Italia 2019

It all started last fall when we got a call from E’s mommy Max.

She and Teacher Tom invited us to go along with them to the Amalfi Coast of Italy for a two week stay in an apartment. We, of course agreed immediately! The arrangements flew back and forth over e-mail and phone between them, us and two different travel agencies… The primary agency, Untours(trademarked un-organized travel company) sent many emails and information via snail mail. Flights were booked and the countdown began.

Each week, we would remind each other of the time remaining until flight check in. Finally the day came and we were off to Seattle-Tacoma Airport for the flight. 12 hours of flight time on Delta Airlines from SEA-TAC to Paris (Charles De-Gaul) with a transfer to Air France and a smaller jet into Naples. We were met by Rosario from Untours and then settled in until Max and Tom arrived.

We then boarded a Mercedes van with our driver Octavio and began our journey up and over the mountains to the Amalfi Coast.

This is a great opportunity to talk about driving in a foreign country. Thank God that I didn’t have to! I drive all the time, in a patrol car, my personal vehicles and even in Germany for many years in the 80’s. I can say without a doubt that the drivers here in the south of the country are very free-spirited… As a former traffic enforcement officer I fully believe that the traffic rules are just a set of extremely loose guidelines here. Every vehicle that I saw was running anywhere on the road they felt like…the white lane markers seem to be like a mid-ship guide like the old track bound cars in an amusement park. Merging in both round-a-bouts and onto the highways seem more of an exercise in faith and, in some cases, blind luck. After the wild but professional driven ride out of the city we started up the winding side road (highway, really?) to cross the mountains into the Costa Amalfitana.

Our little house in Atrani appears as you come into town from Ravello. It is a pink pastel color and located right on the main road with a rooftop courtyard that looks directly out to sea.

Our little town is amongst some of the oldest the seaside towns of the Costa Amalfitana. Atrani boasts a church, San Salvatore de Birecto where the local dukes were crowned during the period of the Amalfitan republic.

The house (and the grotta above town, where he lived for some time) is named for a local hero/hoodlum Tomaso Aniello (shortened to Masaniello). He lived from 1622 to July 16, 1647. He was instrumental and notorious during the Neapolitan Revolt, being appointed to the office of “captain-general of the Neapolitan people” by the mafia. This history makes interesting reading, some as wild as any fiction ever written.

Many more posts to come…Sit back, grab a cappuccino and patisserie and let’s visit the Amalfi Coast.

BFD

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