Sunday, July 6th
Rome --> Praiano
For our last few hours in Rome we didn't make any plans. Matt and I felt that we saw what we needed to see and just wanted to take advantage of a morning to sleep in a little. We also had to catch an early afternoon train to head down to the Amalfi Coast.
After some relaxing coffee and pastries in bed, I discovered that Matt had been spending his morning researching the best sandwich shops between our hotel and the train station... The adventure begins.
The train station was only a 10 minute walk from out hotel- not too challenging for some New Yorkers. Add in 95 degree heat, big suitcases, and uneven cobblestone streets from the 1700s- recipe for disaster.
During Matt's research he discovered a small sandwich shop called "Er Bucchetto" that specializes in, porchetta, some kind of sliced pork?, and was on our route to the train station.
Now, being the good wife that I am, I quickly ran across the street to get a vegetarian sandwich for myself (no pork for me) and decided to brave the heat and cobblestone to get my husband a sandwich.
We left our hotel. I huffed and puffed all the way to Er Bucchetto, my suitcase getting stuck on the cobblestones numerous times, the smile quickly disappearing from my face, only to arrive at Er Bucchetto---- CLOSED. No pork for Matthew. He sulked all the way to the train station.
We took a short train to Naples and from there met our driver to bring us to Praiano. After 1.5 hours of twisty, curvy, cliffside roads, we arrived in paradise. Our hotel, Casa Angelina (look it up... WOW) is on a cliff overlooking the sea. The white hotel is contrasted by the blue water and colorful Murano glass sculptures throughout. From the minute we stepped through the door we have been waited on, hand and foot. The service is impeccable.
We checked into our room, quickly unpacked and went to the pool to relax for an hour before dinner at Vivaro.
Our hotel is located on a cliff, so whenever we want to leave the hotel we either need to walk/drive up the winding driveway OR take the "secret passageway" up to street level. The secret passageway consists of about 70-80 steps. As we left the hotel, the staff gave us mini flashlights to help us get back down the stairs late at night.
We braved the steps (it really wasn't so bad) and walked across the street to Vivaro Wine Bar- a tiny restaurant/one man show. The whole restaurant is serviced by 1 man, Genarro, who acts as the waiter, chef and busboy. When you sit down, he simply asks, "meat or fish". Being the difficult eater that I am, I needed more information than that and asked poor Genarro many questions before deciding on the fish. Matt went with the meat. 4 courses later (see future Food Post), we were stuffed. We walked back down the 70 steps and went to our room to go to sleep.
The rose petals and candles in the bathtub, chocolates on the pillows and water bottles on the nightstands were a nice touch.
Two thumbs up for our first day in paradise 👍👍
❤️
Shay (& Matt)
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