Sunday, July 29, 2018

27 Salerno - Amalfi Revisited, first stop Veitre

So far, the only real rain we have had was way back when we were in
Brisbane. This morning was not looking good and at one stage the rain came
bucketing down just as we were walking off the ship. But as luck would have
it the skies cleared, and the rest of the day turned out pretty good.
You know you are on the Amalfi Coast when everything is decorated with
beautifully painted tiles and ceramics. They adorn the walls, even church
domes. Tables of pieces of every shape and size overflow onto the streets
tempting visitors to buy. This describes the little town of Veitre, just a
stone's throw from Salerno and was our first stop for the day.

27a Salerno - Maiori

Our next two stops were the little sea side villages of Miaori and Minori.
Popular with the tourists, but without the hype and price tags of the
neighbouring Amalfi, Positano or Sorento. If you are going to buy anything,
you buy it here our guide told us, but we just wandered and savoured our
surroundings with a little coffee on the side. There must have been some
sort of arts festival as there were whacky looking iron sculptures spattered
around both villages.

27b Salerno - Minori

Our next two stops were the little sea side villages of Miaori and Minori.
Popular with the tourists, but without the hype and price tags of the
neighbouring Amalfi, Positano or Sorento. If you are going to buy anything,
you buy it here our guide told us, but we just wandered and savoured our
surroundings with a little coffee on the side. There must have been some
sort of arts festival as there were whacky looking iron sculptures spattered
around both villages.

27 c Salerno - Driving the Amalfi

Driving along the Amalfi Coast is always spectacular. The area that we are
visiting today is much lower than the coast that we had visited previously.

27d Salerno - Ravello and the gardens of Villa Cimbrone

Next, we headed up to Ravello, a beautiful village. Very high on a hill
with commanding views of this gorgeous coast. We have been to Ravello
before and taking our driver's advice we wound our way through the narrow
streets until we found Villa Cimbrone.
Just like all magnificent gardens, this garden is made up of many smaller
themed gardens. Some of the highlights were The Cloister with it's stone
walls and arches, the Avenue of Immensity with its lush covering of
wisteria, if only it was in bloom, what a wonderful show it would have been.
Eve hidden away in a grotto and Mercury in deep contemplation on his seat.
But the highlight is the Terrace of Infinity, beautiful uninterrupted views
of the coastline below.

27 E Salerno - The San Francesco Winery

Another day in Italy, another day winery to visit. Expectations were high,
not only after the great winery visit we had yesterday in Sicily, but the
price tag that came with it.
There is mixed feeling about this visit. It was enjoyable, but certainly not
worth the price, and a couple of things probably left a bad taste. Reading
trip advisor, others have had good experiences and it is not often that I
would write a review so quickly, but I think everyone should know the good
and the bad, so they can make their decisions.

Below is my review:

We visited the San Francesco winery as part of our tour off a ship from
Salerno. The cost per person for the winery only was 60 Euro cash or 70 Euro
if paid by Credit Card. So for we Australians that is $200 for lunch and
tasting. At that price expectations were high, especially after Bepe told us
that wine will run like a river this afternoon. We have travelled a lot, so
we know what our money should buy us.
We were a group of six, but one lady not feeling very well opted out of any
of the tasting and the lunch. Sonya did a lovely job in tell us of their
history and their process of making wine. (As most wineries do).
We enjoyed the lunch experience, watching the wives in the kitchen putting
our meal together. As for the wine tasting, that is all it was a tasting.
One of the owners poured each of the 5 wines. In each bottle there was just
enough to fill each of the 6 glasses with a mouthful of wine and then the
empty bottle was left on the table. Overall, we would have been lucky to
each receive a glass and, a half of wine in total, over the 6 of us I would
be surprised if we consumed a total of 2 bottles. So, at the cost per
bottle, it would have cost them at most 50 Euros.
The food was prepared beautifully, all local fresh produce. There was no
seafood or big serving of meat that would cause the inflated price and
desert was a slice of cake.
They were concerned for the lady who was unwell and in the end, she accepted
a bowl of plain spaghetti with no cheese or olive oil in the fear of
upsetting her stomach. To do the right thing she offered to pay something
for her plate. The owner turned around and said 50 Euro! Well that was the
icing on the cake and I did jump up and protested, considering she drank no
wine and only had the pasta. They quickly back tracked and said "oh no she
doesn't have to pay anything."
So to feed 6 people a bit of Pasta, vegetables, cheese, a sausage and a
slice from a cake that fed a whole room, add to that the cost of 2 bottles
of wine at 50 Euros. We paid them 300 Euro's.
The previous day in Sicily at the Gambino winery we paid nothing like that
amount. A new bottle was opened for each wine and then left on the table
for us to enjoy, along with a sumptuous lunch. At that winery, feeling we
had more than got our value for money, between us, we walked away with a
dozen bottles of wine
Today we spent nothing, the only thing we walked away with was the bitter of
taste of trying to be charged so much for small plate of spaghetti and not
enough wine to wash the taste away!
Luckily, our visits to Maiori, Minori and the beautiful gardens of Villa
Cimbrone trumps the rest of the day.

Saturday, July 28, 2018

26 Sicily - give me the Cannoli

We have sailed through the Messina strait several times, but this was the
second time that we have called into Messina. Sitting on a side of a hill,
the town of Messina seems to be on show as you sail through the breakwater.
A gold statue of Madonna towers overhead as if blessing every ship that
sails in and out of the protected harbour. Legend has it that the Apostle
Paul came to Messina to convert the Sicilians to Christianity. Many were not
convinced, so the Virgin Mary was persuaded to send a letter to the
Sicilians calling them to the faith. Written in Hebrew, rolled and tied
with a lock of her hair. Well that seems to have been the clincher,
especially with her final words "Vos et ipsan civitatem benedicimus",
translated means "we bless you and your city".

26a Sicily - Giardini Naxos

Dressed in his suit, with his bushy moustache, Carmelo our driver could have
walked straight out of a scene of the Godfather. Our first stop was the sea
port village of Giardini Naxos, which was the first Greek settlement in
Sicily. Now it is a thriving holiday resort town. What makes this village
interesting is the remains of a lava flow that creates a dramatic shoreline.
The black of the solidified lava, the green of the foliage that grows out of
every nook and cranny, and the waves that crash upon it making it glisten in
the sun.