Italy Part II

Time for the famous Amalfi Coast! Because we booked the train ticket last minute (literally), it cost us about $130pp to travel from Florence to Salerno (a four-hour train journey). I’m sure if you booked it in advance, you could save some money, but we weren’t sure how long the car return would take and/or what we’d be doing for food so opted for flexibility at an expense. When we arrived in Salerno, our Airbnb host recommended we pay for a private transfer to the accommodation for €10pp because it can be difficult to navigate the streets (and the incline) in the heat of the day. When we saw the cobblestoned streets and the incline, we were glad we opted for the transfer. When our driver took us to the wrong accommodation, having hiked 80 stairs with both of our 25kg suitcases and backpacks, we were not glad. Especially because our eventual accommodation had a further 60 stairs! Thankfully we were here for three nights so we wouldn’t be needing to do this again for a few days.

The driver gave us some great recommendations of things to do, places to see, and restaurants to dine at. We ended up dropping our suitcases off then going out to explore Salerno. There were some really cute market stalls by the beach where we picked up a few affordable gifts. For dinner, we found a pizza place just down the road from our accommodation, Pizzeria Criscemunno - €6 for one insanely good margherita pizza. It was so good, we ended up eating there every night and taking the pizza back to our rooftop terrace which overlooked the city.

In the morning, the Airbnb had a moka pot and ground coffee so we made our own coffee and breakfast whilst enjoying the view on our rooftop terrace. For the day, we planned to go to Acquachiara Spiaggia just outside of Maiori by catching the bus. But, that ended up being an adventure in and of itself. See, it was a public holiday on this day (Republic Day…I swear we managed to unintentionally coordinate every country’s national day for our Europe trip!), which meant the buses ran even less frequently than usual. We arrived at the bus stop at 11, ready for the bus at 11:08 which never showed. The next bus, at 12:08, showed up but it was full. So it didn’t stop. We then had to wait until 12:45 for the next bus, with no guarantee we’d be able to get on that either. Fortunately, we did. Then there was a 45mins bus ride to Maiori on the most narrowly winding roads imaginable. For people who get car sickness, this is not a vibe. The buses have to beep before they turn the corner to warn oncoming cars that they’re coming around so they can stop and reverse, just to create room. The number of near misses became too many to count. The only saving grace was that the buses were cheap - €2pp per ride. You can either buy tickets on the Unico Campania app or in a store that has a big T (tabaccheria) outside it.

In the midst of trying to catch the first bus on time, we forgot to pack our sunscreen. We tried to buy some at Maiori but nothing was cheaper than €15 for a tiny bottle. We couldn’t justify this so we went without, but made sure we were covered at the beach. The walk to Acquachiara was along those narrow roads and down a steep path, but the beach itself was stunning. And the best part? There was a residential beach cat! We stayed for a few hours before walking back to Maiori and starting the path of lemon’s hike to Minori (a 3km walk). The path takes you through citrus groves and places to stop to have a lemon granita or fresh lemonade. This is considered the easier of the two hikes – the other being the path of God’s hike (6.4km). After finishing the ‘hike’ (more like a trail walk with some incline), we tried to catch a bus back but once again, it was full. So we decided not to take a chance waiting for the next bus (in an hour) and caught a ferry back to Salerno at nearly 4x the cost.

For our final full day, we walked about 40mins to some markets at Mercato all’aperto (which were beyond disappointing). On our way, we grabbed a coffee at Amore Espresso Speciality coffee shop – we had planned to go to Filtro café as it looked elite but was inconveniently closed for the entirety of our stay. Given that we had walked away from the centre of Salerno, we managed to get the bus right where the route started – this is definitely a tourist hack! No questions about whether we’d get a bus to the Amalfi today! The bus trip took about 75mins – again, through the same winding roads as the day before (there’s only one road along the Amalfi Coast). We explored the shops, which were nice but very touristy and busy, before grabbing lunch at Luisa Gastronomia Artigianale. Jas made her own caprese focaccia and I wished I had done that too as it was much better than my eggplant one. We didn’t stay too long in the Amalfi or go swimming as the clouds looked threatening. We had considered going to Positano and Sorrento, but were put off by the inaccessibility of travel between the towns (and it wasn’t even peak summer yet).

As the bus pulled into Salerno, the heavens let loose andddd we got soaked. So we walked back to our room, dried off, and waited for the storm to pass before going out to explore more of Salerno and the really cool shops there. We bought Jas’s Mum a really nice leather wallet from a handmade shop, Bossa di Adinolfi, where the owner was making the wallets right in front of us. He also gave us a shot of limoncello while we waited (which we eventually poured down the drain because it was so strong!). We stumbled across La Fabbrica delle Meraviglie, a confectionary store, that sold the coolest items. They had tempered chocolate made into bitcoins, men’s razors, and other items too. We found a lot of unique gifts in Salerno as it wasn’t dominated by touristy shops and seemed to be run by Italians (a lot of the shops in Florence were run by non-Italians so you were never 100% sure on the authenticity [or uniqueness] of the items).

One of the things we wanted to do on the Amalfi Coast was go to Capri but given the weather today and that our flight to Sicily was out of Naples, we decided to book this ferry during our one night stay in Naples (as Capri is closest to Naples). We caught a train from Salerno to Naples, after walking about 30mins with our luggage to the station (our driver insisted on picking us up and taking us to the train station…for another €10pp and then a storage fee of €5 per piece of luggage). We weren’t able to drop our bags off to our accommodation until after 11:30, so we had a little bit of time to kill. We decided to go visit a highly regarded coffee shop, ventrimetriquadri, which was supposed to only be 20mins out of the way. Unfortunately though, the 20mins became 45mins because we didn’t know how to navigate the underground system (it takes 10mins from the train station), we had our luggage, and we didn’t know where to tap on/tap off (there was only one place to do this and it wasn’t obvious [it was also before the turnstile if anyone ever encounters the same problem]). The coffee I had was delicious, Jas, not so much (note: order a black coffee, not an iced latte). And the bigger problem? We basically missed our window to catch the ferry to Capri until 2pm because no ferries ran between 12 and 2. Never again will I detour for coffee with our luggage!

To make matters worse, Jas’s suitcase finally decided to shit itself on the way to our accommodation. With our flight in the morning, we’d have to organise a new suitcase that night after we got back from Capri. The ferry to Capri cost us $150 return for both of us ($75 each). We went to Spiaggia di Marina Piccola – a really stunning beach on the other side of Capri’s port. We caught the funicular up for only about $5pp (which saved us hiking in the heat!). There’s extensive shopping here, but all very expensive. It was a cool vibe though and a really good day trip. The sun disappears behind the mountains at around 5pm so you can’t stay at this beach much later than that.

When we got back to Naples, we needed to get Jas a replacement suitcase. This is probably the only city we’ve felt unsafe in. Everything was really dirty with garbage everywhere and graffiti on almost every wall. Pickpockets apparently run rampant so you’re encouraged to be weary, especially getting on and off public transport. Being in Naples, we HAD to order pizza – which we did, from Pizzeria Pellone. It was decent, but the pizza in Salerno was better. The next day we’d organised (paid for the tickets on the app) to catch a bus to the airport, except the bus never came. So we opted instead for the airport bus at €6pp. Given that we were flying with Ryanair, we were extremely limited with our luggage. We were only allowed 20kg per person and one piece of hand luggage on the plane (they didn’t weight our hand luggage, but they were VERY strict on the one piece rule). So we made sure to wear our heaviest items – clothes and shoes, whilst packing the heaviest items in our backpack. Next stop, Palermo, Sicily!

Palermo, Sicily

When we were looking at travelling to Sicily, we were deciding between the two main cities – Catania and Palermo. One of the selling points of Catania was Mount Etna – the most active and tallest volcano in Europe. Given that we had done so much hiking already in our trip, we weren’t overly enthralled by the idea of another hike. So we decided to book Palermo instead as we found that it was known for its stunning beaches and incredible traditional food – which is more what we were looking for at this stage in our trip.

Not to spoil the rest of the post, but this was probably our favourite city of our trip so far because it had such a nice feel about it. Getting from the airport to the city centre was really easy – we caught a bus for €6pp – in hindsight we could have bought a return ticket for €10pp. It was about a 40mins bus trip and lands you right in the city centre where we had a 10mins walk to our accommodation through markets. Our accommodation here was stunning – really well designed with great artifacts decorating the walls. The location was perfect too – we were super close to restaurants and markets and about a 15mins walk from the train station.

For lunch and coffee, we went to Vago Rizzuto specialty coffee and snacks. We then stopped at Porta Carbone, a place serving street food, and ordered a pane e panelle (chickpea fritter sandwich) which was delicious then to Sfrigoloa for a freshly made tomato and basil arancini ball. On our way to some antique markets, a street filled with multiple antique stores selling jewellery, furniture and other knickknacks, we grabbed a second coffee from Ideal caffe. The shopping in Palermo was elite – we found so many cool shops with local artists actively making their crafts. We found this with jewellery, books, and artwork – it felt very authentic because you could witness them creating their artwork in front of you. Libbra Legatoria Artigianal D’arte was one of these shops selling water colour books and items. For dinner, we went to Osteria Norma and had caponata – a sweet and sour eggplant dish local to Sicily. We also had homemade pasta alla norma – a pasta variety specific to Sicily too. Something to note is that when you eat out, there’s a surcharge not only for the bottle of water, but also for the service (even if it’s non-existent).

The next day we ventured to Vera Coffice break for breakfast and coffee before heading to Caletta Sant’Elia beach. The train tickets were €7 return each and it was about a 30mins walk to the beach but my God, it was stunning! We arrived at about 11:30 and within an hour, the place was packed. We were fortunate we got a really good spot, but it was soon being overrun by boys who were insistent on jumping from this particular rock (despite there being many other places to jump from). The water itself had a bit of rubbish floating on it, especially towards the shore, but as you get deeper, the rubbish dissipates. We loooooved this beach.

In the afternoon, we ventured out for a late coffee at Morrettino lab by the Marina with a water show occurring at 8 and 9pm. We picked up some coffee as gifts from here too. Given the accessibility to restaurants and local cuisine by our house, we just decided on arancini balls and fritter sandwiches for dinner.

For our final full day in Italy, we grabbed some coffee and cinnamon rolls from Morretinno café by the square before venturing to the Sunday flea markets at Piazza Marina. These were the best markets we had experienced in Europe – firstly, the markets were massive. Secondly, the items were all non-touristy, unique souvenirs that were authentic. And most importantly?! They were more than affordable! We ended up finding an authentic leather wallet for Jas’s brother, some authentic Mirano glass, and other really cool gifts for our family. Our next stop was Cefalu which we caught the train to for €14 return per person. Holy wow this place was stunning! An incredibly pretty town with great shops, food, and a beautiful beach. We found a spot on the pier and stayed here all day, coercing some other tourists to loan us their soccer ball for entertainment. We had a delicious panini at le Cefalu Nostrana and coffee in the afternoon at Tatiana Melfa Restaurant and Bakery before heading back to our accommodation. One of the beaches people recommended was San Vito Lo Capo – apparently this is one of the prettiest beaches in Sicily but unfortunately it can only be accessed by car, no public transport goes there.

After playing Tetris again with our suitcases to get the weight under 20kgs (despite all the gifts we bought), we then caught the airport bus the next morning back to the airport. We planned to give ourselves two hours at the airport and I’m glad we did as there was significant congestion on the way there, delaying our arrival time by 30mins. We ordered our last ‘espresso at the bar’ and some pain au chocolats before heading to our final country – Greece!