Larry's Travel Journals Chapter 9 Puglia, Matera, Amalfi, Germany and Amsterdam June, 2024
Published Tuesday, June 25th 2024 - Updated Thursday, July 25th 2024Larry’s Travel Journals
Chapter 9
Puglia, Matera, Amalfi, Germany and Amsterdam
June, 2024
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 to June 2, 2024
If it seems like you were just reading about us flying off to Italy then you must have read our last journal from October 2023, and to that, I say, “Thank you”.
Every trip to Europe is exciting but this one is different. While we will spend almost two weeks in Italy we will spend a third week on a river cruise going from Zurich to Amsterdam up the Rhine. A river cruise, if you’ve not done one, is a chance to sail on a floating luxury hotel with daily day trips to casually explore cities along the route.
Our stay in Puglia (the actual heel of the Italian boot) will be very different from our 2023 trip to Milan, Bologna, Parma, Modena, and Florence. It’s as if you were exploring NY, Chicago, LA, and Miami and then went to Kansas, Oregon, or Washington State. Puglia, and its regional neighbor, Basilicata have been the breadbasket and olive oil capitals of Italy and historically not a tourist destination. Partly because of the immense popularity of the big three (Rome, Florence, Venice), demand has begun for experienced travelers to see the Italy they never heard of. Going to Puglia is not like going to the big three. After researching Puglia for three years after we saw an article about Puglia in the NY Times we are excited about our trip. We think it will be great to see the places we've been reading about.
So how was it?
Puglia will not be "undiscovered" for much longer.
We stayed in Monopoli at a Masseria, a working farm upgraded and re-modeled as a luxury resort. We took day trips to 6 cities (Locorotondo, Martina Franca, Alberobello, Polignano a Mare, Cisternino, and Ostuni) to learn about their history, admire their architecture, and enjoy the food. The cities had tourist crowds but nothing like we would subsequently see in Positano on the Amalfi Coast.
These are the Trulli’s in Alberobello. Yes, people have lived in these houses for centuries. Why that design? Local real estate tax reasons. Really.
The White Town of Ostuni
We drank way too many Aperol Spritzers; we even had help from the servers in Monopoli
The beach at Polignano a Mare is unique and very popular. Red Bull holds a cliff diving contest each year from the cliff on the right side of this photo.
The il Melograno Hotel
Our room at the Hotel Il Melograno was so wonderful I could have stayed there a month and become the writer I dream of being.
There are 30 million olive trees in Puglia, the one in front of our room was 500 years old.
Open-air dining in Italy at a beautiful resort in June is the best dining experience.
Monday, June 3, 2024
Matera
One of, if not THE, oldest inhabited cities in the world. A city so poor for thousands of years that people lived in small caves, with (!!!) their animals. A city so poor that the country of Italy forced everyone to move out and they rehabbed the caves and invited developers to do their thing. Today it is a jet setter's hot spot. It is the location of the latest James Bond movie. If you ever have the opportunity to spend time in the lower, southern part of Italy, going to Matera ought to be on your itinerary.
Matera is a “show stopper”. While traveling to Europe broadens one’s understanding of history and helps us to appreciate the complex evolution of Western culture, Matera makes you say, "how did people live like this, nestled in these vast hills with limited resources?"
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
I’ll try to make this story short but as an American with or without medical insurance, you will likely get a kick out of this. As a senior citizen I take many pills a day and one of the planning challenges for a trip of this length is having enough pills for three weeks given renewal Rx dates. I did that but I couldn’t believe it when we got to Amalfi and I realized that I had not packed one particular pill and couldn’t go three weeks without it. So down to the local pharmacy in Amalfi I went and explained my problem to the pharmacist. Ok, he said, you need X, how many do you want? In 60 seconds I was out of there with 50 of the meds I needed for just 5 Euros. Just try doing that at Walgreens or CVS!
Positano is every bit the Euro hipster enclave you’ve heard about but filled with tourists. We sat at a bar on the beach drinking Aperol Spritzers to escape the hordes.
One of the iconic pictures in Amalfi is the church which of course is the centerpiece of the town. I passed on going inside due to stairs. I guess people hundreds of years ago did not have bad hips or knees.
If you ever go to the Amalfi coast; don’t even think about driving, unless you drive professionally for Ferrari, take the ferries. They are wonderful. Ferries in Amalfi are like the trams in Jersey City or Amsterdam.
We ate pasta. Duh.
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Ravello.
Ravello.
Beautiful Ravello.
I’m reminded of our brilliant 8-year-old grandson Ben’s answer after we went to the movies last week at his favorite theater and I asked him, “Did you like the movie?” And he said, “Every time I see a movie here it’s my favorite movie…….ever”.
Ravello is magical. It’s my favorite city on the Amalfi coast. …….Ever.
If you should have the chance to recommend a destination wedding for what would be a very lucky couple, do Ravello.
Thursday, June 6, 2024
Cooking Class and Dinner at il Ritrovo
An hour’s drive from our hotel in Amalfi to high up in the hills above Positano was a highlight as worthwhile as the cooking class and meal we had at il Ritrovo. Italian proxemics are quite different than we have in the States. Motorcycles and motorbikes are zipping in and out of lanes where busses and vans are whipping around hairpin turns in both directions.
il Ritrovo is a family run restaurant and Aunt Marie was our instructor. She runs a very tight ship, including slapping me on the hand for my ineptitude. Really.
Friday, June 7, 2024
Lemons and Paper
Italy is all about “stuff”. From pizza to classic autos. Each city you go to has its raisin d’être. Amalfi, and all the Amalfi coast, is about lemons. So today we walked up the hills in Amalfi to go to a lemon farm. Of course, the first thing you see in the lobby are photographs from the 1930’s of the family that owns this working farm. And like every other production facility we’ve been to anywhere in Italy there are photos on the wall of men and women, carrying large, heavy crates from the fields. They did that 7 days a week, multiple times a day. In this case, it is lemons. Oy vey.
From the lemon farm, we went to a paper mill where the family who owned this mill from 1745 to the 20th century gifted the property when they could not keep it functioning. Why? Why did a centuries-old business die? Labor reasons.
We’ve been hearing this ever since our trip last October. Italy faces a strategic dilemma and does not appear to have a solution. Young people do not want to be farmers, or factory personnel in a country with a sub-standard medical system. Medically trained personnel are going to Dubai to practice.
In Italy’s case it means that the high bar Italy places on its ability to achieve extremely high levels of craftsmanship will not last and will diminish as the 21st century goes forward. It will be a country with museums about the past. Or, if small examples of craftsmanship survive, they will be very expensive to experience.
Craftsmanship is also going to be impacted by technology. Is pizza made by a computer robot as good as we will have in Naples next week? Perhaps. Will it cost less to make and generate higher margins? Likely.
Then again, aren’t fast food restos in the States using robots and touch screens to serve their customers and manage their front-end processes? Global capitalism is an aggressive monster. AI will supercharge that monster.
Saturday, June 8, 2024
Capri
Forget the blue grotto and the chairlift to the top of Anacapri. Go to Capri for the magnificent views and the serenity that you can find if you can escape the tourist hordes. The hotels are beyond luxurious and beautifully constructed and make me want to live there forever. It is a place of dreams.
Tourists? Did somebody say tourists in Capri? Oh my, the streets of Capri reminded me of the crowds during rush hour on the New York City subway system.
If Capri is a product then it is doing a great job of selling itself.
As in all the major cities in Italy, there is one decidedly superior and popular place to go for gelato. One doesn’t need to GPS it, one just needs to follow the sweet smell of sugar and look for lines that resemble getting into the Colosseum in Rome.
Ironically, while we were standing aside from the crowd and taking pictures, a young lady started talking to us and introduced herself as a freelance journalist doing a story about the tourist crowds on Capri. She wanted to know whether we would return to Capri given the swarm of people all over the island. We told her that we own and operate a travel agency and that while we would be happy to send our clients to Capri we have just returned from Puglia and are recommending our clients to explore a part of the country that is not overwhelmed with tourists. She was so interested in what we said that she grabbed our names and pictures and told us we would be in the newspaper once she sells the article. Where is she going to sell the article? In Turkey. Perhaps I will need a new international phone line to handle the volume from Turkey.
BTW, really………… go to Capri, forget the blue grotto, watch a YouTube video instead. It’s a tourist rip-off. You need to wait two hours on line to reach the water and then queue for a boat to take you through the cave. The actual trip is three minutes long.
Sunday June 9, 2024
Atrani
Atrani is one of the cities featured in the latest Netflix film, Ripley. (This is a version of the story told on film a few years ago, called “The Talented Mr. Ripley”).
The city is immediately east of our hotel in Amalfi and we decided to walk there on a hot and humid day. If Positano is glamorous and attracts all the big money, then Atrani is the poor relation- a charming, poor relative, built almost on the beach. Like in the Netflix movie, it seems to attract poets and artists. Using my very poor language skills, I inquired of a group of men where the film was made. Evidently, for the time that the film was produced, the entire town was taken over to accommodate the filmmakers. The same was true I was told for a Denzel Washington film called Equalizer III (which I’ve not seen). It was a fun conversation to have with the locals who treated me very nicely despite my horrible language skills.
We liked Atrani.
The Luna Convento Hotel- Amalfi
Our hotel in Amalfi is The Luna Convento hotel. It dates back to the 12th century, and it was formally a convent. The hotel rooms have been re-designed and quaint. The views from our room were picture-postcard-worthy. The staff is incredible, the food is terrific, and the access to the town of Amalfi is the best one can get.
The view from our room overlooked the Amalfi Coast.
How about this courtyard for drinks and relaxing?
They have a pool. It is a beautiful pool. Too bad it is about 1,000 steps down to the Mediterranean Sea, where the pool is perched in a jaw-dropping setting.
Jacqui and I had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the Sea with a view that takes in our hotel pool.
Yes, that is our hotel over Jacqui‘s right shoulder, the tall building overlooking the water, one of their restaurants is just above the pool, and yes, that is our pool down at the water. If I ever come back here and I am 30 years old again I will go down there, but until that day, my hips will not allow me the pleasure of that experience.
Monday, June 10, 2024
It goes without saying that unless you are riding a motorcycle or have steel in your veins, you should not drive on the Amalfi coast (or anywhere in Italy as far as I am concerned). That said, we had a driver take us to Naples from our hotel in Amalfi who he told us lives in Maiori; up the coast from Amalfi. If you ever have the chance to go to Naples from the mid Amalfi coast, don't go west to Sorrento and north to Naples, follow this incredibly beautiful route. We saw the Bay of Naples in so many views and lovely small towns that I wish we had the chance to explore. Seriously, it may have been a major highlight of the trip.
Naples
Great pizza. Great views of Mt. Vesuvius, too crowded, too dirty. No need to ever go back.
BTW, in Italy when you order pizza you get a pizza- not some dough with cheese and sauce on it cut into triangles, you get a pizza. You cut it any way you like. Note the ricotta cheese filling on the crust. Waiting for this to become the norm in the States.
Tuesday, June 11-19, 2024
Traveling to, living on the Scenic Opal, and experiencing the cities on the Rhine River. River cruising is great. We are enamored with the Scenic river cruise experience.
The Scenic Opal has 168 guests and is a true luxury hotel experience. If you've never been on a river cruise, Scenic is an Australian company that does luxury without pretension- which we really like; as well as the fact that everything is included in the price; including tips. This is our second cruise with Scenic. We did the Danube in 2023.
We visited beautiful towns like Baden Baden and Strasbourg and on the ship we were enveloped in superior services with wonderful staff on a very modern ship. Jacqui and I were invited to two special dinners which were terrific. When the staff smiles all the time, when the staff knows your name, when they tidy up your cabin when you exit, when they know what kind of coffee you drink, and when the staff is once a cruise literally on their hands and knees hand washing the hallway carpets, then you are on to something special. Kudos to the SCENIC onboard Hotel Director and the Cruise Director and all the wonderful staff.
Heidelberg Castle
The streets of Koblenz (and elsewhere) have markers embedded in the street for the Jews who were taken away by the Nazis. Pretty ironic that this was the one our guide pointed out. (No relations as far as I know).
The highlight of the cruise was a slow ride on the Rhine from Mannheim to Amsterdam where we passed dozens of castles, most of which date back 800 years. I kept having this memory of a magazine from childhood called "Classics Illustrated" which used to feature castles. This must have been the source.
Wednesday, June 19-21, 2024
Amsterdam
Our kids have been to Amsterdam and told us how much we would like it. They were right- even if we didn’t have any weed or visit the denizens of the red light district. Coming from Puglia and Amalfi with so much visible history and then visiting all the old German cities, Amsterdam felt modern. It isn't, but the renovations and upgrading and the beautiful neighborhood around the museums made it feel that way to me. No, we could not get into the Anne Frank house which has a very restrictive access policy. We did see it from the outside. We rode the tram and visited a great outside market that resembled the outdoor markets of Florence and elsewhere.
We discovered that Dutch french fries are very special. The lines out the door of the store selling nothing but french fries, snaking down the street in Amsterdam reminded us of the gelato lines in Italy.
A special comment for the Rijksmuseum which houses Rembrandt’s art. It is a magnificent building with great exhibits. Truly a world-class museum that I was not familiar with and very glad we went. I can't say with certainty that I've been to all the great museums of Europe but I think this was the last missing piece to complete my bucket list.
I enjoyed this portrait of venture capitalists of their day in the 1600's.
And of course, we explored the Van Gogh Museum too.
I was reminded of my usual comment about Manhattan, they send all the college grads from the mid-west to Manhattan for 15 years and then everyone over 35 must vacate. Same in Amsterdam.
Those young people bring a contagious vibrancy.
We actually took a day to visit Volendam; a lovely port city that felt like Brittany in France or the Maryland or NJ shore. It was a nice day and the fish and chips were awesome.
Oh yeah, the herring was delicious everywhere we went.
Until next time…………….
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