Amalfi, Villa Rina

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.