Italy- We came for some wine and pizza part1 Nov-2012

michnus

14th July 2013

It was well after dark when we decided to fit our LED Lenzer headlight to the front of Elsebie’s bike’s wind screen and use it as a headlight.  The small little headlight’s beam turned out to be too powerful, as traffic from the front kept flashing their headlights at her. It worked and got us to the hotel in the small town.

First day in Italy.

We could not have asked for a more perfect place and time to land in Italy and experience our first day in the country of exotic machines, pizza’s and The Mafia.

While I went back to the customs officials to clarify and make sure we indeed did not need paperwork for the bikes,  Elsebie had a bit of time to plan our route for the day. It turned out we were right at the start of the popular and scenic Amalfi coastline. Landscapes of towering bluffs and pastel-hued villages terraced into hillsides, precipitous cornice roads with luxuriant gardens, and expansive vistas over turquoise waters and green-swathed mountains.

Vietri sul Mare is a village known for its ceramics and in particular its arty clay tiles and one that offers sweeping views of the beautiful jaw drop coastline. The road meanders past viewpoint after viewpoint. The one at Capo d’Orso may be the best of what we have seen and skirts the villages of Maiori and Minori, the ruins of a first-century A.D. Roman villa, before a junction close to Atrani whisks you inland to Ravello.

The views are breath taking and spectacularly beautiful. The pace is slow with people sipping coffee and beers at road side restaurants and coffee shops.  I think we could easily get swallowed up in to this lifestyle and spend a life time around these parts, never getting bored or used to the views, smells and sights.