From Etna to the Amalfi Coast and Italian Mainland

After getting back from Mt. Etna, we were pretty much starving. We asked the old man who ran our hotel and after he argued with his assistant for a while, he gave us two suggestions. We ended up at Trattoria Saltimbocca da Giancarlo, where we had an amazing Italian dinning experience, something I desperately wanted to have on this trip.

We arrived at the Trattoria while they were still setting up, but were helped by a man I assumed to be the restaurant owner who spoke English. After taking a look at the fresh seafood display on ice, we sat down with our menus. I asked the man, who was sitting at a table by himself, whether it was his restaurant and he laughed. Our new friend, Salvadore Capone, was actually just a regular customer who worked as an international fish salesman and like this restaurant for its nice selection of fresh seafood.

Rachel and I ordered a pasta with mixed seafood and swordfish to split over a bottle of wine. While waiting for our food, we enjoyed a glass of wine, bread, and spicy olives that were also brought out as an appetizer. We continued to chat with Salvadore, who said that he had ordered a pasta dish with really small white fish called Moccu at this place but known elsewhere as Biancci. You would not find this on any menu, he explained, as it is illegal to serve. The tiny white fish are caught when they are babies and served as a delicacy, eaten lightly cooked or not at all. When his food came out, he had asked the waiter to put some of it on a small dish for us to try. So here we are, in Sicily, eating black market fish and chatting it up with a local fish salesman. I was already thinking how sweet of a situation this was, but it was just the beginning. When we got our food, Salvadore sent over another bottle of wine as a gift. The food was delicious, the wine equally as good. When we finished our dinner, I was a little sad that the dinning experience seemed to be coming to an end. Turns out it was still just beginning.

Salvadore explained that he was so busy with work during the day that he rarely ate lunch. When he did go out to dinner, he liked to eat a lot and eat slow. His next course was a cake, which Rachel and I decided we also needed to get. It was delicious, but now the dinning experience was surely coming to an end, right? Wrong. Salvadore sent over two lemon sorbetos, a cross between lemon slushy and lemon sorbet. He said that he took his mixed with Absolute vodka, but we had the virgin variety. If it is possible to have something taste better than the frozen lemonades at Disneyland, this was it. It’s bitter sweet taste was so refreshing and good. Salvadore explained that he liked to eat a long hearty meal, get drunk, get on his motorcycle, go home and go right to sleep before waking up for work at 4 am. We weren’t sure how the drunk and riding a motorcylcle really fit together, but he had helped us find the quintessential Italian dinning experience… great food, great company, and lots of wine. Before parting ways, he showed us some pictures of a private island he rented in the Maldives for a week, the best place he said he had ever traveled to. He also told us to have a lot of kids together and call or email him if we needed anything while in Italy. We left the restaurant full and happy, another great day in the books.

July 28:

Our first travel day in Italy. We took the train from Catania to Salerno, including one leg of the trip where the entire train was loaded on a barge and taken from Sicily to mainland Italy. If we had not yet seen the true beauty of Sicily, the last 24 hours including this train trip offered us a glimpse. We passed old, beautiful farmland that lead all the way up to the base of Mt. Etna, lemon groves, row after row of grape vines, and the beautiful and secluded beaches of some of the lesser known and less touristy towns. The train wound its way down the coast, along cliffs, through mountains, and beach towns. We ended up in Salerno, where we hopped on a bus that took us along the scenic Amalfi Coast, another crazy if not nerve racking drive along big drop offs full of blind turns, crazy bus drivers, and confusion on where to get off. We reached Minori, the small town where we would stay the next 3 days. The rest of the day included a trip to the beach, dinner, a walk around town, and it concluded with gelato.

July 29:

Another memorable day on the Amalfi. We spent the morning/afternoon on the beach, but the real highlight came at night. We decided to walk from Minori to Ravello, an Amalfi town that instead of being right on the water, was perched up on the hills above, providing a gorgeous view of the coastline for miles and miles. We left in the late afternoon, walking up the narrow paths, climbing stair after stair for about an hour and a half, stopping frequently to admire the fading orange sky behind the Amalfi coast below and distant coasts across the water. We wandered up through lemon groves and small farms set into the hills in front of the sea. It was a beautiful sight, a perfectly harmonious blend of nature and society. The human elements only adding to the natural beauty of the surrounding area. As we got higher and higher, our view of the sun set and coastline continued to improve, a sight well worth all the mosquito bites.

We made it to Ravello as darkness took over. After a brief pit stop to check out the church, we started our search for food. We narrowed the possibilities down to two before indecision took over. After flipping a coin, we decided on going to the first restaurant we came across despite the fact that it came up short on the coin toss. It was Rachel’s intuition that led us against the coin flip and it couldn’t have been a better decision. We feasted on roasted chicken, gnocchi al sorrentino, veggies, cake and of course wine. In the end, the feast turned out to be one of our best and cheapest meals and we left happy campers.

The walk down in the dark offered us another stunning view, the shadowy outlines of the hills and towns framing the sea below, shimmering in the light from the full moon above.

July 30:

We woke up early for our next adventure, a boat ride to Capri, the island vacation spot of Roman emperor Tiberius. The Mediterranean was as rough as I have ever seen it, throwing people all over the boat and making a good number of people sea sick. Despite the poor conditions, the trip offered amazing views of the Amalfi, this time from the sea looking up into the hills, natural bridges, protruding rocks, and a number of caves that turned the water crazy cool colors. We explored Capri, checking out Augustus’ gardens, ruins of the palace of Tiberius, the palace of Nino, and countless beautiful views of the Capri coast, the Gulf of Napoli, and Mt. Vesuvius. Right before we were set to take another rough boat ride back, I had the once in a lifetime experience that everyone who is traveling and not doing something they shouldn’t be hopes for… I saw someone I knew unexpectedly. There in Capri, I saw Patrick Philley and some other Carls. I shouted at him and tried to get his attention but they didn’t hear or recognize me with my sweet long hair and before I knew it they had disappeared into the crowd. Sad Days.

My thoughts on Capri are admiration for its natural beauty but disgust for the human element on the Island and many of its rich and annoying tourists. While it did have some beautiful villas and farms, the town itself was full of pricey shopping and food. Not for me.

The ride back was even wilder that the way there and everyone was ordered off deck and inside. Rachel and I had started up top and when we came down there were no seats left. We weathered the ride better than most in seats, many of whom were sick, pale, and sweating like crazy.

When we got back, frustrated by not taking advantage of seeing someone who I knew, I cut my hair so in the event that it happened again they may recognize me. It was interesting going to an Italian barber with little communication and I ended up with a haircut I had never had before. He only used scissors and I was left with pretty long hair on the top and shorter on the sides, not quite flock of seagulls status, and for 7 euro I will take it.

While the dinner from last night highlighted all that can be good about eating in Italy, dinner this night was quite the opposite. We paid out the ass for hardly any food, not great service, got slapped with a 6 euro service fee….because of course when it says 3 euro cover it means per person, got no bread and left still hungry and unsatisfied.

On the way back, we happened upon a beautiful concert taking place in a small side street square. The violinist was unreal and adding to the atmosphere was an old man sitting in his window a few floors up, enjoying the concert with his dinner. It was a great scene to end our time in Minori, when it started to rain a bit we headed back to the hotel and started to pack up and get ready to leave the next morning at 6ish to catch the bus to Pompeii.