My Roman Empire is Longfellow.

Or at least one of them. Empires do come and go after all, like many things in life, including viral social media trends. Yet, I keep coming back to the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) – or he keeps coming back to me. It’s hard to tell. Over the last several years, we have become quite the travel companions. So it was no surprise when he decided to tag along on a trip to Rome earlier this month.

It all started when I tucked a small copy of Poems of Places dedicated to Italy into my backpack to take with me to Rome. Part of an anthology series edited Longfellow, the pretty little 1877 edition in the photo above was a birthday present this year. I love the just larger than palm size. It seems to say: Have poetry, will travel.

Later in his life, Longfellow spent the majority of his time working on his enormous Poems of Places anthology, which would eventually come in at 31 volumes, with over 4,000 poems (many translated by him) from all corners of the world.1 You might think a man so obsessed with collecting poems from around the world would have been a great traveler, but Longfellow was for much of his life more of a homebody. And with a massive collection of books in his personal library, he could, indeed, travel the world through reading and writing. Quite the polyglot, he was fluent in at least eight languages and could read and write four more.

This talent for picking up languages started at young age. After graduating in 1825 at only 18 years old from Bowdoin College, Longfellow set off on his first big trip to Europe. From 1826 to 1829, on his extensive Grand Tour through France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and England to study languages and literature. While traveling, he bought books for the Bowdoin College library and somehow managed to learn French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German along the way. Usually without any formal instruction. Oh how I would love to bring a language home as a souvenir!

On the train to Rome, I started thinking about Longfellow’s first book, Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea, which was published between 1833 and 1834 (without his name) and then later in two volumes in 1835 by Harper & Brothers. While I hadn’t read much from this early book inspired by his first Grand Tour, I did recall that he had spent time in Rome. Curious, I popped over to Internet Archive—so much lighter than those trunks of books Longfellow sent back home—and in a matter of minutes was reading the 1935 edition of Outre-Mer as the train sped through the Italian countryside.

While I’d like to read the entire book one day, I decided that since it was a Frecciarossa fast train I’d better jump past his time in France and his long reverie about Spain and Spanish poetry to read about Italy. But, it has to be said that the young Longfellow was smitten with Spain – and in particular his landlord's daughter Florencia González. He stayed on in Spain for 8 months before reluctantly leaving for Italy. And when I say reluctantly, I really mean it. After just over a month in Italy, a forlorn Longfellow penned these lines to his mother:

“I must confess it, I am travelling through Italy without any enthusiasm, and with just curiosity enough to keep me awake. I feel no excitement, nothing of that romantic feeling which everybody else has, or pretends to have. The fact is, I am homesick for Spain. I want to go back there again. The recollection of it completely ruins Italy for me.”2

One never really gets over a first crush—or love or whatever it may have been—and Italy had some decidedly big shoes to fill. But for those of you who know Italy, it’s certainly not short on romantic appeal. While it took a little bit, Longfellow soon fell hard for the Italian language and spent a good deal of his life—and many many happy hours with his second wife Fanny Appleton—working on his English translation of The Divine Comedy. (The first complete translation by an American!)

But back to Outre-mer, where the last few chapters are dedicated to his time Italy. After leaving Spain he made his way into Italy with stops in Genoa, Lucca, and Pisa before settling in Florence for about a month. But it wasn’t until Rome that Italy really began to make much of an impression on Longfellow. It seems it was there that his love of the language—among other things—really began. Although he originally planned to be only a few weeks in Rome, he would end up staying nearly a year. When he later looked back on his time while writing Outre-mer, only highlights of this year in Rome would make it into the book. Yet, it’s still a fascinating look at the city through the eyes of an early 19th-century American traveler.

While he first arrived in Rome in January, Longfellow titled his chapter about Rome in Outre-mer as “Rome in Midsummer.” Now, I wouldn’t normally think of August as midsummer, especially since my birthday falls one day before the summer solstice and the traditional festivals that mark the middle of the season. So it was a surprise to me as I started reading the chapter to discover that the “Eternal City silent and deserted” he was describing was, in fact, Rome in August. There I was on the train to Rome reading Longfellow’s words at exactly the time he was describing nearly 200 years earlier. My interest was definitely piqued!

Longfellow took up residence with the Persiani family in their home on Piazza Navona. Sitting at their parlor window watching the busy scene in the square—“one of the largest and most magnificent squares of modern Rome”—the Eternal City started to work its magic. The place, the views, the history, and above all the language seem to have quickly replaced his longing for Spain – and the lovely Persiani daughters to talk to didn’t hurt either.3

“My mornings are spent in visiting the wonders of Rome; in studying the miracles of ancient and modern art, or in reading at the public libraries. We breakfast at noon, and dine at the aristocratic hour of eight in the evening. The intermediate hours I devote to the acquisition of the Italian language,—the idioma gentil sonante e puro [gentle, sonorous and pure language],—not from the lessons of a pragmatical language-master, but in the delightful intercourse of a pleasant family circle. After dinner comes the conversazione, enlivened with exquisite music, and the meeting of travellers, artists, and literary men from every quarter of the globe.”4

I have to say, it would be hard not to fall for Rome with that kind of entertainment and company. Young Longfellow’s visits to the “wonders of Rome” took him to see the tomb of the Sorrento-born 16th-century poet Torquato Tasso (“the laurel crown was prepared for the great epic poet of Italy”), watching the sunset from the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola, seeing where St. Peter was martyred at the Church of San Pietro in Montorio, visiting the Villa Doria Pamphili gardens, the Vatican, and many other sites.

On a sticky August morning during my time in Rome, I stood for a few moments looking at the long lines and crowds of tourists at the Colosseum from the Colle Oppio park. I wondered what Longfellow would make of the scene today. While he didn’t mention it, surely the sound of cicadas would have filled the August air just the same. From under the canopy shade of the umbrella pines, I watched as a couple of kids struggled to play basketball in the heat and looked over at a skate park that sat empty, baking under the summer sun. It was no wonder that when it came time for Longfellow to visit the Colosseum, he did it the classic Grand Tour way of visiting at night. He wrote in Outre-Mer:

“It is now past midnight. The moon is full and bright, and the shadows lie so dark and massive in the street that they seem a part of the walls that cast them. I have just returned from the Coliseum, whose ruins are so marvellously beautiful by moonlight. No stranger at Rome omits this midnight visit.”5

In August, I couldn’t imagine a better time to take a page out of the Grand Tour experience and visit the Colosseum at night. I noticed when I walked by one sweltering evening that on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 pm until midnight you can have A Night at the Colosseum. Maybe it’s my romantic heart, but one day I’d love to visit the Colosseum at night too.

One thing is for sure, if you’re not at risk of melting into a puddle, it is significantly easier to channel Longfellow’s final words about Rome: “Mighty is the spirit of the past, amid the ruins of the Eternal City!”6

There is, however, one Grand Tour experience Longfellow had that’s no longer possible: the Piazza Navona Lake. If you’ve strolled through the beautiful Piazza Navona and admired Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, you are probably thinking, “Wait did you just say lake?” One of the passages I enjoyed most from Outre-mer was his description of one of the most unexpected views he had from the Persiani windows overlooking Piazza Navona:

“Every Saturday afternoon in the sultry month of August, this spacious square is converted into a lake, by stopping the conduit-pipes which carry off the water of the fountains. Coaches, landaus, and vehicles of every description, axle-deep, drive to and-fro across the mimic lake; a dense crowd gathers around its margin, and a thousand tricks excite the loud laughter of the idle populace.

Here is a fellow groping with a stick after his seafaring hat; there another splashing in the water in pursuit of a mischievous spaniel, that has swum away with his shoe; while from a neighbouring balcony a noisy burst of military music fills the air, and gives fresh animation to the scene of mirth. This is one of the popular festivals of midsummer in Rome, and the merriest of them all. It is a kind of carnival unmasked ; and many a popular bard, many a poeta di dozzina, invokes this day the plebeian muse of the market-place to sing in high-sounding rhyme, ‘II Lago di Piazza Navona.’”7

—Historic image of Piazza Navona flooded in 1865. (Italienischer Photograph um 1865, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Of all the things I could have possibly imagined Longfellow would have been looking at in Piazza Navona, Romans doing what sounds like it can only be described as frolicking in an artificial lake would not ever have made it on that list. But what he describes was a popular August event that started in the 17th century under Pope Innocent X. You can read more about it—and see more great photos—over on Crytal King’s Substack Tasting Life Twice:

Tasting Life Twice

The Summer Flooding of Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona, one of Rome’s most renowned public spaces, has long been cherished for its rich history, stunning architecture, and vibrant atmosphere. It’s certainly one of my absolute favorite places. Sitting on the piazza, enjoying a spritz, listening to the buskers, and watching people—that constitutes a perfect time for me…

Read more

3 years ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Crystal King

While Outre-mer kept me company on the train ride up, I enjoyed dipping in and out of the little Poems of Places book during my few days in Rome. There’s a beautiful poem by Harriet Beecher Stowe about the Villa Doria Pamphili and I read Byron’s poem about being in the Colosseum at night, as well. And I smiled when I saw that Longfellow—who could generally always be counted on to be the bigger man—included a poem called The Coliseum by Edgar Allan Poe, who was, to put it nicely, a jerk to Longfellow during his lifetime.

If you’re curious to read more poems from Longfellow’s anthology, all 31 volumes of the Poems of Places are on Bartleby. While the digital version is easy to take around in your pocket, see if you can track down even one of the old volumes. It won’t take up much space in your bag, and Longfellow was right. Poets really do make the best traveling companions.

Rome in Midsummer (Laura’s Version)

But, thankfully, there’s still plenty to do in Rome inside during the hottest days of the year – without the need for artificial lakes. Namely, museums. So many museums! Even after quite a few visits to Rome over the years, I’ve only made a small dent in the museums. My version of Longfellow’s lines for a heatwave in August would be: “Mighty is the spirit of the past, amid the museums of the Eternal City!”

While in Rome, I saw the Franco Fontana Retrospective at the Museo dell’Ara Pacis (on until September 14, 2025). Years ago I saw some photographs of Italy that made me feel like home. It was the rolling hills of the southern Italian countryside depicted in intense blues and yellows and greens – the perfect geometry of landscape. These were taken by the Italian photographer Franco Fontana (1933-), whose photos make me feel both calm and deeply happy at the same time.

While I’ve looked at his photos so many times in books, there’s nothing quite like standing in front of them at the scale he intended them to be seen. Some so much smaller than I imagined and others so large you could get lost in them, but each one distinctly Fontana.

There’s something so spacious and refreshing about his photographs, especially on a hot day. And to see them while just upstairs sits the Ara Pacis and across the street is the Mausoleum of Augustus – mighty is the spirit of the past indeed!

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—Traveling through books at Mr B’s Emporium in Bath, England.

Sometimes, when I’m trying to find a place for a newly arrived book in my tiny house in Amalfi, I’m tempted to think that perhaps I might have too many books. Earlier this morning, however, I looked around and realized that books really are my life. Between being a passionate reader and a writer, books are my life – my whole life. One simply can’t have too much life.

It will come as no surprise then that books often find their way into my travels as well. While you can truly travel the world in a bookshop, there’s something I deeply love about traveling the world to go to a bookshop. It’s one of life’s quietest adventures.

Earlier this month I went on just such a book-inspired adventure with a trip to Bath and London that was sparked by the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth in 1775. In addition to the Austen connections, Bath and the Somerset area have been on my radar for the past year in particular thanks to two very special bookshops. London—always my favorite city—has some of the best bookshops that I always look forward to seeing on every visit. Plus, I had planned to go to a very special literary event at a bookshop that has long been on my London list.

While preparing for the trip to England, I came across a sweet song called “My Life in Seven Bookshops” by Samantha Whates and M G Boulter.

While summing up my life so far in only seven bookshops would be impossible, I realized that without planning it I ended up going to seven bookshops while in England – each one oh so special in its own way. So, to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day today—although an American thing but bookshops know no boundaries—I thought it would be fun to share my trip to England in seven bookshops. Let’s make every day Independent Bookstore Day – all over the world!

1 - Persephone Books, Bath

—Beautful Persephone Books in Bath, England.

If a bookshop could launch a thousand ships, it would surely be Persephone Books. Well, at the very least, it brought me to Bath! I wish I could recall exactly when I first came across this remarkable publisher and bookshop, but I believe it was last summer while I was looking for books by Willa Cather’s lifelong friend Dorothy Canfield Fisher. That led me to Persephone Books, founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman and dedicated to republishing—in a lovely and distinctive way—neglected and forgotten books written primarily by women. Be still my heart.

While I’m sometimes quite shy in bookshops, there was something so friendly and welcoming about Persephone. I ended up chatting with Fran, daughter of the bookshop’s founder, who graciously helped me pick out which Dorothy Canfield Fisher book to start with – The Home-Maker. (Yes, she’s read every book they publish!) Given my interest in Cather, she also suggested Fidelity by another midwest writer, the Iowa-born Susan Glaspell.

I had also wanted to get a book for a friend who likes true crime and mystery stories, but had forgotten where I saved the name. All I had to go on for Fran was: “You shared once in a newsletter or on Instagram about a book that was an amazing psychological thriller of its time … and that’s all I can remember right now.” It took her only a split second to mention three titles and less than a minute to help me find exactly the one I was looking for. (I can’t tell you what it is though because the gift hasn’t been given yet!) But that, that right there, is what independent bookshops are all about.

Even if you can’t make it to Bath, you can sign up for The Persephone Letter, a monthly newsletter that is full of the most unexpected reading inspiration.

Persephone Books
8 Edgar Buildings, Bath
www.persephonebooks.co.uk
Instagram: @persephonebooks

2 - Mr. B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, Bath

—The warm glow of Bath stone on a sunny day.

Bonus points already for the fun name, right? Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights came recommended by a friend who visited last summer, and it did not disappoint. Founded in 2006, this multi-level labyrinth of books has twice been picked as the UK's best independent bookshop and was listed in 2015 by the Guardian as one of the 10 best bookshops in the world. But, besides the recommendation and awards, I also wanted to visit this bookshop because of a song. One of my favorite songs about books was written by a band founded at Mr B’s - aptly named The Bookshop Band.

“There’s a story waiting inside
Behind the door, as it opens wide
And I wander in, hoping to find something
As they tell the stories we know
And those we don’t are waiting to be held,
And taken home …”

Does every bookshop need a song? Yes, absolutely, and I’m so pleased to have been able to visit the one that inspired this one. 🎶

Mr. B’s Emporium
14-15 John Street, Bath
www.mrbsemporium.com
Instagram: @mrbsemporium

3 - Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath

Besides being curious about its location in the historic Meeting House between the Bath Abbey and Roman Baths, Topping & Company Booksellers was on my list while in Bath because I was sorry to have missed their bookstore in Edinburgh last November. While they have many locations (Bath, Edinburgh, Ely, St Andrews), this independent bookstore was founded in Ely and has been in Bath since 2008. Also, it was the first shop I visited on my recent trip since they’re open past the usual shop closing time of 5:30 or 6pm in Bath … very nice!

—Lovely Jane Austen themed table at Topping & Company in Bath.

With the Jane Austen theme of my trip, I couldn’t resist picking up the slim—and very portable while traveling—copy of Love and Freindship (yes, that’s not a typo), a funny little book Austen wrote as a teenager. It was a silly but enjoyable read!

Topping & Company Booksellers in Bath
York Street, Bath (near the Abbey)
www.toppingbooks.co.uk
Instagram: @toppingsbath

4 - Sherlock & Pages, Frome

The beautiful and surprising side of Instagram brought Sherlock & Pages from the small town of Frome in Somerset into my life. Opened in 2023 by Luke Sherlock and Agathe Cavicchioli in a lovely little spot at the base of the impossibly charming Catherine Hill, Sherlock & Pages is a conservation-themed bookshop with a very enjoyable and inspiring social media presence. For Christmas, I ordered myself a copy of Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year from Sherlock & Pages – after they shared about it online.

Just for this one book alone, Sherlock & Pages will always have a special place in my heart. It has became a new morning ritual and has brought so many new voices into my life. (Including an unexpected rabbit hole into George Eliot’s time on the Amalfi Coast early yesterday morning!) So, of course, since I was so close to Frome, I had to make a visit while in Bath (only about 15 miles away). Highly recommend!

The town itself is beautiful, with so many independent shops and artist studios. Luke had been very kind to recommend lunch at Rye Bakery Cafe, located in a former 19th century church, which was one of the best meals I’ve had in a very long time. Well-fueled, I enjoyed a good browse at Sherlock & Pages, and picked up the book I’m currently reading - Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade. (Just shared about it here.)

A special thank you to Sherlock & Pages for the continued inspiration. Long live the independent bookshops!

Sherlock & Pages
2 Catherine Hill, Frome
www.sherlockandpages.com
Instagram: @sherlockandpages

5 - Winstone's Hunting Raven Books + The Frome Bookshop, Frome

This is a two-for-one … but who doesn’t love a bonus bookshop? Winstone's Hunting Raven Books is a lovely and welcoming bookshop located on historic Cheap Street. This is the only street in England with an open aqueduct, called a leat, running down the center. (You can spot it in the photo above on the left.) I wanted to spend more time in this bookshop, but the street was so charming that I actually spent more time looking at it from a coffee shop just opposite.

Winstone's Hunting Raven Books
9-10 Cheap St, Frome
www.shop.winstonebooks.co.uk

Cheap Street ends at King Street and that’s exactly where you’ll find The Frome Bookshop. This antiquarian and second-hand bookshop had a great selection. I’m still thinking of a beautiful copy of James Whiteside’s Italy: In the Nineteenth Century published in 1860. I hadn’t come across that before, but I’m still wishing I had more time to take a closer look at it.

The Frome Bookshop
18 King Street, Frome
www.thefromebookshop.co.uk

6 - Hatchards, London

All too soon it was time to leave Somerset and head to London. For a book lover, any trip to London isn’t complete without a visit to Hatchards. Founded in 1797, it’s London’s oldest bookshop, and has a long and inspired history. Spread out over 5 levels, it’s a wonderful literary escape on Piccadilly. How could one not fall for a bookshop with an entire section dedicated to P. G. Wodehouse? At the heart of the store is a spiral staircase, and while admiring the Wodehouse, a group of young kids went dashing up the stairs yelling, “Books books books books!” Same kids, I thought, hard same.

If you love travel writing, or need a good guidebook, head downstairs at Hatchards for a real treat. They have a huge travel section! Last year, after an all too quick visit, a friend asked if I had looked to see if my book was there. I hadn’t! So, of course, I had to go back again. It was quite an experience signing a copy of Moon Amalfi Coast with Capri, Naples & Pompeii in London’s oldest bookshop. There may have been an unfortunate happy dance. (Thankfully without any photographic evidence …)

Hatchards
187 Piccadilly, London
www.hatchards.co.uk
Instagram: @hatchardspiccadilly

7 - The London Review Bookshop, London

The final bookstore of the trip was a very special one. While I’ve ordered online from the London Review Bookshop, I hadn’t ever been to their shop in Bloomsbury. This was a unique visit, because I was able to get tickets to hear Edmund de Waal speak with Laura Beatty about her latest story Pear Trees published by Hazel Press. It’s not every day you can pop into a bookshop and hear one of your favorite authors speak!

—Edmund de Waal in discussion with Laura Beatty at the London Revew Bookshop.

An incredible artist, potter, and writer, de Waal’s books The Hare with Amber Eyes and Letters to Camondo are among the books that have moved me the most in my life. There are lines from both that have changed me. (He also shares many beautiful things on Instagram.) The discussion was broad but also very grounded in Beatty’s experience, and I still have a lot to unpack from what she shared about writing short fiction. Pear Trees is an excellent short read that reminded me—in the best of ways—of Eudora Welty’s short stories. I now have two more books by Beatty on my TBR pile, and I’m looking forward to reading them this summer.

The London Review Bookshop
14-16 Bury Place, London
www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk
Instagram: @lrbbookshop

Support Independent Bookshops!

—Inspired sign at Sherlock & Pages in Frome.

I hope, even if only in a small way, this ode to independent bookshops inspires you to not just celebrate Independent Bookstore Day today—April 26th, 2025—but also to find a way to make supporting your local bookshops something you do throughout the year. If you don’t have any indie bookshops near you, check out Bookshop.org, which supports local, independent bookshops and booksellers in the US. (There’s a UK version, too.) They’re even offering free shipping this weekend!

So get out there (or stay in your PJs at home) and support your local bookstores this weekend. Let’s give Amazon a hefty kick in the pantaloons. And please tell me about your favorite indie bookshops. Maybe I’ll travel there next! 📚

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- View of Amalfi Coast Road between Atrani and Amalfi, Ernesto Samaritani, c.1940s.

Sometimes I say jokingly that every curve of the Amalfi Coast has history. In reality, that’s not very far from the truth. I was reminded of that recently when I happened across an old photo of the curve between Atrani and Amalfi where the Hotel Luna is located. This photo, above, was taken by Ernesto Samaritani (1896-1981), a photographer from Naples who lived many years in Amalfi. (In the house where I live! But that’s a story for another day…) He’s been described as “the photographer of the Amalfi Coast” and captured the soul of this place in his photos.1

If looking at old photos is a hobby, it’s certainly one of mine. As long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to historic photographs and how they hold a moment of time in a place. Looking closely at this particular photo, which was taken around the 1940s, it shows the Amalfi Coast Road from Atrani toward the Hotel Luna. The historic watchtower on the left is a restaurant for the hotel, with the main part of the hotel across the road on the right. I could tell, rather surprisingly, that not much had changed since that photo had been taken. One morning, recently, I went to see the road from the same viewpoint. Take a look for yourself:  

- Same view, February 2024.

You can see that the white building on the road that was the garage for the Hotel Luna is now the much larger Luna Rossa parking garage tunneled into the mountain. (Yes, you can park inside a mountain in Amalfi!) The small Cappella del Crocifisso is still there to the right of the garage. Otherwise, not much has changed. That in itself is rather remarkable when so much of the urban landscape of the coastline has changed over the years.

At first, I wasn’t going to share this past and present photo comparison. It was just one of the weird ways I entertain myself on a morning walk. Then the other morning while listening to Benjamin Taylor’s recent biography of Willa Cather, he spoke about one of Cather’s great themes:

“She would have understood T.S. Eliot’s remark that we live not just in the present but in the present moment of the past, past and present being the warp and weft of all experience.”2

—Benjamin Taylor, from Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather (Bookshop.org | Amazon)

That literally stopped me in my tracks. I realized that is exactly what drives my interest in historic photographs and fascination with how things change and how they stay the same. It is the warp and the weft that creates everything I love about this place. Comparing old photos to present day is like picking away at that fabric to see what I can find in the frayed edges.

- Seeing places and faces of the past in vintage postcards. (Author’s collection)

That quotation then led me back to T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, which starts out reflecting on time past and present, what might have been, and the future:

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.

—T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton, No. 1 of Four Quartets

What I usually unravel those frayed edges are questions. With this particular photo—just a simple shot recording a specific curve in the road at a specific moment in the past—there was something that caught my eye. As I stood as close as I could trying to take the same photo, I noticed that something had in fact changed. Having walked that road countless times, I realized that the exact point where that photo was taken doesn’t exist anymore. Indeed, that’s because the road in the foreground of the photo on the right doesn’t exist anymore. But where did it go?

Buckle up, folks, for a bumpy rabbit hole ride along one of the world’s most beautiful roads.

- Vintage postcard showing the Hotel Luna and road to Atrani. (Author’s collection)

Just barely 171 years old, the Amalfi Coast Road hasn’t always looked exactly the way it does today. If you’ve driven on the coastline, you’ll remember there are a lot of tunnels along the road. Many of them, however, don’t date to the earliest days of the Amalfi Coast Road due to construction limitations and a great many handfuls of other problems. When it came to continuing the road from Atrani to Amalfi, the road originally hugged the mountainside, as you can see in the postcard above. Why build a tunnel when you don’t need to build a tunnel?

In trying to recreate the exact photo by Samaritani, that’s when I realized it must have been taken from that road before the tunnel between the two towns was built in 1951. Hard to date exactly at first, this means his photo was taken sometime before 1951. You can see in other historic photos of Atrani—like the spectacular one below taken from the belltower of the Collegiata di Santa Maria Maddalena—how the road curved around the outside of town.

- Postcard showing Atrani before the tunnel was built. (Author’s collection)

(Rest stop: Hands up if you want me to recreate that photo!)

Before happening across that Samaritani photo, I hadn’t ever stopped to wonder why a tunnel was built there. Why build a tunnel? As it turns out, so cars can stop in Atrani. You can see in the photo above that while the road went through Atrani, there was no way to get from the road down to the main level of town below.

- The road through Atrani in a 19th-century lithograph.

To solve this problem, a tunnel was built through the mountain so the earlier road that went around the outside of the mountain could be modified to create a road with tight switchbacks that leads down to the beach level in Atrani. Today there’s a small parking lot and a road leading up through the center of town. That part of the road down to the beach was finished in 1954.

So, back to the original photo, where Ernesto Samaritani was standing to take his photo was somewhere between the present day restaurant Da Zaccaria, where I stood to take my version of the photo, and the zig-zag road going down.

By the way, as handy as the tunnel is today for traffic, I wouldn’t recommend walking through it on the way to or from Atrani. Instead, just before the tunnel head through the outdoor seating area of the Ristorante Da Zaccaria. You’ll walk through there and go down some steps. Continue up the road to the left to rejoin the Amalfi Coast Road or head down to the right to reach the beach and the cute square in the town called Piazza Umberto I.

Now every time I walk up or down those steps, I’ll be thinking of the ghost of that road. A simple photo of a specific road at a specific time has become a memory of what no longer is.

- A stereograph showing the old road around and view of Atrani.

Perhaps you’ll stop and wonder about it as well. That’s the remarkable thing about curiosity, it often takes us on the most satisfying adventures because there’s an element of the unexpected. Simply looking at this one old photo made me wonder about the tunnel and the road and how it has changed and adapted over the centuries.

There’s a lot of talk about slow travel these days, but it’s not an easy topic to get into in meaningful ways. But what if it’s less about the speed with which we travel and more about curiosity? With giving ourselves enough time to see which types of questions we can unravel in the edges?

What questions do you have about where you live? About where you’d like to travel? About the Amalfi Coast?

I’d love to hear in the comments below!

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I can’t say I expected that seeing a 17th-century revenge tragedy would land on my 24 in 2024 list. Yet, when I saw that John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi was being performed this spring at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, it went straight on the list.

If you’re thinking that Malfi sounds an awful lot like Amalfi, you’d be right. Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi was originally written in 1612-1613 and published in 1623 as The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy. (Both Malfi and Malfy are antiquated names for Amalfi.) This macabre play was inspired by Giovanna d’Aragona, the real-life Duchess of Amalfi from 1498 until about 1511 when she mysteriously disappeared.

- Title page of The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy, 1623. (John Webster, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The Duchess of Amalfi lived a brief yet brilliant life. As a young widow, Giovanna became the Duchess of Amalfi, yet was jealously guarded over by her brothers - Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona and Carlo d’Aragona, Marquis of Gerace. Yet, she was a woman of her own mind and chose to secretly marry her steward, Antonio Bologna. (Reader: this did not end well.) Local legend in Amalfi says that Giovanna was murdered, along with her children, in the Torre dello Ziro watchtower.

- A glimpse of the Torre dello Ziro watchtower from Piazza Duomo.

Early one morning recently, I dropped my bag into the taxi and looked up at the Torre dello Ziro. Standing right at the base of the Duomo you can see it sitting up there in the mountains high above Amalfi. Then I was off. The day started early, under a cloudy sky heavy with rain, zigzagging over the mountains to the airport in Naples. Lines, security, speedy boarding, train (the wrong train but to the right destination), the Tube, and finally a walk across the Millennium Bridge, and there it was: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

- The Globe Theatre in London.

Not long after Giovanna d’Aragona’s death, her tragic fate rippled across Europe, told in tales like Matteo Bandello's Novelle in 1554, in a French adaptation by François de Belleforest, and later William Painter's translation as The Palace of Pleasure in 1567. John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi tells this same story and, as it turns out, is connected to the very spot I crossed through on both sides of the Millennium Bridge. It was first performed at Blackfriars Theatre and later at the Globe. The late February wind was blowing cold as I walked over the bridge, getting ever closer to seeing the pages of Webster’s play come to life in the most remarkable setting.

A rare glimpse of the 17th century, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse was inspired by a Jacobean period theater design. Built next to Shakespeare’s Globe, it is named after the visionary director who was behind the recreation of the Globe Theatre. Unlike the open-air Globe, the indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse has a winter season from October to April (with events throughout the year). It opened in 2014 with a production of The Duchess of Malfi (directed by Dominic Dromgoole), and for the 10th anniversary it has been brought back with a brilliant new production led by award-winning Director Rachel Bagshaw.

In keeping with the historically inspired setting, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is candlelit. Six chandeliers above the stage—which can be raised and lowered—along with wall sconces are the main lighting. During the performance, the candles were lit and put out and lit again, and actors carried candelabras on and off the stage. Nearly 100 candles are used per performance and the flickering of the candles in such an intimate theater setting was captivating.

In one dramatic scene, the Duchess’s brother Ferdinand visits her in the dark to play a cruel joke on her (Act 4, Scene 1). The stage was hauntingly dark - the audience completely silent and drawn into the darkness with the Duchess.

- Inside the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

I love a good excuse to read a book I’ve been meaning to read for ages. When I had the chance to be in London for a few days for work, I checked online last minute and was lucky enough to get the last ticket available. I finished reading the play just as the plane landed and was still in that delightful place of finishing a story but not wanting to let it go when the lights went down and the candles flickered in the dark. 

The dark and shadowy world in Webster’s play felt right at home in the 17th-century candlelit theater, but with one decidedly 21st-century addition. The play had creative captioning projected during the entire performance, well-designed to match the set, and timed as the actors delivered their lines. It was an interesting and beautiful example of incorporating captioning for deaf audience members that doesn’t stop at simply representing the words but added a creative element that captured the emotion as well.

Amalfi has a much more intriguing past than many assume. It was incredible to see The Duchess of Malfi in such a historical setting and brought to life by a talented cast. If your travels will take you to London this spring, I’d highly recommend checking it out. The Duchess of Malfi is on through April 14, 2024.

READ ON …

If you enjoy history and unexpected stories from the past, get your hands on a copy of The Mystery of the Duchess of Malfi by Barbara Banks Amendola. Written by art historian and longtime Amalfi Coast resident (and lovely person!), it unravels the complex tale of Giovanna d’Aragona.

Still thinking about 100 candles in a wooden theater? (Me too!) This is a fascinating look at the creation of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and how they safely brought the vision to life:

For the curious, you can read more about Amalfi’s 15th-century Torre dello Ziro watchtower over on Ciao Amalfi.

Know someone who loves the Amalfi Coast? Share Ciao Amalfi with them by clicking below. Grazie mille!

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Find more on www.ciaoamalfi.com. My books: Moon Amalfi Coast & Moon Southern Italy. The Ciao Amalfi newsletter may contain affiliate links.

What do you get a road for its birthday?

That’s probably a sentence—let alone an idea—you’ve never had a good reason to contemplate. But this isn’t just any road. This is the strada statale 163 Amalfitana (SS 163), the one and only Amalfi Coast Road. Praised for its beauty, cursed for its many curves, feared for its stability in stormy weather, and—no matter how carsick you get—essential for modern life on the Amalfi Coast.

12 January 1853: A Star (Road) Is Born

Earlier this month I read an interesting article—“12 gennaio 1853: la solenne inaugurazione della strada rotabile della Costa d’Amalfi” (“12 January 1853: The Solemn Inauguration of the Amalfi Coast Road”)—written by local historian Donato Sarno in Il Quotidiano della Costiera. It highlighted a date that I hadn’t ever focused on: January 12, 1853. This was the initial inauguration of the Amalfi Coast Road, which at that time only extended from Vietri sul Mare to Amalfi. If you’ve driven along the Amalfi Coast, you’ll know that’s only about half of the road today, which continues from Amalfi to Positano and over the mountains to Sorrento. It also means that in 1853 you couldn’t take a carriage to Positano. You’d have to wait until the early 1890s to do that, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

- Amalfi in the 1800s in a photo by Giacomo Brogi (1822-1881).

When the Amalfi Coast Road was completed at the end of 1852, it was a work of remarkable engineering and impressive beauty. It had been under construction for nearly 40 years and it linked by carriageway the towns of the Amalfi Coast—Amalfi, Atrani, Minori, Maiori, Cetara, and Vietri sul Mare—to Salerno. (No, not Ravello. You’ll be taking a donkey or the steps up to Ravello for many years yet.) For the first time in its long history, the Amalfi Coast was connected by roads to Naples and the rest of Italy. Well, to be more precise, it was connected to the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.

Wait, now you might be thinking, “Laura, per carità, there aren’t two Sicilies. (And, wait, did you say donkeys?)” For this month’s On the Road series, and as a (belated) gift for the Amalfi Coast Road, let’s take a look at its fascinating history, one that’s full of just as many twists and turns as the road itself. Buckle up for a trip down memory lane - Amalfi Coast style. I’ll do my best to not make you carsick!

- The Amalfi Coast road between Amalfi and Minori in a photo by Ernesto Samaritani (1896-1981).

Building a Road Fit for a King

Let’s go back 170 years to January 12, 1853, which was a fine and clear day, not unlike these beautiful January days we’ve been enjoying. This wasn’t a day selected by chance for the inauguration of the newly completed road. This was the birthday of King Ferdinando II delle Due Sicilie (1810-1859), the Bourbon ruler of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Keep in mind that going back to 1853 means we’re before the Unification of Italy when what we call Italy today was formed of many sovereign states, republics, and independent entities.

In the 1800s, specifically from 1816 to the Unification in 1861, the Amalfi Coast was part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which covered all of southern Italy and Sicily. It was vast—the largest sovereign state before the Unification—and old. The connection between Naples and Sicily is a long one, the Two Sicilies name going well back to the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282-1302) and the division of the Kingdoms and Naples and Sicily. But, lest we lose our way and never make it back to the Amalfi Coast Road, the scene has been set: Ferdinando II has been crowned king of the united Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1830, which he would rule until his death in 1859.

- Road to Amalfi in the 1800s, photo Ed. Alinari.

This was a period of great social upheaval in many ways - and in their own way the people of the Amalfi Coast had had enough. The plan to build a road along the rugged and isolated Amalfi Coast dates back to the 18th century. In 1806, interest was again renewed in building a road that would connect the town of Amalfi with Naples via Agerola. This project was greatly contested by Maiori and Tramonti since they would be left out. After four years of discussions, a new plan was finally approved in 1811 by another king of Naples, this time King Gioacchino Murat (1767-1815), none other than Napoleon’s brother-in-law. This project was to connect the Amalfi Coast with Naples via a road over the Chiunzi Pass via Tramonti and Maiori. Work had even begun in 1815, but after about 10 years the road had only stretched from Amalfi to Maiori and work halted due to economic and practical problems, including engineering complications for the road to Tramonti.

By 1824, faced with these complications, all the towns of the Amalfi Coast finally agreed on one thing: their road would run along the coastline from Amalfi through Atrani, Minori, Maiori, Cetara, and Vietri sul Mare to Salerno.1 Finally agreed upon the direction, in 1835, a new plan was approved, this time by Ferdinando II, to continue the road along the coastline - direction Salerno. It was by no means an easy task. The unrelenting curves of the road are shaped to the coastline, at times seeming only tentatively attached while at others so deeply embedded they tunnel right through the mountainside.

- The road from Vietri sul Mare to Salerno in a photo by Giorgio Sommer (1832-1914).

Inauguration Day

Amalfi historian Matteo Camera (1807-1891), who was present at the inauguration ceremony, left us with a description of the road that 170 years later still captures its beauty and reminds us of its scale:

"… Gigantic work, of great utility, of the utmost desire and of immense expense, unique in its kind and design, as for the pleasant and varied viewpoints that at every stretch meet you as you travel it from one end to the other (…) even more beautiful than that of Sorrento (…) galleries protruding over the sea, cut into the rocks (…) magnificent in all respects.”2

When inaugurated, the road was dedicated to Ferdinand II and was originally called the "Strada Ferdinandea della Costiera di Amalfi." (I know, not exactly catchy.) After the Unification of Italy, the name was dropped. Exactly 100 years later, in 1953, it officially became the strada statale 163 Amalfitana, the SS 163, which you'll see marked in colorful ceramic signs all along the road today.3

- The road from Castellammare to Meta in a photo by Carlo Brogi (1850-1925).

Just the Beginning

Of course, there’s not really just one “birthday” for the Amalfi Coast road. It would take until the early 1890s for the rest of the road from Amalfi along the coast to Positano and over to Meta in Sorrento to be completed.4 The road from Tramonti and Ravello over the Chiunzi pass would take many years to complete. And remember that original plan to have a road pass over the mountains in Agerola? That one didn’t open until 1935, during Italy’s Fascist period. Here’s a glimpse of the inauguration of the road to Agerola on May 8, 1935:

From carriages to cars and today buses, scooters, and electric bikes, the Amalfi Coast road has seen a lot over the last 170 years. And this just scratches the surface! Each section of the road has so many stories, from the tremendous amount of work involved in creating it to landslides, floods, tourism, and many changes along the way. But those are all stories for another day.

Stories though that it’s good to remember. Which, in the end, is perhaps the best gift we can give the Amalfi Coast road.

Ciao from Amalfi,

Laura

KEEP READING

If you’d like to read more about the Amalfi Coast Road, here are a few more links:

• A funny and only slightly embellished description of getting my Italian driver’s license on the Amalfi Coast.

• This blog post was written awhile back now, but it has some funny stories about The Wildest Ride in Italy along the Amalfi Coast Road. It includes quotes from John Steinbeck’s crazy experience driving on the road to Positano in 1953 - one hundred years after the road to Amalfi was inaugurated.

• An extra thank you to Donato Sarno for the interesting article in Il Quotidiano della Costiera that sparked this reflection on this road that is so much a part of life here on the Amalfi Coast.

P.S.

Don’t forget that I’m offering an Early Bird Sale for 20% off subscriptions if you upgrade to paid now through the end of January 2023. A huge thank you to everyone who has subscribed already! (Read more about it at the end of the January newsletter.)

It’s the last day of the year. Whether it’s been the best of years or the worst of years, it’s time to close out 2022. Over the last year I’ve spent more time on the road to Salerno than anywhere else, but mostly for not very fun medical reasons. But last week in Salerno while standing under a canopy of twinkling blue lights at the foot of a massive Tree of Life light display I thought, “Now here’s something fun to share about Salerno.”

Although the closest large city to the Amalfi Coast, Salerno isn’t usually at the top of many travelers must-see lists while in the area. What a shame! It’s a great city and a place I really enjoyed researching and sharing more about in my guidebook Moon Amalfi Coast. The historic center is vibrant and full of unexpected history and, somewhat surprisingly, one of the best times of year to see Salerno is during Luci d’Artista in the winter.

Starting back in 2006, Salerno was inspired by the Luci d’Artista in Torino to create its own artistic light displays throughout the city. And to great success! Each year the city is decked out in holiday lights and cheer from November to January and attracts visitors from Italy and around the world.

Although this year’s festival is a bit smaller and shorter (December 2, 2022 - January 29, 2023) due to high energy costs, it’s still a festive time to visit Salerno. Last week we took a stroll through Salerno to check out the Luci d’Artista on a balmy December evening - perfect for enjoying the lights and the atmosphere. We started down the wide pedestrian only shopping street, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, which glittered with gold and silver lights called Pioggia di Luci (Rain of Lights).

At Piazza Portanova a soaring white and gold Christmas tree marked the crossroads of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the narrow Via dei Mercanti leading into the medieval center of Salerno.

Every year there’s a theme to the Luci d’Artista lights, often featuring fairytales, myths, nature, and local historical sights. This year for the 17th edition of Luci d’Artista the theme covers all the popular elements: il Mito, il Sogno, la Natura, il Natale (Myth, Dream, Nature, Christmas). We saw lights depicting the nativity, seasons of the year, clouds with sparkling lights for rain drops, whatever the collective noun of a group of gingerbread cookies is called, flowers, and wild animals.

And we didn’t even get close to covering it all! There are many more light displays that we didn’t get to on this stroll through Salerno. If you’re visiting, don’t miss the Villa Comunale, which this year is full of “mythical” animals. From the car I spotted a giant raring unicorn and a mammoth mammoth. Along the waterfront near Piazza della Concordia, I spotted a light display with stylized Greek columns and the famous scene from the Tomb of the Diver in Paestum by artist Sergio Vecchio.

So on this last day of 2022, I’m sending you light and many wishes for a beautiful 2023. See you in the new year.

Buon anno!

Laura

This summer while planning my trip to Scotland with my mom, at the very top of my must see list was St. Andrews. While I’m sure I’d fall for any college city by the sea and I’ve always been intrigued by golf in a P.G. Wodehouse sort of way, there was another reason I wanted to see St. Andrews for myself. The reason lies in the very name of the place: St. Andrew. Today, on this festival day for Sant’ Andrea—St. Andrew—in Amalfi, read on to find out more about my town’s unexpected connection to Scotland.

In the wheres, whens, and house of saints and relics, there are often many good stories and just as often even more questions. How did Amalfi’s patron saint also become the patron saint of Scotland? Why is there a town called St. Andrews and why is the great cathedral of St. Andrews there in ruins? I certainly had my questions.

Last August, we set off from our home base in the beautiful Perthshire countryside for a short drive to the eastern coast of Scotland. To the Kingdom of Fife to be precise. (A good start to a story, eh?) After strolling through town, where the streets still follow the medieval layout, and a stop for tea, we arrived at the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral.

Much like Amalfi, the town of St. Andrews has a fascinating history - and it wasn’t golf that first put it on the map. In the Middle Ages this was the seat of the Scottish Church and its great cathedral was the largest and most important in the country. This wealthy ecclesiastical town was dominated by the cathedral and nearby St. Andrews Castle, which is also in ruins. This is the setting, but how did St. Andrew become associated with this place on the craggy coastline of Scotland? A little refresher: Andrew was the brother of St. Peter and one of the Twelve Apostles, who was martyred on an X-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. Not exactly around the corner.

Among the various foundation legends there appears a man named St. Rule, a monk in Patras, who under divine direction took some of the relics of St. Andrew and set off “to the ends of the earth.” Which, as it turns out, was a particularly scenic spot in Scotland. His ship was wrecked along the shore nearby and this was the place where the relics remained. While a little high seas adventure always makes for a good story, it’s more probably that the relics were brought to St. Andrews from England in the early 8th century by one Bishop Acca.

However they arrived, the relics put the newly created burgh on the map. The pilgrimage map that is. On the spot where legend says St. Rule arrived a grand church was built in the 11th-century. The over 100-foot tall St. Rule’s Tower from that church still stands. (Unfortunately, it was closed for safety reasons when we visited.) This impressive tower would have guided pilgrims to the church, and indeed it became one of the most important pilgrimage routes in Christendom - similar to the shrine to St. James in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. St. Andrew’s popularity grew so much that he eventually was adopted as the patron saint of Scotland. With all these pilgrims, a much larger cathedral was required.

Construction on the new cathedral began about 1160 close to St. Rule’s and grew into an enormous complex surrounded by a wall. While it took about 150 years to complete, the finished cathedral was a masterpiece of medieval architecture. Walking through the ruins you can follow the size of the original nave and transept - and it was massive. When completed, it was almost the size of the great medieval cathedrals of England, like York Minster and Durham Cathedral.

-Look at the windows change from right to left. (Photo by Bryan Woolbright on Unsplash)

The soaring east gable of the cathedral gives a sense of the impressive scale. While little remains to imagine its original splendor, there is enough to see that the cathedral’s construction took place during the transition from Romanesque to Gothic styles. Starting from the east gable and looking down the remaining wall to the western side you can see the style moving from rounded arches and sturdy designs to more ornate pointed arches.

You may have noticed the ruins look like a cemetery, which they have been since the 1600s. It was slightly disorienting to walk through the ruins where there’s still all the elements that give you the distinct sense of being inside a church while walking through an outdoor cemetery. And there aren’t just a few tombstones - there are over 1,700! After the Reformation, the abandoned area was used as a graveyard well into the 20th century. We spent time wandering through the tombstones, the cathedral priory, and what was once the chapter house, where the business of the great cathedral took place. Canons of the church sat in stone seats around the chapter house walls, which we discovered created the most incredible echoes.

So what happened to St. Andrews Cathedral? During the tempestuous days of the Scottish Reformation in the 16th century, the cathedral and relics of St. Andrew were obvious targets as such important symbols of the Catholic church. When John Knox, a Scottish minister and leader of the Reformation, preached a particularly passionate sermon in the cathedral, a mob of followers ransacked and burned the cathedral. What relics there were of St. Andrew were lost.

Although the cathedral walls have fallen, St. Andrew is still considered the patron saint of Scotland and St. Andrew’s Day is celebrated widely on November 30th. There’s even a reminder of St. Andrew right on the Scottish flag with its white cross, or saltire. The X-shaped cross is a symbol of St. Andrew, and you’ll see it in several places around Amalfi too.

-Mosaics of Sant’ Andrea above the 11th-century bronze doors of Amalfi’s cathedral.

So that takes us back to Amalfi. On May 8, 1208, relics of St. Andrew were brought to Amalfi from Constantinople (by way of Rome) by Cardinal Pietro Capuano. Why Amalfi? (I would love to have been a fly on the wall when that decision was made.) The short answer seems to be that Capuano was from Amalfi, but there’s surely much more of a story there. Amalfi’s beautiful Duomo, largely as we see it today, was built after the relics arrived, including a sumptuously decorated crypt. While the golden days of the republic of Amalfi have long since passed, you can still walk down the steps into the crypt and see the final resting place of at least some of the relics of St. Andrew.

-Sant’ Andrea procession in Amalfi, November 2019.

Yet the saint’s connection to Scotland remained strong and in 1879 the Archbishop of Amalfi sent a large piece of the shoulder relic to St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh where they’re now in the National Shrine of St. Andrew, created as a successor to the shrine at St. Andrews Cathedral that was destroyed during the Reformation. Then, in 1969, a second relic was given by Pope Paul VI to the new Scottish cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray, the first Scottish cardinal in 400 years.

-Reliquary statue of Sant’ Andrea in Amalfi’s cathedral, November 29, 2022.

As I hit send on this newsletter, on November 30th, the church bells are ringing out over Amalfi for the festival of Sant’ Andrea. On this St. Andrew’s Day in Amalfi, I’m remembering my day in St. Andrews, Scotland, and a continued connection between two seaside towns and one very special saint.

-My necklace of Amalfi’s cathedral at the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral in Scotland.

MORE INFORMATION

• St. Andrews Cathedral is free to visit, but (when open) there’s a fee to climb St. Rule’s Tower and to visit the museum on site.

• St. Andrews Castle is located nearby and admission is required to enter.

• In Amalfi, be sure to visit the Cathedral and Museo Diocesano. You can see the Cloister of Paradise, museum, crypt and the cathedral with only a small entrance fee.

• The festival of Sant’ Andrea in Amalfi takes place each year on June 27th and November 30th. The procession down the cathedral’s grand staircase is impressive to see in person - especially when they run the statue of Sant’ Andrea back up the steps!

KEEP READING …

• I haven’t seen the Shrine to Saint Andrew in Edinburgh yet, but it’s on my list to see. (Tsk tsk that article didn’t mention the relics came from Amalfi.)

• Back in 2011, I wrote about the November Festival of Sant’ Andrea in Amalfi over on my blog Ciao Amalfi.

• A few more fascinating facts about St. Andrew.

When I first visited the Amalfi Coast back in 2007, I stayed in Vietri sul Mare. I had read about the ceramic traditions in this colorful town known as the “Gateway to the Amalfi Coast.” I was fascinated—and still am— with Paolo Soleri’s incredible ceramic covered building for Ceramica Artistica Solimene. It is a town full of art, history, and traditions. What’s not to love? (In fact, the novel I’m writing with my mother is set in Vietri!)

Last week on the way home from Salerno I suggested we take a short detour and visit Albori. It was a beautiful October day with the sun shimmering across the Gulf of Salerno. I had heard about this little frazione, a small and often separate village, of Vietri sul Mare, but I hadn’t been there before. Vietri, like most of the towns on the coastline, has many frazioni. If you’ve spent time exploring Vietri sul Mare, you’ve likely been down to Marina di Vietri or up in the mountains to Raito to visit the excellent little ceramics museum there. But have you been to Albori? Have you even heard of Albori?

A small village with less than 300 residents, Albori was on my radar because it has been designated as one of the most beautiful villages in Italy by I Borghi più belli d'Italia, an association dedicated to highlighting and preserving small Italian towns. The name means Most Beautiful Villages of Italy and it selects towns that are notable for not only their beauty but also their history, geographic setting, and quality of life. Of the 12 Borghi più belli d’Italia in Campania, the Amalfi Coast has 4: Albori, Atrani, Conca dei Marini, and Furore. While Atrani, Conca del Marini, and Furore are 3 of the 13 towns that make up the Amalfi Coast, Albori was a spot I hadn’t visited yet. Honestly, after a doctor’s appointment, who doesn’t need more beautiful Italian villages in their life? So after passing through the center of Vietri, we took the small road up toward Raito and Albori.

- View of Vietri sul Mare from Le Vigne di Raito

Raito is incredibly cute and offers a particularly scenic east facing view over Vietri sul Mare. If you’re planning time in the area, reach out to Le Vigne di Raito for a tour and wine tasting where you can really enjoy that spectacular view and setting. We followed the zigzagging road up to Raito where it becomes so narrow that a traffic light alternates one way traffic through the village. After passing through Raito, the road curves around the mountain and into a valley where Albori comes into view.

It’s a colorful jumble of houses stuck in an improbable spot surrounded by verdant mountains. Set as it is in this green valley with a view straight out to sea, it feels surprisingly isolated and calm. Despite there only being one narrow road in and very limited parking, we easily found a spot. If tranquility was one of the requirements to be a part of I Borghi più belli d'Italia, Albori has it in spades. We meandered through the village and only happened across a few builders taking a lunch break.

I had seen photos of the pretty staircase leading up to the church of Santa Margherita di Antiochia in Albori. The pretty yellow church is right in the center of the village and the maze of streets up and down around it is indeed beautiful.

We walked up to the church and like a couple of kids outside a candy shopped pressed our noses to the glass on the door to peer inside. I spotted an odd-shaped nave on the right and was startled when I heard a key turn and a voice invite us inside. It belonged to a very kind man wearing overalls who was doing some work in the church. He was born in Albori and said with pride that he had been baptized in the church too.

The church is decorated in a surprisingly light and intricate Baroque style. We looked around and admired the pretty paintings on the ceiling and I found my way over to the trapezoid shaped side aisle. The asymmetrical design mimics the placement of the church within the village’s streets. I had to stop for a closer look at a statue of a female saint standing quite triumphantly with her foot on what looked like a dragon with a chain around its neck.

- Inside the church of Santa Margherita di Antiochia in Albori.

The man walked up and said she was Santa Margherita di Antiochia, the patron saint of the church and of Albori. He shared a bit of her history, which was new to me. I hadn’t seen another church on the Amalfi Coast dedicated to that saint. And, to be honest, the dragon caught my eye. It is quite a story!

After a bit more of a stroll through town our spur of the moment trip to Albori was over. If you like out of the way places and beautiful settings, Albori is a lovely spot to visit while exploring Vietri sul Mare. I would definitely go back to try out the restaurants there as it’s so peaceful. (They were both closed for lunch the day we were there.)

HOW TO GET TO ALBORI: Albori isn’t exactly an easy place to reach without a car or scooter. However, there is a (tiny) local bus from the center of Vietri sul Mare that goes around to the frazioni and stops right in Albori. If you’re driving, look for the signs just west of Vietri sul Mare from the SS 163 (Amalfi Coast Road) that point up to Raito. Follow the road through Raito and continue on to Albori. There’s only one road … you can’t miss it!

- Verdant mountains around Albori.

Exploring the Smaller Villages of the Amalfi Coast

You don’t have to go quite so far out of your way to find beautiful little villages on the Amalfi Coast. Just around Amalfi, you can visit the town of Scala, where I lived in a very tranquil spot for 12 years in a frazione so small it’s called Minuta. Located between Scala and Amalfi is Pontone, another beautiful frazione of Scala. Pogerola, located up in the mountains above Amalfi, is a quiet and charming frazione of Amalfi. Above Positano you’ll find Montepertuso and Nocelle. Whether on foot—usually the best option—or by bus, car, or scooter, do get out and explore the smaller villages on the Amalfi Coast.

Interested in reading more about the other Borghi più belli d’Italia on the Amalfi Coast? I’ve covered Atrani, Conca dei Marini, and Furore in my book Moon Amalfi Coast.

The A to Z of Beautiful Villages

After our quick trip to Albori, I’m curious about the other villages selected in Campania. What do you think? Should we do the A to Z of the Borghi più belli d’Italia in the Campania region and visit them all from Albori to Zungoli?

Ciao from Amalfi,

Laura

For a variety of reasons—none of them particularly compelling or interesting—I’ve spent very little time in the Italian countryside. How remiss of me! After just a few days in July exploring the Lazio countryside with friends, I realize just how much I’ve missed. While certainly not unique to Italy, one thing I love here is how much beauty there is to discover. One of the very best things in life is when you have friends who welcome you into their lives and share a little bit of the beauty they live with every day.

Enter Virginia DiGaetano—Ginger to me—and her husband, Mark Medina-Rios, the creative minds and all around fabulous people from Via Medina, where they craft private chef and concierge services as well as bespoke travel experiences in the heart of Italy. And it was exactly to the heart of Italy I went – specifically to the region of Lazio, which is located in the center of Italy along the western coast. Rome is, of course, the heart of Lazio, but I went a bit farther north to the province of Viterbo in northern Lazio, or “Alto Lazio,” a beautiful countryside that sits near the corner of Tuscany and Umbria. What a heady crossroads.

-Lake Bolsena viewed from Montefiascone

There Ginger and Mark welcomed me to their little corner of Lazio just southeast of Lake Bolsena. As a blessedly cool breeze blew down the hillside on a hot July day, we had an incredible lunch by the lake and then went for a refreshing swim. If you’re not familiar, Lake Bolsena is the largest volcanic lake in Europe. And it is large! It’s also now one of my happy places. While Amalfi Coast beaches are gorgeous, they’re also, well, kinda painful what with all the rocks and pebbles. Lake Bolsena was blissfully cool, quiet, and just plain relaxing. I was in need of a bit of “serenity now” – and I found it there listening to the breeze fluttering through the cottonwood trees.

-Lunch by Lake Bolsena.

A leisurely drive all the way around the lake—about 28 miles—through the towns of Bolsena, Capodimonte, and Marta cemented the fact that I want to come back and spend more time in this area. Then we were off driving past fields of sunflowers and golden wheat at sunset to Tuscania, a fascinating city that like the entire Tuscia area is rich in Etruscan and Roman history.

We walked through the medieval walled town of Tuscania at sunset and stopped to look out across the valley to the Basilica di San Pietro from the Parco Torre di Lavello. The town was decked out in purple ribbons and decorations for the Festa della Lavanda – the Lavender Festival. [I was a few days too early. Marks calendar to visit in early July next year.]

-Basilica di San Pietro in Tuscania

Of course, the food was amazing. There was a required—and very tasty—visit with Francesco and Antionetta from I Formaggi di Casa Marras. It’s a must in while visiting the area, but I’ll let Ginger tell you why.

All too soon we were off to Rome for a whirlwind two days. I finally had the chance to meet the lovely Rachel Roddy, author of An A-Z of Pasta: Stories, Shapes, Sauces, Recipes. (Yes, you definitely want this book on your shelf!) What better place to meet than during a fun night of celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the Mercato di Testaccio in Rome.

Then it was time for the big event and reason for the trip to Rome. On July 2nd, we attended the first Polo for the Cure charity event at the Acquedotto Romano Polo Club, which was dedicated to raising awareness for breast cancer in Italy and beyond. After my experience last year, it’s a mission very close to my heart. The team at Italics Magazine put together great coverage, including a series of interviews from the event as well as an interview with Marco Elser, the founder of Polo for the Cure.

For more information, visit Komen Italia or the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation.

In less than a week I went from volcanic lakes to Etruscan towns, Roman markets, and a polo tournament outside Rome. Now you see what I meant by there being so very much to experience in Italy. If you are curious to know more about this beautiful part of Italy, just get in touch with Ginger and Mark at Via Medina. They can arrange any and all kinds of private chef, culinary, and cooking class experiences as well as tailor made travel experiences – in Lazio, Italy or beyond.

Truly, I would follow them any and everywhere …

Grazie Ginger & Mark!

TRAVEL TO ROME WITH MOON

Heading to Rome? It’s one of the most enjoyable and intriguing cities to explore on foot. Check out the Moon guidebooks Rome Walks (or Rome, Florence & Venice) for great walk inspiration. It’s packed with info but is also small enough to tuck in your bag and carry with you while walking in Rome.

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(Note: Those are affiliate links, which means books purchased won’t cost you more but will give Ciao Amalfi a little commission.)

KEEP READING

• Want to know more about the Etruscans? Check out this great article “Etruscan Places: Even-More-Ancient Italy in the Roman Countryside” – by Ginger, of course!

• Gillian, from Gillian Knows Best, wrote this guide for Where To Eat & Stay In Rome.

• Definitely check out Mercato di Testaccio in Rome!

• Lavender is a grown all around Tuscania and the Festa della Lavanda takes place in early July. See you there?

-By the lake in Bolsena

ON THE ROAD

Things are getting rolling with the Ciao Amalfi On the Road series on Substack! If you missed it, last month I wrote about Florence. I’m sending this newsletter while on the road and experiencing a very different (yet strangely familiar … stay tuned) countryside in Perthshire, Scotland. Next month I’ll share more about our time in Scotland.

Have you spent time in the Lazio countryside or visited Tuscia or Lake Bolsena? I’d love to hear about it!

Ciao from Blairgowrie,

Laura

Before I knew what was happening, I was on a train shooting through the Campania countryside at a couple hundred kilometers per hour. A whoosh of a tunnel and all would go black, then moments later the early morning sun would burst back through the windows. Just beyond I spotted the gentle humps of Mt. Vesuvius as the train zipped past Naples. I had taken the earliest bus from Amalfi to Salerno – the bus that feels as if it’s driving straight into the rising sun reflected across the Gulf of Salerno. The warm sun and curves had lulled me into a slow, dreamy state that lingered as I settled into my seat on the train.

But suddenly looking out at Vesuvius I realized I was traveling again. For me, the quick trip I took to Florence last month was the first time I’ve been out of the Campania region since the start of the pandemic. And it was to Florence – my favorite city!

“… there emerged Florence, a magic city where people thought and did the most extraordinary things.”

— From A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

While I adore the Amalfi Coast towns, when it comes to cities Florence was perhaps my first love in Italy. Of course, that’s not really surprising as it’s the birthplace of the Renaissance, it’s the city of Dante, of Brunelleschi’s dome, of Michelangelo’s David, Proust’s “city of lilies,” and Stendhal Syndrome all around. Yet, besides all the obvious reasons to love Florence, I think what draws me in time and again is that I can’t quite put my finger on why. Just like the first time I fell in love, there’s really no accounting for it in the end. But you don’t ever forget those first loves, do you? Fortunately, Florence has been much kinder with my heart!

-Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Cellini in Piazza della Signoria.

The first time I visited Florence was not too long after an excellent class in grad school on early Renaissance sculpture in Florence. Walking past Orsanmichele, gazing at the glimmering golden doors of the Baptistery, and visiting the Bargello and Uffizi museums was like watching the course come to life. Then there are those incredible church facades I spent so many hours looking at while working on my Master’s thesis on the eclectic 19th-century facade of Amalfi’s Duomo.

Since then, I’ve spent treasured time in Florence with good friends, exploring the city and falling for the warm colors of the Ponte Vecchio and that experience of turning a corner and coming face to face with the soaring geometric patterns of white, green, and pink marble on the Duomo. Nothing sends my Stendhal Syndrome into overdrive like polychromy!

In short, Florence is so many pieces of my past made present. And now it’s also a great piece of my present! I was in Florence for just a few days for work and had a great time meeting up with the fabulous teams from Paris Perfect, Italy Perfect, and London Perfect who I’ve worked with since 2009. It was so great to catch up in person after these last couple of challenging years. (When you find really good people, hang on tight!)

I had a sneak peek at an exciting new project from Italy Perfect (check out the video above!), strolled through the Oltrarno neighborhood, spent a hot summer morning in the Boboli Gardens, saw the incredible Donatello exhibit at Palazzo Strozzi (alas – it closes this weekend!), and really wished I had my tour guide husband with me in the Pitti Palace (OMG that place is chock-a-block with treasures).

-My books on display at Paperback Exchange in Florence!

Florence, always true to my heart, unexpectedly offered me one of the most exciting experiences I’ve had as an author. Whenever I’m in Florence, I always stop by Paperback Exchange, a beautiful English language bookstore near the Duomo. When I did I gasped – there were BOTH of my books in the window display! It was the first time I had seen Moon Amalfi Coast and Moon Southern Italy on display in a bookstore in Italy and to see it at the Paperback Exchange was a real honor. It was such a special moment that I just had to share it with you! It reminded me of another favorite passage from A Room with View:

“Then the pernicious charm of Italy worked on her, and, instead of acquiring information, she began to be happy.”

— From A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

All too soon I was on a train again heading south. My feet ached and my mind swirled but I was happy.

Grazie Florence!

TRAVEL TO FLORENCE WITH MOON

Speaking of Moon guidebooks, if you’ll be visiting Florence soon, pick up a copy of Florence & Beyond or Rome, Florence & Venice by Alexei J. Cohen. They’re both great guidebooks for planning and to tuck in your back while traveling.

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(Note: Those are affiliate links, which means books purchased won’t cost you more but will give Ciao Amalfi a little commission.)

-View of the Duomo from the Boboli Gardens.

FLORENCE TRAVEL TIPS

There’s a wealth of information out there on Florence, but here are some tips from my most recent trip.

Where To Go:

Especially if you’ve already been to Florence and have visited the top sights like the Uffizi Gallery, the Duomo and Brunelleschi’s dome, gazed up at Michelangelo’s David, and gotten lost in Santa Croce (with or without a Baedeker), here are some places you won’t want to miss:

• Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens: Stroll around the lavish Grand Ducal residence of the Medici family and their expansive gardens located very near the Ponte Vecchio. Go all the way to the top to the Palazzina del Cavaliere for a beautiful view toward San Miniato al Monte – another church well worth the visit.

• Check for special exhibits at the Palazzo Strozzi. Don’t assume Florence is all Renaissance all the time. This autumn they have an exhibit on Olafur Eliasson from Sept. 22, 2022 - Jan. 22, 2023.

• But, when it comes to the Renaissance, don’t miss the Museo Nazionale del Bargello. It’s definitely in my top 5 favorite museums around the world.

• Florence is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to small museums. Check out these 6 Hidden Gems in Florence.

Where To Eat:

This is always a pleasurable moment in Florence. Where to eat with so many great restaurants around every corner? Here are a few spots I enjoyed:

• La Bussola: This was an excellent pizza – and that says a lot coming from the land of pizza (Naples) and the city of the compass (Amalfi).

• Ristorante La Spada: I wanted to try everything, but I went for the classic Tuscan Ribollita soup and it was lovely.

• Raw Vegan Firenze: It was at least 9 million degrees when I was exploring the Oltrarno neighborhood and a fresh juice from Raw Vegan juice bar really hit the spot. The menu also looked tempting!

• Gelateria Della Passera: Of course gelato was required and the Italy Perfect team took me straight to this tiny little shop on the cutest of corners.

Where To Shop:

Another most pleasurable of past times in Florence is shopping – there are so many choices for this small-town gal!

• First on my list is always always the Paperback Exchange Bookshop. They have a great selection across the board, but their selection of books about Florence and Italy is excellent.

• Don’t miss seeing Santa Maria Novella (the church of course) but also Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, the oldest pharmacy in the world!

• It’s no secret that I love paper, so I always have to stop in Il Papiro when in Florence. They have several locations around the city, but my favorite is the teeny one located behind the Duomo (Piazza del Duomo, 24r). The contrast between the massive cathedral and the little shop is divine.

• I wanted to buy one of everything in Giulia Materia, a cute boutique full of handmade clothing and accessories in Oltrarno.

Where To Stay:

I speak from personal experience when I say that Italy Pefect has a beautiful and carefully selected portfolio of vacation rentals in Florence. They know each apartment inside and out and truly help you craft the perfect stay in Florence – and throughout Italy.

I stayed in the very cute Michaela apartment with a great location just around the corner from Palazzo Strozzi and elegant Via Tornabuoni. Their Prisco and Strozzi apartments are in the same building, which is perfect if you need more space for your family or group of friends. The owners who welcome you to these apartments are absolutely the sweetest – it feels like you’re visiting your Italian family!

If you love Florence, Italy Perfect has some exciting projects in the works. Follow them on Instagram and sign up for their newsletter to be the first to hear!

ON THE ROAD

Thanks for joining me with the first Ciao Amalfi On the Road series on Substack! Next month I’ll be sharing about a special time with friends in Lazio (and swimming in the largest volcanic lake in Europe!) and Rome. Bookmark this list, share with friends, and tell me about your favorite things to see and do in Florence in the comments below (if you’re reading online or on the Substack app) or just hit reply (if you’re reading via email).

I look forward to checking out your recommendations the next time I’m in my favorite Italian city!

Ciao from Amalfi,

Laura