The original plan for today was to take the bus up to Minuta and do a guided hike through Valle Della Ferriere. We originally were going to do this ourselves, but the Hotel Amalfi had a complimentary hike with a guide which was great. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate. It was downpouring off and on, with a few thunderstorms mixed in. Anyway the tour was cancelled.
We thought we might do this ourselves later in the day as the forecast showed it getting clear in the afternoon. Instead we explored some of the back alleyways of Amalfi which was fun.
We stopped at a wine/coffee bar on the Piazza and met Patricia, who waited on us. She was born and raised in Amalfi and was quite a character. We talked with her about Italian cuisine and she would feed us ingredients every time she walked by to some of her typical meals she makes at home. In between she also managed to serve other customers and pose for pictures with the boatload of Japanese tourists that came in. She also recommended a great local ristorante for us to try, Taverna Degli Apostoli. While we were there, Patricia located the chef on the street and brought her over to meet us. She said that “mama” had made the one dish she had gave us and that they would put some aside for us. During this time I had drank 3 cappuccinos and was very awake. We eventually headed back to the room and cleaned up for dinner.
We had an incredible dinner at Taverna Degli Apostoli. It is located just on the left side of the steps to Piazza Duomo and if you sit inside you are actually looking out the windows of the Piazza. After the fabulous dinner, we had a glass of wine at a cafe along the main street. It was abnormally less crowded in Amalfi this night so we enjoyed it. We then headed back to our hotel since tomorrow we had a long hike to our next town on the coast to Praiano.
Despite not getting to do the hike we planned it was still a great day and we were able rest our legs a bit. Tomorrow would be a long steep hike with all of our stuff on our backs.
