Cruising the Amalfi Coast!

The scenery in the Amalfi Coast is as beautiful and breathtaking as friends had raved, and we were giddy to arrive in Sant Agata, the small town close to Sorrento that would be our home base for exploring the area over the 9 days. We were the only travelers staying at the 7-unit gated vacation apartment complex, so it was quiet and luxurious to have the property to ourselves. Called La Campanella the place had a beautiful pool and lounge area overlooking the sea to one side and towards the town of Massa Lubrense on the other, plus a garden of lemon trees growing the region's famous giant lemons, olive trees lining the driveway and cascading rosemary in the flowerbeds around the pool.





We read everywhere that the one must-do experience on the Amalfi coast is the drive along the coast from Sorrento to Amalfi, either as a passenger on a bus, or driving in a car. We were warned against taking a car into the little towns as finding parking is a difficult challenge, but we were there after high tourist season so it wasn't too busy. What was more of a challenge was the drive itself. We'd learned by now that Italian drivers are maniacs and wild cards on the road, but driving with them on these winding, cliff-hanging roads was crazy! It's every man and woman for him/herself and they try to pass other cars every chance they get on roads that are barely wide enough for two cars. The roads are so winding the practice is to honk before every corner to warn oncoming drivers, which means you pretty much hear excessive tooting on the road at 3 second intervals. I was hard pressed to find an Italian without dings and dents on his car. The tense (but fun!) ride is worth it for the heart-stopping views along the coast as you pass the beautiful pastel towns of Positano, Priano, Furore and Amalfi built up from the sea and into the hills, looking out onto shimmering blue water.









The best way to tell the story of this coastal paradise is through photos, although they don't really do it justice.

Ravello
We drove to Ravello, a village perched on a hilltop just past Amalfi to visit the Villa Cimbrone gardens.




View from Villa Cimbrone gardens in Ravello


Views from lunch

Sorrento
We had an awesome sunny lunch at Delfino's at the Marina Grande in Sorrento. The best seafood risotto we had on the trip! At least three groups of friends had recommended the risotto so we had to try it...amazing!





Priano
We loved the little town of Priano. It was much less touristy, and felt more authentic. We stopped there to watch the sunset, while the neighbourhood kids played in the piazza in front of the church. After sunset we enjoyed some great regional wines (Primitivo and Aglianico) at Vivaro Wine Bar. We highly recommend this spot! The owner Gennaro knows his wine, and knows his way around a kitchen. He served us two delicious pastas on the house while we enjoyed our wine--the first was a spicy ravioli dish and the second was a delicious fresh pasta vongole with clams.





Sant Agata/Massa Lubrense
After eating out quite a bit for almost three months, we enjoyed settling in to our own routine in our kitchen at La Campanella. Every day at four o'clock we enjoyed an aperitivo of Aperol spritz, or a glass of wine and made our game plan for dinner. We made homemade gnocchi with homemade pesto one night (Mitchell's turned out far better than mine!). Another night we made a squid pasta dish with the encouragement and instruction from a few of the locals. It had to be Spaghetti No.5 (on this they were adamant!) with sauteed squid, garlic, chilis and tomatoes. The fishmonger also gave us the local special recipe for Pezzogna d'all Aqua Pazza (Fish in Crazy Water). Pezzogna is a local fish, and the recipe is very simple and delicious. Salt the fish all over, drizzle it will olive oil and put it in a pan with water, garlic and tomatoes. Traditionally the water would have been salt water right from the sea.




Local squid




Pezzogna

We tackled a few amazing hikes in Massa Lubrense. The coast here is protected as a marine reserve and rich with ruins from a few thousand years ago. We hiked to one point with a fantastic view of the Isle of Capri, and a narrow, steep, natural crack in the coastal rock that led down to the water.




Ancient stairway to the ocean built in the rock


Rusted ship mooring


View of Capri

Also nearby were the ruins of an ancient villa built by Greek aristocracy looking out over Sorrento. We watched local fisherman cast their lines (not one catch in over an hour!), and wandered through the rubble and the ancient natural baths of the villa.




View of Sorrento


Baths in behind the ancient villa

Probably the most aggressive and rewarding hike we did in this area was to a small secluded beach at the recommendation from a local. It was a steep hike for 2km straight down a sketchy and rocky path to blue water, a pebbly beach, magnificent rock face and a view of Capri at sunset. The water was chilly but we still went in, on October 19th!









Positano!
We visited Positano on two different days. It is a picturesque, secluded, pastel town built into the cliffs of the Amalfi Coast and deserves all the praise it gets for its beauty. I'd say the most visited and touristy of the Amalfi towns, with every other shop selling either the infamous Limoncello or brightly coloured ceramics, and bustling with tourists even in late October when the other towns were quieting down. We made our way down the steep cobblestone streets to end up accidently at the tail end of a wedding procession en route to the church down by the beach. We stopped at Chez Black on the beach and enjoyed a fresh Sorrento mozzarella caprese salad, and fried anchovies, that we shared with the resident stray cat.





For our second visit to Positano we rented a little zodiac to check out the coast from the water. This was a highlight! Mitchell was a skilled captain for what was quite a bumpy ride at first! The views were awesome...I think I took 150 photos on this two-hour adventure. We stopped in a quiet bay at Maiora to soak in the sun and share a bottle of bubbly. Blissful moments in paradise!




View of the town of Atrani from our boat


In the bay at Maiori,  blissfully bubbly-fied


Paris to Positano is complete! ;)

The Amalfi Coast was a stunning end to our stay in Italy. It's one of the most beautiful places we've ever visited!

Here's a link to more photos from the Amalfi Coast:
Amalfi Coast Photos

Degustazioni

After our wine tasting adventure in Bordeaux, France, our palates were prepped to explore Umbria & Tuscany. Spending just over a month in Italy gave us lots of time to taste the wine (about a bottle a day at least!), and learn more about their wine from a few organized tastings.

The wine classifications are much more straight forward in Italy compared to France. They essentially have their table wines - typically small mom and pop wineries that don't adhere to traditional standards, then D.O.C. - wines adhering to a set of quality-focused guidelines, D.O.C.G - highest set of guidelines that have to be met, and finally I.G.T - basically wine producers saying "screw the rules", getting creative and making what they want to, usually blending with grapes from outside of Italy such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, creating a new category of wines called Super Tuscans.

Umbria

The two weeks at L'Ariete agritourismo provided a great home base for touring the wine regions of Umbria and Tuscany. Umbria, produces white wines, and it's prized red, unique to Umbria from the region of Montefalco, is made from the Sagrantino grape. The Sagrantino grape produces a very dry tannic wine with a little fruitiness, and is best when it's allowed to age for several years to taste it's true potential. Sagrantino di Montefalco is the premium wine, requiring 100% sagrantino grapes and tastes best with longer aging, where the Rosso di Montefalco is an everyday drinking wine that is a blend of sagrantino and sangiovese, and delicous to drink with traditional pastas and cheeses of the region.

To whet our Italian wine tasting palates we headed to Montefalco, and brought Udo and Dagmar, our friends also staying at L'Ariete with us. Our first stop was Arnold Caprai winery, a massive producer shipping wines all over the world. It had a bit of the "commerical winery" feel to it but served us some great wines with fresh bread covered in olive oil and rock salt, which softened the hard sagrantinos nicely.


Tasting at Arnold Caprai

After a delicious lunch at the top of Montefalco we went to Adanti winery where we were greeted by a very charming older gentleman that guided us through our tastings. The space was less sparkly and new than Arnold Caprai, but the hospitality warmer and more genuine, and the wines, much better! Our host was Alvaro Palini, a man with a twinkle in his eye, a mischevious and spritely air about him far younger than his years. He spoke only Italian and French, so we mustered through in French as best we could. Alvaro was once a tailor working in fashion in Paris for 18 years (no wonder I was charmed!), and then returned to his roots in Umbria to produce these fabulous wines. Alvaro gave us a few glasses and placed a row of whites and reds in front of us and let us loose to pour our own tastings. The white, Arquata Grechetto DOC, was a combination of Grechetto, a grape only grown in this region, and Tuscan Trebbiano grapes. Our favourite reds were the Arquata Montefalco Rosso DOC, and Arquata Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG. The latter we bought to bring home to Vancouver to rest while we salivate over it until it's fully ready in ten years or so.


Lunch in Montefalco at an all local and organic cafe - Bruschetta con olio with their house made olive oil was the special, mmm!

Tuscany

In Tuscany, it's all about Sangiovese. This grape makes a delicious full bodied red wine that ages well, especially when oaked for 12-18 months. Other than the Super Tuscan wines, almost all red wines in this region are Sangiovese.

Our first tasting in Tuscany was in Montepulciano where we had a great morning visit at Cantine Dei. It's a family run estate that just fell into wine production after the first small recreational wine they produced 25 years ago turned out so well. The prized wine of Montepulciano is the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, but all of Cantine Dei's wines (the Rosso di Montepulciano, their IGT/SuperTuscan and their vino Nobile) were smooth, balanced, elegant and ready to drink.


Playing with the friendly dog that the family had rescued and 'adopted' from the side of the highway three days earlier


Vino Nobile aging in oak

A quick 45 minute drive and we stopped in Montalcino for lunch, home of the big, delicious, and more expensive Brunellos. The restaurant was called, Il Grappolo Blu and we ordered pasta with pancetta, peas, rosemary and chilli peppers, and rabbit stewed in a Brunello red wine sauce for our main. So good!



After lunch we headed to the beautiful Tuscan estate of Ciacci Piccolomini where we quickly made friends with Martina, our guide for the next couple hours. We got a full tour of the facilities and saw a lot of post-harvest action at the winery. We tasted 5 red wines, accompanied with bread and olive oil. For the most part the wineries in this area produce a Rosso di Montalcino, a Brunello di Montalcino, a Brunello di Montalcino Riserva and a Super Tuscan. Ciacci's suite of these wines were amazing. Full, fruity, spicy, soft and balanced. Yum!


Rolling hills view from Ciacci Piccolomini




After maceration and pressing, these grape skins and seeds were being sent to make grappa

From Ciacci we had a fun drive on the gravel roads through the rolling hills, vineyards and olive groves to our next stop, Poggio Antico. There are over 200 wineries in just the area of Montalcino and we were fortunate to pick two great ones. We found Poggio Antico down a a long tree-lined road. We tasted several of Poggio's wines, including their Brunello Riserva. We splurged and bought a Brunello that we can lay down in our closet/"cellar" for a few years.


Driveway to Poggio Antico


View from the estate


Massive 43 hectolitre Slovenian oak barrels - commonly used in Tuscany


Chianti

En route to Florence for a few nights we drove through the middle of Chianti country and visited the "Butcher of Tuscany". Our guide book spoke highly of it so we weren't sure if was going to be very good, or just very touristy. Turns out, it was more than very good! Dario Cecchini, the Butcher of Tuscany, has 3 restaurants and a macelleria (butcher shop) all on the same block in the small hilltop village of Panzano in Chianti. We chose MacDario, his own take on fast food. The menu choice was either a burger with sage fries or a mixed plate of meat, accompanied buy a number of his homemade sides and sauces including homemade pepper jelly, mustard and ketchup - all amazing! Dario is overly passionate about how his meat is raised and handled, and uses every possible inch of the animal. The place was packed when we arrived on a brisk sunny afternoon and had to wait about 30 minutes. We were ushered through the back door to the butcher shop to hangout while we waited for seats to open up. I couldn't think of a better way to wait in line...in the butcher shop you are invited to pour yourself a glass of Dario's own Chianti wine, eat from trays of meats and cheeses, and watch Dario and his fellow butchers man-handle the meats. A notable snack was their Chianti butter, a spreadable treat of lard, rosemary, cracked pepper and salt...Mmm.


Dario Cecchini doing what he does



With a mostly empty stomach and a healthy wine buzz, we both ordered his burger, a large portion of breadcrumb-crisped, rare-cooked beef, served without a bun, alongside sage roast potatoes/fries and some greens. The beef was delicious and super flavourful, especially with the homemade sauces. We had a good chat with our friendly Canadian server (one of the many butchers who has come to learn from the master - four of twelve working at Dario's were from Canada) about being a butcher and by the time we left Mitchell was convinced this was his ticket out of the rat race and that he was going to become a butcher. Not sure if his sensitive nose could handle it, or if he'd like working weekends, but a tempting idea nonetheless.

Here's a snippet from Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, when he visited Dario in Panzano:
Anthony's Visit to Tuscany

We topped off our Tuscany experience in the beautiful city of Florence, staying in a downtown apartment for 3 nights before heading south for the last leg of our trip. We didn't do anything touristy and just walked the streets and lived like a Florentine for a couple days. Our apartment had a well-equipped kitchen so we cooked up a tasty Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us with some of Dario's fennel dusted pork chops and Chianti wine.


Zanobini wine bar - fun Enoteca full of crazy locals where we sampled several Chiantis


The Duomo in Florence, a less than 5-minute walk from where we stayed


One of Florence's famous leather markets - We did quite well here!

Here's a link to more photos from Umbria, Tuscany and Florence:
Umbria/Tuscany Photos
Florence Photos