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 post is a bit different from my usual ones on my blog and it focuses on a very special trip I made last week. K and I travelled to San Marino by motorbike to attend the 6th ACIM motorbike meeting.
ACIM
stands for Aprilia Caponord International Meeting. Aprilia Caponord
motorbike owners and their friends came from all around Europe,
including Holland, Macedonia, Slovenia, France, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, UK and a lot
from Italy.
You can get a taste of the great fun we had by viewing this fabulous Youtube video called ACIM VI San Marino 2014 posted by Canale di SBellu 96. I can be seen sitting at the table at section 1.15. This was on the Saturday evening's BBQ and presentation of gifts.
It was the most
wonderful holiday and we enjoyed ourselves very much, meeting new people
and making new friends. The whole experience was efficiently organized,
and a special thanks goes to Maurizio and his Aprilia Caponord team,
who helped make it such a memorable occasion. I
managed to practise a little bit of French, German, Greek and of course
Italian with some of the motorcyclists and passengers.
In
total, there were 42 bikes and 69 riders and pillion passengers,
including myself, (in the blue jacket) seen below during one of the
frequent stops on the road.
We
travelled a total of 550 miles during the 3-day trip and we took in a
lot of beautiful sights. Being part of a group riding in convoy was
lovely and wearing the specially designed souvenir t-shirt was a
thrill. The Grand Hotel Primavera where we stayed was superb.
We
visited many different sites and attractions including the Aviation
Park Museum, just outside San Marino. There was an excellent open air
display of old aircraft from around the world.
I
spotted an East German flag on one of the planes....I would recognize
this symbol anywhere, after having lived in East Germany in the early
'80s. Here's a link to a guest post I wrote a few years ago about my Life Behind The Iron Curtain.
The highlight of the tour was this 1944 Dakota which had been owned by Clark Gable.
Marilyn
Monroe had been a passenger on this plane, and as she is one of my
favourite movie stars, I had to sit in one of the seats where she had
probably sat!!
We travelled to San Leo a small hill top village with a beautiful and impressive cathedral.
We
enjoyed a lovely BBQ meal on the Saturday evening and there was a
raffle, and we won an extra t-shirt! Below you can see me accepting the
prize and saying thanks. I am proudly wearing the blue ACIM 2014
t-shirt.
The hotel was just outside San Marino and we explored
this tiny republic state on the Sunday morning. I managed to grab a photo of us setting off in convoy.
Our expert guide Francesco from San Marino, was very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English.
We
learned so many interesting facts from him about this unique principality, and
about its successful way of self-government. The views from the top of
San Marino were truly spectacular!
The San Marino guards in front of the National Palace:
This was a truly amazing
trip and the lovely people we met made it even more memorable. We
would love to go on another ACIM trip next year and hopefully meet up
with the same group of riders and catch up on their news. Thanks so much to dear K for your brilliant motorbike riding skills. We had a lot of fun, didn't we?
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