Without a doubt, I have been working hard and putting in the extra extra hours in the last few years.  One of the most anticipated reprieve that I have is looking forward to a well-earned break in the summer months.  I planned my summer holiday this year for the Amalfi coast, which is not that far from my Italian relatives.  My husband has been to the southern coast there since the 1960s and it is a great place for beach life and sea side town the Italy way.  I also wanted to spend time with him and my brother in Italy to experience the food, sights and culture that the country is well-known for internationally.

Our first stop was in Sorrento for a couple of days.  My brother and I shared an apartment with an Italian from Sorrento in the 1990s so it was nice to remember some of the food and stories he told us.  The hotel was great and we had access to a beautiful green garden and pool.  It was amazing to spend time in the hot sunshine and warm pool – I felt much better exercising my leg which I sprained earlier this year.  I loved that the Italian life was obviously from our balcony view and walks in the evening.  We must have seen 1000s of motorbikes and scooters as resident went about the town in the evenings.  There were usually dinners and other tourists getting ready to go out for the evening too.

The views were great from the coast especially on the evening of the solar eclipse with a brilliant sunset over the sea.  From Sorrento, you can see both the volcano Vesuvius and the island Capri.  It really was an amazing sunset hour with people having an aperitivo and meal with this amazing view.  It was such a beautiful evening, I hope to visit there again in the future.

We went to Positano, which was only 30 minutes from Sorrento for three days.  During the pandemic lockdown years – I wanted to mentally escape from lockdown and Positano was one of the places I was dreaming of at the time.  I saw it from a bus when I went to Amalfi in 2014 but I didn’t get time to walk around and take in the sights.  Having three days based in Positano was good to enjoy the amazing buildings, sea views, beach and life on a liveable part of the Amalfi coast.  Our hotel was not at the very centre so we were able to see people who lived there and get a feel of how life is on the vertical coastal slopes. 

I was also looking forward to going to the beach in Positano.  I had heard about Fornillo Beach which was close to our hotel and not on the main port area.  We took the short cut to the beach – which was 400 steps down and obviously up on the way back.  The views were magnificent from the steps!! I had booked the beach club from London as I knew it was a public holiday, Saturday and likely to be busy.  The beach club was called Da Fernando – which was first set up in 1953 as tourists started coming to the beach.  In the beach club they provide loungers, shade, a restaurant, music ambience, toilet facilities, and even a same boat to ferry persons to the main beach, Spiaggia Grande in Positano, to the Fornillo beach.  We met some of Fernando’s relatives who are still carrying on the business and it was a great base for the beach. The sea was great! Although it was very hot – I loved being in the sea and spent at least 3-4 hours in the water.  I have tan as a result!

We usually say that it is hard to have a bad meal on Italy and this holiday, most of our choices were excellent.  Having buffalo mozzarella from this region in Campania is a must! There are still lots of pasta dishes to try as the ingredients are fresh and most likely locally sourced.  I also love all the seafood dishes – you can tell from my photos with small shrimps, mussels, seafood risotto, and fritta di mare (fried sea food).

As we were there for Ferragosto, we made reservation a great restaurant called Miramare overing the bay of Positano.  There was a special menu which was mind-blowing and a bursting with different and new flavours.  The dinner consisted of stuffed zucchini flowers with ricotta and lemon, seafood tartare, grilled octopus and olive ice cream (which was delicious!), mixed pasta with seafood, fish main course, sorbet and coconut mouse with hazelnut praline.  It was one of the best prepared I have had in my life – the service was intentionally slow to take in the night with the amazing view over Positano and to prepare us for the fireworks that evening. 

One of the reasons I chose Italy this year was that it is lively and vibrant – and even the evening walks at dinner time has a very good holiday vibe.  As it is so hot during the day – some of the shops close during the day and therefore they open late into the evening when the sun is setting and it is usually cooler for everyone to walk around.  It is an ideal time to have an ice cream and take in the views in such an amazing landscape. We also spent a few hours during the afternoon in the main town area around Spiaggia Grande. Positano was at peak tourist season and there was a large amount of international tourist enjoying it.  It is also so popular, there are many women who dress up in mainly lemons, yellow or blue dresses mainly to take photos of the ceramic shop with the beautiful colourful buildings on the slope as a real backdrop. 

Positano itself is a landmark for tourist, and who can resist such ingenuity and beauty that was once was a small fishing town on the naturally beautifully Amalfi coast.  I am so happy everything went smoothly and we had a great holiday.  I hope to spend more time in that part of the world in future and for now, I am happy that I got my fill!