats outdoors for our large party, so we had the dining room to ourselves (for a little while, anyways). The atmosphere was simple and rustic, with the walls covered in paintings by local artist (and waiter) Giuseppe Proto, who was happy to talk about his life as an artist and offer to sell any paintings right off the wall. The menu was full of mostly seafood dishes and they did not disappoint. Only a few food pics, as I would continuously remember to take pictures once I was done eating!! If you enjoy seafood, I would give this restaurant a shot! After dinner (around 10:30 pm), we headed down to the beach street where we watched some locals playing soccer and watched some fireworks coming from Amalfi. We then headed for a nightcap at Pasticceria Gambardella (https://www.gambardella.it/) for the best espresso martinis!
FUN FACT 1: There are a ton of stray cats everywhere… Anyone who harms a cat in Italy can be charged with a crime. Cats can also live wherever they like – and must be fed. They cannot be relocated…. got this info from our family that lives in Italy 🙂
FUN FACT 2: Fortuna shared that until about 10 years ago most people would travel the path between the towns instead of the roads, as the locals prefer this method of travel, and most did not have cars.
My Italian Adventures 