There are few more beautiful places in the world than the Amalfi Coast. Ancient villages vie with lemon groves for the prime real estate on the cliffs – with views that take you over the rooftops, through the fresh laundry flapping in the breeze, out to the blue sea. Truly gorgeous.
But when you try to walk in those quaint little streets, all you can see over the heads of the tour groups are stores selling t-shirts and limoncello. That’s the trade-off – at least in the big-name towns like Amalfi, Ravello, Positano, and Sorrento – there’s truly beautiful scenery but you’re going to have to share the view with a lot of other people. A lot of other people.
We stayed in Amalfi in a lovely, funky hotel up above the town – The Villa Lara. We ate in town and very well. My favorite was a place called Marocco where I had spaghetti with shrimp and lemon. I’d never tried that combination before and Amalfi is the place for it. The local lemons are famous – and unbelievably large – like the size of your head – and they carry a lot of taste. That’s it, I think: just toss the pasta in oil and lemon (probably juice and a little grated peel) and toss in the shrimp. It was totally satisfying with a glass or two of the local white wine.
Normally, one encounter with an old bear would terrify a person. It would probably scare a person out of the wilderness and into solitude
for an unforeseeable amount of time. It would most likely be an
experience worth putting behind and never having to relive. In fact,
the only person I have ever read of, other than circus acts and zoo
trainers, to have ever made his life about becoming friends with old
bears is Mr. Timothy Treadwell, who was deemed Grizzly Man by Mr.
Werner Herzog in a 2005 documentary by the same title. Treadwell was
the victim of one of the old bears he had become friends with during
his life in the wilderness with them.
I just spent my first night in Rome and wanted to share my dinner from last night. It was at