Sorrento

JULIE:

Our first official day on the Amalfi Coast and we choose to sleep in(!) then take the bus to Sorrento. Before we walked to the town of Amalfi to catch the bus (the major bus stop is in Amalfi therefore buses frequent Amalfi) we stayed in Atrani for lunch. We decided on a restaurant via Chowhound.com, as we started to enter I stopped as I noticed there were not any patrons in the seaside restaurant and the staff was eating lunch. However, the owner graciously welcomed us and encouraged us to find a table. So in all my awkwardness I chose a table next to the staff. Lunch was pretty basic – I got spaghetti with tomatoes and mozzarella and Jake got pasta with shrimp and zucchini.

Catching the correct bus was nothing short of an experience – we read that pharmacies or tobacco stations sell bus tickets however this is not really the case – bus tickets in Amalfi are sold inside of a “Bar” (not a traditional American bar – more like a coffee bar) a very grumpy and wrinkly lady asked where we were going and sold us two 24 hour bus passes. We then crossed the street where there are about 20 different busses stationed. As buses arrive everyone at the bus station flocks to the bus (the people barley have room to get off) and the people waiting are pushing their way on. Now Americans are very line oriented and Europeans are not so this organized chaos was a bit stressful for Jake and I. The other stressful thing is the buses don’t list where they are going so I started running from bus to bus asking the driver if they were going to Sorrento (the buses pack people in like sardines and we decided we wanted seats so we had to know which bus to push our way on to). The bus ride was about two hours and for some reason buses make both Jake and I very sleepy. So we fought off the sleep in order to take in the sights of the coast. That being said the scenery was beautiful however I prayed the entire way as the roads are extremely curvy and narrow (think – one lane Trail Ridge Road with hairpin curves).

The guy sitting directly behind us kept saying that he doesn’t do well on buses and was feeling really sick, however that didn’t stop him from loudly announceing everything he was doing and that his wife shouldn’t be taking pictures from the bus because they wouldn’t come out, etc. It is at times like this I understand people’s distain for Americans. We casually strolled through Sorrento of course stopping for a cappuccino and took in the quaintness of the town.

SIDEBAR – When paying for something Southern Italians want the exact change and often only accept cash.

We, or Jake I should say, found the bus stop to get back to Amalfi and ended up waiting for about an hour – the bus we finally got on was either really late or really early – we aren’t sure which. Several people at the bus station started hailing taxis, as they were tired of waiting. We had a fantastic dinner last night in Amalfi (thanks again to chowhound.com!), for starters we had smoked mozzarella wrapped in lemon leaves, ricotta with prosciutto and a pizzette. For my entrée I had au gratin beef with artichokes and new potatoes and Jake had Veal Cheek with potatoes (the waiter recommended something for him so we aren’t exactly sure what it was). I finished with an assortment of sorbet (pineapple, lemon and strawberry) and Jake concluded with an all lemon dish (lemon sorbet, lemon crepe, lemon log and a lemon puffy thing). I would recommend this restaurant to anyone - it was absolutely delicious!!!!