Well I have been remiss in writing about our days but days 5-9 have been all about vacation. However we have seen and done so many cool things and had so many great meals, I will regret it if I don't jot it down. Not to mention my mom is reading this....😃
DAY 5 we started with pastries that Jan picked up on her morning walk-about. After feeding ourselves with sugar we headed down to the beach. Filled with sugar those stairs don't seem nearly as bad. Huh. There are two beaches in Positano , Positano Spiaggia and Fornillo Spiaggia. Your first lesson is about the beaches here is that you do have to pay for your beach chairs. We went to Fornillo which is the smaller of the two beaches and less expensive... A more family vibe instead of a tourist vibe. Even with that said it cost fifty euros for four seats for the day.
Worth it to sit in the sand! They have these cool little parts to their chairs that cover your face and you are right by several beach restaurants to pick up drinks and food. There is nothing that smells more like vacation than coconut oil and fried fish. The beach here is covered in sea glass and in between dips in the ocean you can find little shards of crystal and green and blue. I have collected an olive jar full and will be bringing them home hopefully to makes some jewelry.
We had a lovely day at the beach reading books and a great little light lunch at the beach bar . After we trudged back up the stairs we eventually got ready and decided to walk up the hill to a little restaurant called Bruno's. I had made reservations from the beach which turned out to be a very good thing as we saw group after group get turned away. It is amazing how many people are here during "offseason" , every restaurant seems to fill up for dinner...and we are like the blue plate seniors.... we want dinner at 630 or 7.... most of the folks eat at 8 or 9 here. Eating late and entire pizzas to themselves...I seriously don't know how they all stay fit. Oh. It's the stairs. The damn stairs.
It is not my desire to review, I am just reporting, so I would recommend Bruno's for the food. I don't want to talk about the service. I am pretty sure I understand what being invisible means now though. Just saying. However, this was some of the freshest seafood we have ever eaten. Fresh in that, after we ordered our appetizers, a man came rushing in on a motorcycle with a with plastic bag. Our waiter came rushing out to inform us that there was NOW fresh calamari should we choose to have some and that we really really should. I'm talking it just arrived on the motorcycle fresh. It was probably swimming around in the ocean an hour ago. My experience in the US is that calamari is a little rubbery, no matter how good it is. Nope. Not even a little bit if you have it incredibly fresh.
We ordered a multitude of things and 2 of us ordered the fresh seabass. I almost changed my order to fresh shrimp when I saw an older gentleman walk in carrying a plastic basket. When I looked at him long enough he scooped his hand into the bucket and held up fresh shrimp he was just bringing to the restaurant. He smiled at me and whisked his plastic bucket into the kitchen. A few moments later our food came out and we were surprised to see that when two people order sea bass you get the whole fricking fish. Yikes. We must have looked a little alarmed because he gave us a look and assured us he would filet it for us and he did. Right there at our table with no ceremony.
One of the sides that I am enjoying most of all is the grilled veggies. Unlike the US you don't automatically get veggies with your entree. You have to order them ala carte. Worth it! Especially the little artichokes. I will be getting those little buggers at Trader Joe's from now on and I have a variety of ways to try them now.
I won't even report on the copious amounts of wine that we are drinking at the end of each day on our balcony, looking at the lights and the moon but I will say this was yet another fantastic day. Pura Vida!
DAY 6 I will report on separately. That is the day we went to Amalfi and had to learn how to pass other buses on the road. A journey.
DAY 7. Jan offered to introduce us to a cemetery she had found high upon the hills. We walked up and up and did I say up?
Update. I guess we did get a photo of a family crypt.
It's a bad sign when burros pass you.
The cemetery is gorgeous and it involves mausoleums like I imagine they must have in New Orleans. That is also on my bucket list, who wants to go?
They are white-washed and they all cling precariously to the edge of the cliff. Inside are pictures of all of the deceased and entire families are interred together. An interesting thing here is that the women do not take the husband's surname when they get married. As best as we can tell, the kids take dad's name? Hard to tell, here are a multitude of names all in the same crypt. There are candles that are lit and there are flowers everywhere. I felt a little uncomfortable taking a picture of the crypts...it was almost looking into their homes so I only took a picture of one that the entire plot is planted. When I say I want people to bring flowers to my grave, this is what I mean.
We came off the hill and after a vigorous walk we decided we wanted to have lunch at Buca di Bacca, one of the restaurants that's been on my list. I'm sure glad we did. We tried a variety of pastas but the most interesting thing we tried was the zuchinni flowers that are stuffed with mozzarella and deep-fried. Another thing I want to try to make. Our waiter was incredibly charming and took the best care of us. My favorite so far His name was Francesco and when we told him we would be back, he said in a very cheerful tone, "thanks for the warning" and grinned at us. Well that seals it, we are coming back now. Before we left we did try the cheesecake with berries and a pear ricotta tart. OMG.... and I'm not even a desert person. This is the stuff you wish you could bring back. Wow.
That evening we took all of our leftover tapas in our fridge and leftover pizza and made the most interesting combos..we were feeling either chefy or thrifty...maybe both. We are just blowing through our food budget with these fancy restaurants. Ciao!
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