Day Six: Exploring Praiano

Sunrise from our Praiano balcony

       Apparently it had been cloudy and rainy in Praiano for the past few days, just as it had been in Rome. So when the sun rose on that bright, clear Wednesday, everyone we met remarked on what a beautiful day it was. Mark and I ate breakfast on our balcony, watching the village come alive on the street below. Before we brought our cameras out we watched a caravan of donkeys go by with empty bins on their backs. We never saw them again nor found out what their job was. Here are some of the pictures we took from our balcony:

Drinking the espresso that Mark learned to make.
He wants an espresso maker for Father's Day!

A parking lot for people who don't have a
place for their car or motorcycle near their home.

The school bus had Frozen pictures on its sides.
Our granddaughter would love to ride in that bus!

There was a garden store below our apt.
The owner put his wares outside each morning. 

       

       Having spent five days on planes, buses, trains, and a ferry, we looked forward to spending a day exploring this little village on foot. This meant climbing and descending hundreds of stairs, and trodding narrow passageways, with no particular destination in mind. 

Bob Art is sold in shops all over the Amalfi Coast.
We happened to come across the artist in his shop
and bought ceramic espresso cups from Bob himself.

       Our wanderings brought us to a breakfast buffet being served under a lemon arbor. It was the only restaurant in Praiano that was not on a busy road. It was definitely my favorite meal spot in Italy.

       This would have been a perfect day if we didn't have to do laundry that night. Ivan had tried to explain how to operate the washing machine in our apartment, but the computer-operated machine did not behave and we were stuck with sopping wet clothes and water on the floor. Ivan did his best to rectify the situation, but finally came to the conclusion that the ten-year-old machine was broken and had to be replaced. We spent at least two hours in the apartment, working with Ivan on the washing machine, and then wringing out clothes to hang on a drying rack. There do not appear to be any driers in Italy, which is admirable from an environmental standpoint, but Mark was completely out of clean shirts. Fortunately, one of the shirts was dry enough to wear the next morning. 

       

Day Five: Journey to Praiano

       On Tuesday we took a bus, a train, a ferry, and another bus to reach our destination in Praiano on the Amalfi Coast. The first bus took us to Termini Station where we would catch the train to Salerno. We had very little time for lunch, and since we had yet to taste the famed Italian gelato, we decided to buy some at a snack bar in the station. The gelato was in covered metal containers so we couldn't point to what we wanted like you can in most gelaterias, but we saw limone on the list of choices and told the cashier that's what we wanted. Two limone gelato cones - one medium and one small. The cashier gave us a receipt which we took to the server and also told him we wanted limone cones. I don't think he knew any English, but gelato is an Italian word, right?

       The server asked if we wanted a second flavor, so Mark asked for orange (arancia) and I requested cioccolato. He said that was not an option. I wondered why not, but said I'd take arancia, too. We expected him to open the metal containers and scoop out our gelato, but instead he took out a fresh lemon and an orange, and peeled them. What was he doing? Was he going to make our gelato from scratch? We asked him if he knew we wanted gelato. He said, yes, it would just take five minutes to make it. We watched him put the fruit in a blender. This was very strange. And then, stranger still, he put two cups of juice on the counter. We told him this was not what we'd asked for. We wanted gelato! He insisted he had given us what was written on the receipt. So I took the juice cups back to the cashier and told her we had paid for gelato and got juice. She took the juice cups back to the serving area and angrily dumped the juice in a container. Then, also angrily, she scooped some limone sorbet into a cone. It didn't stay in the cone, so she put the sorbet into cups and stuck the cones on top. I have no idea if she was angry at us or the server, or who made the error. The limone sorbet was definitely not gelato, but it was good. Needless-to-say, this was one of the less pleasant surprises we encountered in Italy.

 

       The train to Salerno was fast and comfortable. The monitor showed that we were traveling at 300 kilometers per hour (180 mph), and the ride was extremely smooth and quiet. Having taken trains from New York to Chicago, I can attest to the superiority of the Italian train system. The Salerno train station was very close to the water, where we went to wait for the ferry to Amalfi. Being near the Ionian Sea, I felt truly relaxed for the first time since our arrival in Italy. Mark and I are not city people, so while we enjoyed the many sites and new experiences of Rome, the VACATION part of our trip really began on the Amalfi Coast. 

       The ferry ride from Salerno to Amalfi was a wonderful way to enjoy the coast. We sat near a young couple from Texas and talked to them while we all took pictures of the scenery. Here are some of them: 

       After the ferry ride came a harrowing bus journey over the narrow, winding road to Praiano. This stock image will give you an idea of the hairpin turns we took: 

       If we had chosen to stay in the largest city of Positano, we could have taken the ferry all the way to our destination. We chose Praiano because it's a smaller village, and we wanted the least touristy taste of the Amalfi Coast that we could get. Our Air BnB host picked us up at the bus station and took us to our apartment, several levels and hairpin turns above the main street. Our host, Ivan, was very helpful in getting us oriented to our new home which you can see here: Casa Love. This is the view that we saw from our balcony before we went to bed that night: