An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Adam and Milton began the day racing to Acquasparta to get a professional shave (even though, sshhh don’t tell anyone, it’s never as close as you can do yourself, but much more fun) but after waiting for the chair to be free, we had only time for one, so Adam had his first experience with someone holding a blade to his throat.
We sped back home and our host and hostess were so nice as to invite Karen and Wendy to each choose a 19th century handmade Neopolitan ceramic tile from the small, colorful collection they had, then we maniacally trundled/lugged everything down the winding cobblestone sidewalks to the car and zipped off to Terni for Karen and Adam to make the 11:31 train to Roma. Made it with several minutes to spare, only to hear an announcement that the train would be (at least) 25 minutes late.
We left them to enjoy their privacy on the platform, and we set off for our day’s drive to Amalfi, Italy. Stopped after a few hours for our picnic lunch, which consisted of salami, cheese, olive oil and other delicious indigenous Italian provisions. Then back on the AutoStrada to cruise at 145+ for a few hours. Passed Naples — such a beautiful setting with Mount Vesuvius jutting up on one side of the city and the Mediterranean Sea with its large rock islands rising up on the other, but what a crowded, ugly city! Exited the Stradas, and began our Amalfi Coast driving experience.
Geez, this makes the Lake Como shoreline drives seem like the Jersey Turnpike on a quiet day. . .1 1/2 lanes of winding, cliff-hugging, two-way traffic, with jagged rocks lining and protruding from one side and the sea on the other, occassionally interupted by erratic oncoming traffic including large buses. (I guess we didn’t give one of them enough room to make a wide turn, since the woman bus driver yelled “Stupido” as she blew past us) We did finally arrive at this grand and lovely hotel. Our room is nice, white with high ceilings and wicker furniture with Mediterrean blue and white cushions and with an enormous patio (500 square feet or so) overlooking the sea and to the east the cliffs with their villages clinging to the mountainsides. Their phone system is antiquated, and entirely inadequate for our needs, so Milton went down to the front desk to attempt to log on to AOL. The hotel personnel are a delight to deal with, and after some failed attempts at finding me a functional phone line, ended up putting me in their back office to do all our computer work.
We then unpacked and ordered room service which we enjoyed out on the terrace, in the lovely weather and moonlight (though augmented by a romantic candle). Dinner consisted of a not-so-good spinach salad, a nice plate of grilled vegetables, a really tasty mixed seafood grill (the squid was sumptuous), and a homemade tagliatelle with prawns and zucchini that was just perfect. After some typing by moonlight on the terrace, we read up on the area and enjoyed a well-deserved night of sleep with no wake-up times.