A Week Around Praiano

We arrived at Villa Astra in Praiano quite late on Day 1 (about 5pm), so after having the caretaker show us around and go through all the local activities we could book (mainly speaking in Italian!), some of us settled down for the night to rest while others went to La Strada - this is a restaurant I have heard a lot of good things about. I myself was too tired to go, but it looks like I missed a real treat. Lucky Nick was his usual kind self and brought me home some pasta (he woke me by pushing it under my nose). Even out of a plastic container it was one of the best pastas I had in Italy this trip - it was a tagliatelle with local red prawns and sweet pumpkin. Sounds odd, but it was amazing. I ate it over two nights! The chef prepared it for me just as the group were leaving the restaurant, so it was still hot. Here are some photos of the food the group had that night including the wonderful zucchini flowers - we were lucky enough they were in season for this trip :)

On our second day in Praiano, we all did our own thing to get our bearings... given I didn't have the health to walk to the beach with others (which was quite a long hike and an impossible hike back up to the Villa), Nick and I decided to hop on the local bus (Flavio Gioia) and see where it went given the timetable was hard to understand. It did a loop from our area (San Luca square) down to the local beach (Praia) and back again. Then the bus continued to Positano and back again. Given we had good seats, I felt quite well, it was a nice day, and the bus wasn't too full, we just decided to stay on the bus... we had a lovely tour of the local town and decided to hop off in the main square (Piazza dei Mulini) in Positano for some lunch (one of our favourite towns from previous trips).

Positano is a very busy, touristy, high-end town along the coast. It's expensive and is bustling most of the year, even low season. But it has an ambience that Nick and I love, so just like 6 or 7 years before, we wandered down the main street to a restaurant on the beach called The Three Sisters (La Tre Sorelle). We have fond memories of this place - and it was well worth the trip again. This is a long-standing, family run restaurant (one of the first in Positano) that serves the BEST food... it seems a little touristy at first glance because it's on the beach, but don't let looks deceive you... this was to be the first of THREE meals here on this short trip!

Nick's favourite is the pesto and my favourite is the homemade gnocchi with tomato and mozzarella!

 

Happy as clams, with full tummies :)

 

 

I'm going to start getting the days mixed up now because I'm too lazy to check my notes, but on another beautiful day, we all went down to the local beach (Praia) to have some lunch. We had discovered a local man (Lucas) who basically taxied people around the local area, so after learning more Italian (especially for phone calls), I would call Lucas, and he would kindly take us where we wanted to go and then go back to the Villa to pick up the second group of people (there were obviously too many of us for one trip). Only a few people would walk and usually only down to the beach, not back again!

 

Right up on the cliff (all the way around the corner) is a fantastic little bar/restaurant called La Pirata where you can have a drink and check your email (given good Internet is very hard to find in this area). More photos of this area later... Then we all settled for lunch at this very simple local restaurant on the main beach area. This was a sweet, family-run business, the food was fabulous and fresh (mainly seafood, of course), and the prices were low... what more can you ask for?  

 

The bar La Pirata is the tiny little place at the end of the cliff, down the bottom...

 

This is the local beach - pretty quite given the weather was so lovely and it was still mid-season. I think I would hate to be here when it's busy anyway....

The restaurant - gosh, I wish I could remember the name. I know it started with an "A" but I'm afraid my memory fails me on this one... this is obviously Nick with the owner's dog :)

On another day, we decided to take the whole group down to our favourite restaurant (Le Tre Sorelle) in Positano on the bus, and show them around the town. By this time, the timetable had changed to the more "off-season" one and the buses didn't come along very often. So, as you can imagine, when the bus did come, it was already full and we had to all squeeze on and stand the whole way, along the winding crazy roads - unfortunately this was also a day of extreme traffic, so it was pretty much a disaster... it must have taken an hour to get there. It was AWFUL!!!!

When we finally made it to the main square in Positano, we went to the first bar and sat down and had a cold drink. I had extreme nausea and vertigo from the trip (not to mention pain - so did Nick - it's not ideal standing up on a bus that swivels around the coastal roads, when you already have back problems from Italian beds)... but isn't this bar (below) so gorgeous! (we actually spent some time here again on a few occasions when Nick and I came back to stay in Positano - that comes later)...





 

Everyone split up again - nothing new on this trip. But we all met down at the restaurant and had some great food again... I won't show everything we had because it's quite similar to the photos I've shown above, but here are some newbies :)

 

 

Given the bustle of Positano, and the stress getting there on the bus, most of the group wanted to get back to the Villa in Praiano, so we caught two taxis back (at about 40 euro each - eek!). It was a shame everyone didn't stay and look around more given the town has so much to offer... Nick and I were fine with that because we knew we were coming back again, alone, for another three nights very shortly!!!!

On another day, the group decided to head up to the top of the cliffs overhanging Amalfi to Ravello (another town, quite hard to get to, with a small town square and lots of villas). Nick had a pretty bad back, so we decided to spend the day locally. The rest of the group left in the afternoon (they decided to get a mini-van to take them - something like 120 euro each way + dinner + entry to a classical concert in the square in Ravello - a very expensive and late night!).

Nick and I rested in our deck chairs and read books. We wandered to the local market and gathered some ingredients to make pasta from leftovers in the fridge (we had cooked at home a few nights). We were just about to start cooking in the main Villa when we heard all this noise - earlier we had passed a lot of men dressed in black suits in the car park, all standing around with musical instruments - we thought they must have been the band going up to Ravello. Supposedly, they were the local band that went around to play in the town squares near the clubs (kind of like our RSLs). They moved into formation and we were just lucky enough to see them pass through the tunnel to the town square (exactly where our front entry was to the Villa.. they passed our front door). So we followed them down to the square and spent an hour or so enjoying the music or watching the men chat as they took photos of the view :) It was an enchanting night for us...

 This is the church of San Luca in the square where the band played...

 After the "entertainment", we had a beautiful pasta on the balcony of the Villa...in the moonlight...

 

 

On our second to last (full) day in Praiano, the group decided to visit the pools and beach area at the hotel associated with the villa where we had discounted access (Hotel Tritone). The beach is a long way down given the hotel is at the highest point of the cliffs, so there is an elevator to take people all the way down... Nick and I went along later and had a coffee in the reception area of the old hotel before we caught the "lift" to the beach... we had some lunch and admired the views...

 

 

 

On our last full day in Praiano, it was tipped to be the best for going out on the sea. So, Rebecca (Nick's older sister) organised to hire a private boat for the afternoon through some local friends. Anyway, we caught our usual taxi with Lucas (or some people walked) down to the beach (Praia) to meet our little boat at midday. The guy who owned the boat had an unusual name, sorry I can't remember it :( but he was a funny and nice man from Cuba. It was a really cool little boat - very new and clean - and he offered drinks and some snacks. We could do whatever we wanted, so firstly we went over to the Island of Capri and took in the sights... remember, I am not a good traveller and today was not a great health day either, so I spent most of the time feeling pretty sick despite lots of medication! Not my ideal day, but you can see the beauty of it all in the photos...

This is Praia... the local restaurants, the beach, and the boats...

Along the concrete side walk along the water is La Pirata... the bar and restaurant I mentioned earlier on another page...

This is the boat we hired for the afternoon...

This is around the Island of Capri... look how clear the water is!!!

Nick's dad (Noel) had heard from a friend about a great restaurant that could only be reached by boat along the coast near Positano. There are quite a few of these restaurants or small hotels in private coves... most can be reached by the restaurants' private boats (if you know about them) that dock in Positano. So once he remembered the name of the place, we called and made a reservation at Da Adolfo - a very basic but memorable restaurant in a cove where people are picked up by a boat with a red fish at the front. The seating it all outside with just a little bar and port-a-loo. There's no menu, just plates of the day that you can chose from... it wasn't as expensive as some of the places we had been... and the atmosphere was amazing. When we finished, the restaurant boat took us back to our hire boat to head back to Praia...

 

Jumping from our boat to the restaurant's boat...

 

Heading to the cove...

The outdoor restaurant of Da Adolfo... wine in jugs with fresh peaches... lobster pasta, mussels, pesto spaghetti, octopus, mozzarella on lemon leaves, tiramisu... and a view to die for....

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home again to Praia to head back to the Villa for our final night (packing) before the next leg of our trip - parting ways with the family and heading to Positano to the King of Naples' summer Palace (Hotel Palazzo Murat)... we couldn't wait as this was the highlight of our trip!!