Villa La Pistrice - Positano, Italy (9/29/16)

It's "Home Alone 2".  The Hinkley's are somewhere between Rome and Florence and Naples, the Dalpé's are someplace between London and Paris and Naples...all with expectations of sleeping here tonight.

Deb has had her fill of croissants...so we head to our little grocery store for eggs...they're not refrigerated, rhey're huge, and they have bright orange yolks, and they are delicious.  With a good breakfast behind us, we take the ferry to Almalfi, then the bus to Ravello, for a fairly short hike back to Amalfi.  Deb, uncertain of her next meal, insists on lunch...but Deb's had her fill of prosciutto.  We haven't actually been hungry during this entire trip.  The scales are in kilograms...we know how to convert to pounds, but we don't want to.  We split a turkey sandwich and I have a cardamom  espresso (actually .00038% cardamom)

The walk down to Almalfi was paved with streetlights, with villas along the way.

We had found a walking guide at the villa, it said that just to the left of the underground parking garage was the entrance to a tunnel through the mountain, under the Duomo d'Almalfi, right back to the ferry dock.  Without the guide, we would never have found it.

Back in Positano, we have a few drinks at the outdoor tables of Hotel Villa Gabrisa, and wait for the Dalpé's. we see them go by...but....the street is narrow and one-way.  They have to loop through the entire town again...apparently with a stop along the way, so the driver could discuss the dilemma with some locals.

With their arrival we went out to dinner, returned home for a welcome bottle of limoncello and waited for the arrival of the Hinkley clan.  By 1:00 in the morning, everyone was safely tucked in.

Villa La Pistrice - Positano, Italy (9/28/16)

So Bob and Michelle are off with the Hinkley clan in Rome, Nancy and Marie are in a Paris, we are here in a Positano bouncing around in a 4000 square ft villa, all by ourselves.  After a good hike yesterday, we did a nice easy beach day today...nothing strenuous.  Because we were on the beach, I decided to take only €80 with me, with no wallet.  So the beach chair and umbrella were €25...that leaves €55...we went to a beach restaurant €46... that leaves €9...Deb needs acetone for €8.60 that leaves €.40.

We have two bus tickets left over from a few days ago.  So we catch the bus, but it starts heading out of town....not to worry, we have €.40, no identification...we may have to hike back to town and we are both wearing beach shoes.  Fortunately, we were on the right bus.  After leaving town, it does a U-turn on a mountain road and heads back right to our hotel. Phew!

Dinner at a fabulous restaurant in a part of town we have not been to.  The waiter takes the time to help us with our Italian...and we buy some supplies for Nancy and Marie's arrival tomorrow

Villa La Pistrice - Positano, Italy (9/27/16)

Apparently Tom Brady is waiting out his Deflategate suspension here with us in Positano.  Hopefully, they will be able to convince him to leave when his suspension is up...

It was Michelle's birthday, so the whole Hinkley clan joined us for a hike on the Path of the Gods.  It started with a quick ferry ride to Almalfi, with a 1 1/2 hour wait for the bus.  The time was well spent touring the town of Amalfi.  The Hinkley's went the spiritual route to explore the Duomo d'Almalfi

while Deb and I took the culinary route and found some spectacular pastries.

We took the city bus to Bomerano, a small town in the mountains.  The road was narrow with dozens of switchbacks, only a little more scary than a wooden rollercoaster.  Once we got to Bomerano, we found the trail and hiked 4,miles to Nocelle, just above Positano.  The views were breathtaking and the trail was fairly easy, considering that it was hugging a sheer cliff face.  We reached Nocelle just as the bus arrived, and took another scary ride back to the villa.

We had a special dinner with the Hinkley's to celebrate Michelle's birthday...with a resounding refrain of Happy Birthday while she blew out the candle on her canoli.

Villa La Pistrice - Positano, Italy (9/26/16)

Bob wants to rent a boat, and explore the coast.  So it's down 400 steps to the harbor, with the Hinkleys...they seem to be all grousing about sore calves...Deb and I silently smile.  We rent an inflated rubber boat.

The wind is against us heading to Amalfi, and we get a lot of chop.  Several of us get drenched in the waves but the sun is out and we will eventually dry off.  There are grottos to explore, and views of towns... all in all pretty spectacular.  By the time we get back, we are all ready for gelatos.

 Deb wants to explore taking the bus back....but it takes too long and we walk back anyway..  We see an interesting restaurant only 200 steps from the villa...seems worth trying.

For dinner, we both opt fir the lasagna....never had lasagna in Italy.  We will have to another before casting oùr final opinion about Italian lasagna.

Villa La Pistrice - Positano, Italy (9/25/16)

Today is Sunday, and much is closed.  Deb and I head out for breakfast, it's to be a short little trip...just not a thing in Positano.  400 steps down to the harbor, a continental breakfast, then a stroll down the beach. Then a stroll up the beach. Then a stroll around the beach.  Then the realization that we are just getting more tired and we still have 400 steps back to the villa.

The Hotel Villa Gabrisa is just at the bottom of the stairs to the villa (only 57 steps), so we have "lunch" at 4:30 (more like a before dinner drink with appetizers), and dinner at 7:00 there.  For the shortest number of steps going out to eat.

Meanwhile the Hinkleys are running up and down to the beach a dozen or so times...really puts us to shame.

Villa La Patrice - Positano, Italy (9/24/16)

To get to Positano in time to meet the caretaker, we need to leave Milan at 6:15 which means that we have to up by 4:45...of course, the fear is that we don't get up in time....but all was well, and we got to the Frecciarossa Train, with enough time to get Cafe Americana, orange juice, and cressant from the cafe in the Train Station...there are no smiling Italians at 6:00 in the morning.  The train goes 250 mph,  so our journey was fairly short to Salerno where we caught the ferry to Positano.  We called the caretaker..."make sure you get a porter for your bags, and take a taxi."  I thought the villa was fairly close to the harbor. "No, it's 400 steps away."  We took a taxi, and the porter charge us €10 extra because of all the steps.

The villa is ridiculous...absolutely immense...with nothing where it should be.  The first room we enter is the pizza oven room, then the piano room, followed by the TV room, followed by the dining room.  Upstairs are four interconnecting bedrooms...there is a shared veranda, but inside the house, you have to go through all three bedrooms to get to the fourth.  The views are magnificent and Deb and I spend half an hour picking our favorite room, and working on our rational for taking it.  By the time the Hinkley clan arrives, we have most of the details resolved.

We went to the local grocery store to find Spaghetti and Tomato Sauce and a loaf of bread, to have a nice little family dinner with the Hinkley's...the first of several that evening for the Hinkley kids.

Hotel Berna - Milan, Italy (9/23/16)

We kinda slept in this morning, but found a full buffet breakfast in the hotel lobby.  After breakfast, we headed out for a day of Milan, which pretty much means visiting the Duomo di Milano.  Our first challenge was the Milan Metro, with a little homework, I had enough information to successfully get on and off at the right place.

The Duomo is huge and gothic.  Deb decided early on that we needed an audio guide to figure out what we are looking at.  Soon we came to a statue of St Bartholomew.  It was an interesting stàtue, but the audio guide told us that his skin is flayed and draped over his shoulder. Wow, kinda more information than we wanted.

Also at Duomo Di Milano, you can walk around on the roof.  From the roof you can see all the flying buttresses, statues, gargoyles, and all of Milan, including a nice looking place for lunch, on the roof of a seven floor designer fashion and home furnishing store.

The afternoon was frustrated by Milan's lack of a gridded road structure.  All the roads that started in the right direction turned.   After several hours of searching for a castle, which turned out to be fairly uninteresting, we found a gelato stand and a metro station.

Back to the hotel, cocktails, and a nice sidewalk dinner.