There’s a famous old British musical hall song whose chorus begins,
Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside
I do like to be beside the sea!
I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom!
Where the brass bands play:
"Tiddely-om-pom-pom!"
Well, we had no brass bands this morning in Positano, but we did spend a most pleasant day beside the sea. Our destination for the day was the nearby — well, in kilometers only — town of Ravello. We figured that we could spend all day trying to get there by SITA bus, or just pay a few Euros more and take a taxi. That gave us the opportunity to spend most of the day on the beach.
Rebecca, in particular, having suffered through a long, gray Belgian winter, was quite excited to be in the warm sun and by the warm water. She contemplated taking a swim,
found her way to a rock in the harbor,
executed one of her signature jumps,
and happily swam back to shore.
She and John happily played in the water while your writer, having completely embraced his inner grandfather, napped beneath a beach umbrella and read a book.
But by two o’clock or so it was time for us to go. Our hotel arranged to send our luggage to a taxi and told us to wait for the taxi next to the pharmacy in town. So we took one last walk along the seaside path.
The drive to Ravello was quite stunning. Although it was only about 25 kilometers, it took us about an hour! Ravello is slightly inland from the town of Amalfi and the road climbs and climbs until you get here.It is a hilltop town with ocean views! It does not get much better than that. The taxi took us to our home for the next two days, an apartment with the so-Italian name of “La Dolce Vita.” We have a kitchen with a small dining area, two small bedrooms, each with a bath, and from everywhere we have a view! This what the world looks like from the kitchen window!
Down in the valley below there are many small medieval villages.
My friends Ann and Stefan emailed me a couple days ago to tell us that they were staying with his family in Puglia. That is not exactly close, but they insisted on coming to Ravello to meet up with us. When they arrived, Ann called me to let me know they were there. I stepped outside to get slightly better reception … and saw them on the balcony of a hotel about 500 feet away!
We all went out to dinner together. I was really having a much better than than it appears in this photograph!
The owner of this restaurant is somewhat famous. Supposedly Rosie O’Donnell was so taken by her cooking that she asked her to appear on her show, but the old woman declined to leave Ravello. Whether it’s true or not she certainly is a character. When I asked for a picture she was more than happy to oblige!
Ravello bills itself a “la città della musica,” the city of music. There is a big summer music festival here which draws famous performers from around the world. Before we left Los Angeles, I had made arrangements to get tickets to a chamber music performance. The performers were a group called the Martucci Piano Trio and they did works by Haydn, Beethoven, and Schumann.
John and Rebecca really did enjoy the concert, but they could not resist pretending to be bored.
We went home feeling quite cultured.
