How lucky am I to have my mom and my two aunts come to visit me for a week while I was in Rome!! Mom and Aunt Carla flew to Venice earlier in the week, but on Friday, April 11, I picked up Aunt Connie at the airport and Mommy and Aunt Carla met us at the hotel later that evening (after a 5 hour train ride and a bottle of wine [each]). The next morning, however, Aunt Carla and Aunt Connie headed up to Florence, and Mom and I spent a lovely weekend in the Amalfi Coast!
After a 2 hour train ride, another hour commuter train, and an hour and a half bus (which was miserable on account of the twisty roads, making me extremely carsick) we finally arrived at our wonderful hotel, Hotel Onda Verda (The Green Wave) in Praiano, known as the diamond of the Amalfi Coast. It was a beautiful place, family owned and must have just been renovated because was extremely clean and new looking. The family (father, mother, and 5 year old girl) were lovely and very personable. Immediately, they ushered us into the dining room and made us the most amazing Caprese salad we have ever had. The region that the Amalfi Coast is in, Campania, is where all the bufalo mozzarella comes from, so thus we were eating the best fresh mozzarella we have ever had.
The hotel was covered in beautiful pottery that Mom fell in love with, so after an hour nap to recover from the car ride, we headed to the pottery shop that created all the pottery for the hotel, who also happened to be the cousin's of the hotel owners. This is me waking up from the nap in our beautiful, oceanside room with a balcony.
The pottery place, called Liz Art, was one of the most beautiful stores I have ever been in, and not just because of the pottery. On the street that runs through the entire Amalfi Coast, overlooking the water, we walked into the store and were greeted by two gentlemen playing the mandolin and the guitar in the corner. We had beautiful music the entire time we were in the store, it was lovely and like out of a movie. The entire store was filled from corner to corner, floor to ceiling with hand created and hand painted pottery.
I began using my fantastic Italian skills to converse with the store owners. Anna, the women, kept telling me how beautiful my mother was, and was complimenting me on my Italian. Told you I was good, Mom. We talked for almost an hour while my mom browsed, until after the sun set. Romolo, her husband, kept asking me "Dove ti ho visto?" which means "Where have I seen you [before]? He said I looked so familiar to him. Aldo let me play his mandolin for a little while, and we chatted for so long. We spent so long in the store that as we were leaving around 8pm, they asked us to stay for a coffee but we kindly declined as it was dinner time. Instead, they made us sit down and performed "Thats Amore" for us on the mandolin and guitar. It was a beautiful moment, the kind that makes me really happy I studied in Italy, since the people are so kind and generous all the time. I'm glad Mom got to experience something like that as well. I also decided I'm naming my first daughter Anna as all Italian women named Anna that I have ever met have been angels. Anna is the name of my host mother in Parma, and also the name of the kind woman at the pottery store.
After we left the store, on our blissful walk home, we were frightened by what sounded like a cannon going off. After staring into the sky for a few seconds, fireworks began to brighten the sky right near where we were. It was to celebrate a wedding! It was a spectacular moment, only adding to the amazing night we were having already.
At the hotel restaurant, we had a lovely, homemade meal. I ordered the most incredible cheese ravioli in a cherry tomato and basil sauce. I'm not kidding, it was heaven. The cheese was a mozzarella, parmesan, and ricotta mixture that melted in your mouth. Heaven on a plate, if you ask me. I seem to say that a lot, don't I?
1 comment:
I want to go back for a month!
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