Starting off week four in Europe with croissants, coffee and morning strolls with Sabo and Allie through the streets of Paris. Followed by a quick stop at home in Berlin to water my plants, say hi to my roommate and wash my clothes. Then, on to my next adventure in Italy on the Amalfi Coast. Capri, Amalfi and Positano were huge bucket list items for me and watching the sunrise over the Tyrrhenian Sea from my terrace on the Amalfi Coast was the best way to celebrate my 1 month anniversary in Europe!
MORNING STROLLs WITH SABO
The best way to begin the day is with croissants, coffee and a 2 hour morning stroll through the streets of Paris. Each morning I was in Paris, Allie and I walked to L’atelier Des Pains and Yamazaki for fresh croissants, pain au chocolat and americanos. After collecting our pastries we would walk to the dog park and let Sabo run free. This park was different than other dog parks I’ve seen in the past. The park was a long fenced in trail inside Jardin du Ranelagh where dogs could run free. The dog park portion of the park was called ‘La petite ceinture du 16ème arrondissement’ and it was once old train tracks. I loved spending my mornings walking with Sabo and catching up with Allie in the little Paris park.
SUNNY LUNCHTIME SAMMIES
Of everything I love about Europe, one thing that I really enjoy is the known importance of a lunch break. For most of my working career it has been normal to eat from your desk or quickly run to the kitchen to eat a premade salad you packed from home. In Europe, the hour lunch break is sacred. My favorite lunch in Paris was when Allie and I grabbed sandwiches, yuka cream puffs and macaroons for an impromptu park picnic in Jardin du Ranelagh. The sun was shinning, Sabo was loving the fresh grass and the food was delicious.
Bois de Boulogne
This park was the most surprising part of my trip to Paris. In my previous trips I spent a majority of my time in museums or at tourist spots and it was exhausting, but walking around the lake at sunset in Bois de Boulogne was beautiful. The park used to be royal hunting grounds, but now it is a public park and my favorite part of Paris. The park was picturesque. I could picture myself going on long runs through the nature trails and making little picnics on the edge of the lake. It was honestly the first time I’ve ever actually romanticized Paris. I can start to see now why it’s the city of love
DINING
Allie and I got dressed up and went to Andia, which is a new Spanish restaurant that Allie had been dying to try. We decided to get a reservation for the latest slot available and it was the best decision ever because the atmosphere at night was perfect. The restaurant is inside an old train station the outside looks like your typical old building, but when you walk inside the room is immediately warm, colorful and full of plants. It’s been hard to find good Spanish food in Europe, but Andia was amazing. We ordered Guacamole de la Casa, Pimientos de Padrón, Tuna & Truffle Ceviche, Sweet potato chips and an Iron Pot full of rice and vegetables. All of the food was delicious, but the Tuna & Truffle ceviche was life changing. It was hands down the best ceviche I’ve ever had and that may be because I love truffles and tuna… either way. It was fuego.
I LUCKED OUT WITH THE WEATHER IN PARIS
My trip to Paris was very last minute and I didn’t check the weather before I landed, but it didn’t matter because it was perfect! Every day was beautiful blue skies with mild temperatures and a slight breeze. Truly could not have asked for a better backdrop. Thanks nature 🙂
My first pizza in italy at rifugio romano
After landing in Rome I immediately walked from Roma Termini to the nearest pizza spot, which was only a 7 min walk away. My only goal for the meal was to eat pizza for dinner in Rome, but when I arrived at the restaurant it was surprisingly a popular spot. I got the last table available and dove straight into the menu. In addition to being close to Roma Termini, I also chose the specific restaurant because it offered vegan pizza. I may be in Rome, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still a little lactose intolerant. As per usual, the menu was not in English and I ended up ordering a random pizza with words that sounded yummy. Now that I am back at my computer, I can translate the menu and see that what I got was called the Porcini and Truffle pizza. I probably could have guessed that name when the pizza arrived at my table because it was covered in mushrooms and truffle oil. I think part of the reason why I chose the truffle oil was to chase the high of that Tuna & Truffle ceviche from Paris. Damn truffles are so good.
Planes, Trains, trams, boats and buses
I think I took almost every form of transportation imaginable to reach the Amalfi Coast. After flying into Rome I took a bus to Roma Termini, an early morning high speed train to Naples Central, a tram from Naples Central to Naples Port and then a ferry from Naples Port to my final destination of Capri! I think the ferry ride was my favorite part of travelling because I love anything that has to do with water, but the high speed train was a close second. I accidently booked a first class seat, so I had wifi and snacks and lounge chairs the entire way down from Rome.
Sunburnt off Capri Sun
I finally made it to Capri and it was amazing!! Not going to lie, I got kind of emotional as soon as the boat pushed off from the Naples Pier and headed to Capri because I can’t believe that I’m actually doing this. I’m blindly jumping around Europe to all of these small iconic towns, alone and figuring it out as I go. The weather was beautiful the entire time I was in Capri and I saw the Augustus Gardens, central Capri and everything else on the island because I took a private boat tour with 4 new friends. Wow, if 10 year old Jade knew she would be writing those words 16 shorts years later. When I was 10 my biggest goal was moving to NYC. I did that! And now I’m writing about a private boat tour around the island of Capri on the Amalfi coast…
To see more details about my entire time in Capri, check out my post on the Amalfi Coast here.
Lunch with new friends!
I’m so happy that I decided to book the boat tour in Capri because not only did I get to see all of the grottos of the island, but I also made 2 new friends in the process. They were both travelling together and we all hit it off on the boat and decided to do lunch together at one of the restaurants in the harbor. It was really refreshing to eat a meal with other people for the first time in a few days and I loved getting to learn more about them while eating plates of fish with the bones still inside. To be completely honest, I don’t even know what I ordered. When the waitress put it down in front of me all she said was “the fish head is the best part” and then walked away…so… could be a fish head? Not sure, but it was great!
Ferry to Amalfi!
Travelling from Capri to Amalfi was another beautiful boat ride. There is a direct ferry that leaves from Capri to Positano every hour, so catching a ride wasn’t stressful. Although, I’ve heard that if you come in the winter there is only one boat out a day and they can get cancelled due to choppy weather conditions. I didn’t have to deal with that though, only a sun drenched hour and 20 minute ferry ride alongside the sharp coastline.
THE GHOST TOWN OF ATRANI
Amalfi is one of the major towns along the Amalfi Coast and right next door is the small fishing town of Atrani. I decided that I wanted to stay in Atrani while I was on the Amalfi Coast because 1) it was cheaper, 2) it was only a 10 minute walk from Amalfi and 3) I wanted to get the local vibe. Atrani has a population of roughly 800 people and it’s supposed to be a cute little community nestled in the hills of the Amalfi Coast, but when I arrived it was a ghost town. I knew it was going to be more local and less touristy, but there was actually nothing going on. I saw a few people walking around, but really just a handful and overall it just felt really creepy. I walked through a few narrow alleyways to try and find my hostel before giving up and asking a lady standing on a nearby porch. She pointed down another hallway and when I got to the end I found my booked accommodation for the night… a closed hostel. That’s right… doors locked, bars up, empty, dark and creepy. It looked like the setting for a movie (foreshadowing), but a scary movie about dying in an abandoned dungeon.
After calling the hostel several times I finally got in contact with the owner and he let me know that Netflix paid the entire town of Atrani to shut down so that they could film a new show. Thanks Netflix… and thanks guy at hostel who let me know this pertinent information as I was standing outside the hostel at sunset with my phone on 20%. The guy who ran the hostel said he would come open the gates for me to stay in the building alone and I said “yeah fucking right…”
Instead I turned myself back in the direction I came from, walked over the hill and watched the pink sunset over the beaches in Amalfi. It was one of the best sunsets I’ve seen in awhile, but it was slightly obscured by my immediate need to find a hotel for the night. I started to walk into town and use my remaining battery percentages to search for a hotel. After wandering around for a few minutes I decided to be a little creepy and follow a well dressed group of people with suitcases to their hotel. They led me straight to Hotel Croce Di Amalfi and what a blessing that was. I booked two nights and went straight to my suite to decompress from the Atrani trainwreck. I didn’t realize how amazing the hotel was until the next morning when I got to eat free home made breakfast and watch the sunrise from a terrace on the Amalfi Coast. I guess everything worked out in the end, but needless to say 1) Atrani is stupid, 2) Netflix is ridiculous and 3) yes, Hostelworld received a strongly worded letter from me about all of this.
Amalfi
I loved Amalfi! Out of all of the towns I visited, Amalfi was by far my favorite and I’m so happy that I ended up staying here instead of Atrani. I got to stay in a beautiful hotel that was right in the middle of everything, but also far enough from the main street that it wasn’t loud or busy at night. I had amazing food and I got to swim at the Marina Grande beach, but also a small swimming hole on the west side of town. I read a lot of review s on which town to stay in and I was surprised to see that a lot of people choose Positano over Amalfi, but in my opinion Amalfi felt more like an actual town. Positano has a lot of shops and a great beach, but it’s definitely the more touristy option of the two and I’m happy with my decision on Amalfi (despite it being slightly forced by Netflix).
To see more details about my entire time in Amalfi, check out my post on the Amalfi Coast here.
Bus to Positano
There is a ferry that runs between all of the major towns along the Amalfi coast, but I decided to take the bus to Positano because I wanted to see the smaller towns up close. The drive from Amalfi to Positano is only an hour long and I highly recommend taking the bus route at least once while you’re there. If you’re only going to take the bus one, the trip from Positano to Amalfi is best because you’re on the right side of the road an closer to the water. However, the road is really narrow (exactly 2 cars wide) and you’ll be in a giant bus the entire way so you’ll basically have the same view each time.
POSITANO
Positano was cute and I can see why it’s a famous Instagram photo destination. Everything is built into the mountain and it’s gorgeous, but you genuinely can’t walk anywhere without hiking up hundreds of stairs. At one point I decided to walk up the west side of town to get to the post office and buy stamps. Google Maps said it would be a 17 minute walk, but what it forgot to flag was that all 17 of those minutes would be stairs and steep hills. I’m not exaggerating, I got to the top of the last staircase and I was sweating and out of breath when I ordered those stamps. Outside of the walking up stairs, I also spent a good portion of my time laying at the beach or shopping. I really liked the beach in Positano and that probably had to do with the weather. It was a really hot day when I was in Positano, so everyone was at the beach and the vibes were immaculate. In addition to the beautiful weather I also lucked out with some stellar shopping finds. I really wanted a linen shirt from the Amalfi coast as my new wardrobe piece from this trip, but everywhere I looked the shirts were 150 euros. I wanted the shirt badly, but not bad enough to pay 150 euros for a simple linen shirt. Then, just when I was giving up, I walked into a small shop where the lady handmade everything in the basement. She gave me a little tour of her shop and then showed me a linen shirt that she would sell for 20 euros because it was the last one of it’s pattern and she needed to get rid of it. Score! I obviously bought that shirt right away and wore it out of the shop. Thanks for the beach, leg workout and cheap shirt Positano.
To see more details about my entire time in Positano, check out my post on the Amalfi Coast here.
i have never had so much pasta, Chocolate and oil in my life
I had great meals while I was staying in Amalfi. On my first night I was recommended to go to Trattoria San Giuseppe by the check in lady at my hotel. When I got there the place was clearly a family business because the entire restaurant was being run by a kid who looked to be about 10 years old. He seated me, took my order, brought out my food, everything. I got the seafood pasta and it was delicious, but the really memorable moment of the night was watching this kid run the restaurant. On my last night in Amalfi I lucked upon the final reservation at Marina Grande for sunset. I was on my way to watch the sunset on top of a nearby hill, but decided I should pop in and see if they were open. They were and I ended up having a delicious seafood and pasta dish at the waterfront restaurant. Naturally, the menu was in Italian, so yet again I ordered based off of a pretty picture and looked up my meal when I got home. I ordered Paccheri Pastifico Gentile with fish frog ragu and spicy pumpkin… okay so maybe it wasn’t seafood… it was sea frog… but, it was delicious.
SALERNO HARBOR
I got to see a quick peek at Salerno on my final day on the Amalfi Coast. I mainly stayed in the harbor and peaked my head into the cathedral, but according to Google those are the two main things to see in Salerno, so check!
