Visiting the
Amalfi Coast during offseason, pretty much means you can have the whole place to yourself. Although my trip there was brief, I felt like I've never had the same recharging experience like I did there elsewhere before. I arrived at
Positano on a very windy night, and let me tell you, the bus ride around the mountains were seriously not for one with a weak stomach. Surprisingly, even in what is considered the winter months there, the temperature was calm and beautiful in the low 50s and 60s.
On the first of the two full days there, I woke up very early. One thing that I really enjoyed about staying in our family-run boutique hotel called
Villa Gabrisa was that the breakfast was heavenly --plus I loved watching the sun rise over our huge balcony too! There was a huge selection of local fruits, cheeses, pastries, hams, salami and of course prosciutto. An espresso in the morning is something that you'll learn to adjust to once you start letting yourself fall into the routine of the Italians.
After the first few minutes of heading out to the explore our town, I finally realized why such a big breakfast was necessary. Getting around Positano was something my legs were not ready for. Aside from small cars and motorcycles, most locals walk to get to their destinations. There are also 2 buses that run through town mainly for tourists. One takes you to other towns while the other runs through that specific town. But in order to really discover the place, my boyfriend and I decided to walk all the way down the mountains along the main roads. We, later on, realized that there were shortcuts of stairs throughout the pathways that will cut through the winding main road. While the stairs were considered shortcuts, they were some of the steepest stairs I've ever climbed (getting back up to our hotel later on that day was not so fun!).
When we got further down the mountain and closer to the center of Positano, we discovered lots of shops and eventually made our way to the beach. We had lunch at
Ristorante La Cambusa Positano -- and Shun still talks about their mussels soup even after all this time. Dessert was a no-brainer since I literally have an average of 3 gelato scoops a day.
On our last full day on the Amalfi Coast, Shun and I decided to visit Capri and head to sea to see the
Blue Grotto. In order to get to Capri from where we were, we had to take a bus back to Sorrento and take the ferry. Since we had to wait a bit for the ferry once we got to
Sorrento, we decided to walk around the local markets and grab a coffee. We found some really interesting stuff there, but we saw that Limoncello was the most popular item for souvenirs. And of course, I didn't leave the market without gelato as well (hehe).
Unfortunately, because we were there off-season, the tourism for the Blue Grotto was closed early as soon as we got off the ferry at Capri. We made the most of it by taking another tour from a local to see 4 other caves including the White Grotto on the opposite side of Capri away from the Blue Grotto.
Being out at sea on a small private boat was absolute bliss. Our guide was very sweet, and not intrusive at all, he gave us space to talk to one another and only informed us when something interesting came up. Seeing the caves in person was truly something else. I left the trip thinking "wow, I can really see why some people are so for being environmental." Nature is sure damn amazing.
Looking back at some of these photos, it truly makes me sad because as beautiful as they are, they were 100x more stunning in person. The Amalfi Coast is surely a place that I'll be returning to if I ever feel like I need to get away from the world again.
