Touring the Amalfi Coast by motorbike was a wonderful experience, if a little bit hair raising, especially on the many hairpin bends along the 40 kilometre coastal route!
We booked a one-night stay at Villa Rina. Below a youtube video from the website, which shows you exactly what it is like. We enjoyed our short stay very much indeed!!!
Reading reviews about the famous 400 steps to get to the villa, was a good
preparation, and the walk was not so bad. We passed stunning views along
the way!
The entrance to Villa Rina,
with a few more steps beyond it....
A one night stay at Villa Rina high on the cliff top overlooking the sea, was peaceful and energising. We stayed in the room called Positano, and it was fantastic.
We were welcomed warmly by Rina, the friendly and charming owner of the villa. She was waiting for us with a jug of her delicious and freshly made lemonade. We had parked the motorbike in a secure garage below on the seafront, and at 20 Euros a day this is a bargain compared to the 2 euros per hour unsecured parking on the street if you are lucky enough to get a parking space in the centre of Amalfi.
We had dinner at the villa as a special anniversary treat, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable affair. Rina is an amazing cook and she prepared some wonderful dishes including bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and basil, stuffed aubergine with pecorino cheese, fried mozarella in breadcrumbs, then delicious cannelloni as a main course, then very tasty meatballs on a vine leaf, with a homemade strawberry dessert. All this was washed down with a lovely jug of homemade wine, and then finishing off with Rina's special Limoncello. We were totally full up after this spledid feast!!
The appetizing breakfast the
following morning was a real treat, with Rina's homemade jam to go with
the fresh croissants and toast, totally delicious.
After breakfast we took the downhill coastal path to get to Amalfi centre to do a bit more sightseeing.
Visiting the Paper Museum wasfascinating....
.... and I treated myself to some beautiful handcrafted paper produced locally in Amalfi.
and along the way, away from the crowds of tourists, we came across this neat model village of Amalfi.
The cathedral was well worth visiting and one of the sightseeing highlights of the trip.
Another highlight was seeing lovely lemons everywhere, the scent was so nice!!
I bought some to take back with us, and I will be doing chicken with lemon, salad with lemon, and pasta 'al limone' for a little while!! Admiring the many lemons along the way to Villa Rina,
View of Amalfi port below.
We had to go through this tunnel to get to the centre.
Villa Rina is right at the top of the cliff.
The view of the sea from high above was breathtaking!
We enjoyed a nice meal on the sea front at La Marinella Restaurant with beautiful views of the beach and saw all the tourist boats arriving and leaving.
All in all a wonderful trip to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. I was thrilled that we travelled by motorbike, as it gave us a unique advantage in enjoying the coastal road. For me as a pillion rider it was exciting, however, it must have been quite challenging as a rider, but K coped admirably with the chaotic traffic, narrow roads and hairpin bends!
I would love to visit Naples, see Pompei and Mount Vesuvius and explore the Amalfi Coast further on a future trip.
This year IATEFL will be holding its annual teachers' conference from 13th - 16th April in Birmingham, and I am happy to be attending on one of the days. You can attend online if you are not able to be there personally, by simply clicking the link below for more information:
Hopefully I will write up my impressions of sessions I attend once I am back in Abruzzo.
I am looking forward to this great event, and hope to meet up with people I know such as members of my PLN, fellow bloggers, and colleagues. It would be interesting to meet new people as well.
Five weeks have flown past and today is the last day of the Electronic Village Online sessions. I have been co-moderating the eTextbooks session and enjoying the experience enormously. Under Shelly Terrell's expert leadership and guidance, and also our mentor Dr Nellie Deutsch, the expert team of moderators have helped many participants to realise their dream of creating an etextbook for their classes.
Below an Animoto feedback I have created summing up a few points.
Seven whole years have passed since my world opened up in November 2008 and a new dimension was discovered. Blogging has brought me much joy and expanded my knowledge of the world. I have met many wonderful bloggers along the way, each and every one of them helping me to continue on this incredible journey.
I have been inspired to rescue this post from my drafts folder after reading Natasa's inspiring post:
I have discovered ways of using technology effectively within my classes, made so many new friends and been invited to present at many econferences throughout this period.
I do hope I will carry on blogging for many more years to come!
A very happy new year to everyone! I hope 2016 is going to be a great year for us all full of happy occasions and inspirational events:-)
CPD Opportunity for 2016!
This week from 3rd - 11th January the TESOL Electronic Village Online yearly sessions can be viewed and you can now register to attend one or more exciting CPD opportunities. The sessions are FREE, and they last for 5 weeks and kick off from January 11th and finish on February 14th. They are open to anyone around the globe who wishes to learn about something educational. There is a wide range of fascinating topics on offer, 14 in fact, so there should be something to suit everyone!
I am delighted to be moderating once again for the third year in a row on EVO Ebook for Teachers' session, together with Shelly Terrell's fabulous team of co-moderators.
Why don't you join the eBook moderators on Friday for a pre-session EbookEVO chat on Twitter? Details in the image below, courtesy of our lead moderator and organizer, Shelly Terrell.
Looking forward to seeing you in the EVO sessions. I can assure you they will be fun, educational and memorable!!
The Electronic Village Online Hashtag is: #evosessions
I did a presentation called The EVOlution of Jan! for IATEFL YLT in January 2015. The slides via PresentMe demonstrate the EVO sessions I have attended since I first joined as an eager participant in 2009. I hope you will be inspired to register for a session in 2016!
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