Frutti di Positano and Amalfi Coast

The day we arrived in Positano we were pretty bummed… it was pouring rain and in Positano – a peaceful old town built into cliffs of the southern coast of Amalfi – there’s absolutely nothing to do when it rains. We grabbed some dinner and discussed all the different possibilities for that leg of the trip – cut it short and head to Rome? Stick it out and hope it gets better? Use the rain as an excuse to do nothing but drink wine and play backgammon?

We opted for the latter and tried to make the best of Positano in hopes that the weather improves… and it did! The next day we went on an amazing hike which had us ascending the many flights of stairs around town until we were at the top half of the cliffs, above the town line.  Now we were only about a third of the way up… we still needed to climb the ‘Path of the Gods’ until we reached the summit. We even passed by several groups of Positano rescue workers doing their drills – propelling, rock climbing, etc. The view from the top was stunning and definitely worth the breathless climb. But now came the hard part… the descent down steep rocky path and countless set of stairs (my knees are still in crumbly shambles).  Needless to say the next day we took it easy with a little R&R and backgammon on the beach J

Generally, the food in town was pretty good… especially if you like seafood or pizza because that’s all they have – our favorite was the Neapolitan pizza at Saraceno D’Oro and the spaghetti w/ cuttlefish ink at Chez Black. I was really looking forward to trying the Zuppa di Pesce that seemed to be a regional specialty as it was on almost every menu… we got a chance to try it on our last night there on our 2^nd visit to Chez Black. Both Alan and I thought it was absolutely delicious and enjoyed our evening… unfortunately there must’ve been one bad egg among the shellfish because Alan has been battling with a bout of food poisoning ever since.

On the plus side, we’re in Rome now in a very comfortable B&B in Trastevere and feel very much at home here… so it’s a nice and pleasant place for Alan to recover.