Trip Report: Five Days in the City by the Bay...San Franciso!

What do you do when you live in the Southeast United States and want to get away from the heat and humidity in the summer? Go to San Francisco of course!

Mom and I spent a long holiday weekend in San Francisco that started with the alarm clock going off at 3:30am...oh what was I thinking when I booked a 6:30am flight!

Friday, July 3rd

Other than having to get up so early the flights to San Francisco were not horrible...well if you don't count the 2 year old twin boys in the row in front of me on the Atlanta to SFO flight who could not sit still for the entire flight, BUT I didn't have anyone in the seat next to me AND the captain was hauling ass, because we got to San Francisco...10 minutes early! :)

We touched down just before 1pm and I went into travel planner action! I wanted to buy two 3 day Muni transportation passes, and I knew that there was a desk at baggage claim where I could do this...not today though...there was a sign to go to another terminal for information. Well, I didn't want to hike around the airport, plus I knew I could buy the passes at the Powell Street Station.

Since we did carry-on bags only, we walked over to the airtrain that would take us to the SFO BART station...easy peasy...until I got to the ticket machine...

Thank God for information sharing Fodorites! (Especially Kristina) When reading Kristina's San Francisco trip report I noted that the BART ticket machines worked "backwards", well, at least in my pee-brain I was thinking it was backwards! BUT, at first I didn't remember this little gem of information.

Sooo...I decided, for the BART ticket purchase, I would use my debit card. I slide the card into the machine and up pops a message $20.00 will be charged...uhhh...wait a minute...the fare is $8.10 one way to the Powell Street Station from SFO...what is this $20.00????

THEN I remembered...you have to subtract the amount on the screen until you get to the correct fare. I will say there are fare charts plastered all over the machines and the walls near the machines, so as long as you know where you are and where you need to go you can figure it out.

I must have been blinded by the thrill of 70% humidity because in my haste to complete the transaction because there was a line of people behind me now (that's the story I'm sticking too!), I only saw the -$1.00 button, so I pressed that button until I got down to $9.00 and then pressed submit...out spits a BART ticket/card. Now to do the transaction again for a ticket for mom.

OK...things are looking good...that's when I notice there is also a button for either 10 or 5 cent deductions...so I could have gotten to $8.10...but I was being hasty. All was not lost, because on the return trip I just reloaded the card using the 90 cents that were still left on the card.

In the timeline scheme of things...it was now only just about 1:30pm. A BART train was waiting on the platform so we hopped on and had an uneventful 45-ish minute ride into San Francisco. One thing that did surprise us, and maybe it was just because it was the Friday before a holiday weekend, but there were very few cars in the airport parking lot and relatively few cars on the highway...but it was also in the middle of the afternoon.

We took BART to the Powell Street station which was just a few blocks from our hotel. Before we walked to the hotel I wanted to get the Muni passes. I had mom stand out of the way while I tried to find the right booth the get the passes. I found it alright, along with 50 other people trying to buy tickets for the cable car! Fortunately the line, although long, moved quickly and within 10 minutes I had 2 passes for unlimited travel on all Muni transportation (buses, cable car, street cars, etc) for $18 each.

I splurged and bought the $3.00 Muni system map and let me tell you, that was THE BEST $3.00 I have ever spent! I made sure I had it with me all the time so if we needed to hop on a bus or street car I could figure out how to get to where we wanted to be really quickly...got to give a shout out to my dear dad for instilling in me good map reading skills and a pretty decent sense of direction...or it could be that he is just guiding me from the heavens! :-)

Once I had the passes and the (coveted) map we headed off to the hotel...thanks to google maps I knew it was just around the corner and 2 blocks down to our hotel...The Intercontinental at the corner of Howard and 5th, in the SOMA neighborhood.

Another shout out to the Fodorites who helped me decide between this hotel and the Mark Hopkins...glad I took your advice...we REALLY liked this hotel. I was able to get a deal through a travelzoo discount. We paid $119 a night...I know, I may have been able to do better somewhere else, but I'm a priority club member and the thought of getting the points that I convert to frequent flyer miles provided some incentive to stay here.

Our room was nothing special, just a basic, very clean, comfortable double/double on the 14th floor with a big flat screen TV so we could watch the entire Michael Jackson funeral/spectacle in our free time!

We didn't have any kind of spectacular view...it looked out over the other buildings across the street and the freeway and hills in the distance. But we really liked the bathroom, it was spacious as far as hotel bathrooms go. They used a frosted glass sliding door between the bathroom and room and for some reason I just felt less cramped then in bathrooms with the conventional door that opens in or out. Plus I really liked the hairdryer they had...I know, it's the little things! :)

By the time we settled in, it was close to 3pm and we had planned to meet friends from home, who were also in San Francisco this weekend for drinks at The Top of The Mark (they were staying there) at 5:30pm. So we rested for a bit...remember we had been up since 3:30am eastern time! And around 4:30 we pulled ourselves together and headed over to the Powell Street Cable Car turn-around.

OMG...I had heard the lines for the cable car at this spot might be long...they weren't kidding! I'm glad we gave ourselves plenty of time. After waiting probably 20 minutes and taking 100's of pictures of the cable cars (I can't help myself) we got on a cable car. We only had to ride it for maybe 10 minutes to the corner of Powell and California....it was fun...but CROWDED...we would later ride an almost empty car...much nicer! Once we got off the cable car it was a short, albeit steep one block climb up to the front door of the Mark Hopkins.

Although we were a few minutes early it worked out perfectly because our friends had gone a bit early to make sure we could get a table by the window. We had some wine and fun conversation. It's funny because these are work friends and while at home we've never gone out together, but they share our passion for travel so it was the perfect start to a fun weekend! And maybe we've started a new tradition...fly across the county for cocktails with co-workers! :)

At about 7pm we said our good-byes since we had a 7:30pm dinner reservation at The Slanted Door and our friends had a dinner reservation at Boulevard (they loved their meal there...sadly we didn't have enough time to have a meal there).

We walked back down to the corner of California and Powell and hopped on the California Street Cable Car...there were maybe 5 people on the car...much different experience then earlier! We took it all the way to the end of the line near the Ferry Building. It was a short walk to the Ferry Building and it was such a pretty evening.

We arrived a few minutes early, but were seated right away. Just to mention here I booked all our dinner reservations, except for one, before leaving home through Open Table. Love that website...found it mentioned on Fodors a while back and have become hooked...I had a couple $20 Open Table checks that we used on this trip and we did use one here at The Slanted Door.

At 7:30pm the place was packed to the gills and buzzing. This restaurant was recommended to me by a Fodorite and since when mom and I go to larger cities we usually O.D. on Italian or French restaurants I thought we needed to try something different. I had never had Vietnamese food before and I really enjoyed what I had. I'm finally stepping out of my Italian (pasta) shell!

We started with the cocktail called Summer on the Danube...it's prosecco (see, there's the Italian again!) with elderberry syrup. I was concerned because it was fairly sweet and mom does not like sweet...but it actually worked with the appetizer we ordered. We had the crispy imperial rolls (recommended by our co-worker friends who had been there the night before), they were stuffed with shrimp and pork and were very crunchy and were the perfect compliment to the sweet cocktail.

We decided to each have an entree, but we would share, so the server brought little plates and then placed both entrees in the middle of the table. Mom had the scallops and I had the Alaskan halibut. We had a side order of baby spinach with caramelized onions and garlic. The whole meal was delicious but I have to admit Mom's scallops completely stole the show...so tender and melt in your mouth good.

We ended the meal with the steamed lemon cake with blueberry compote...another surprise since as I mentioned mom isn't "into" sweets...but this cake was light, refreshing and just the perfect touch of sweetness. With 2 espresso the bill was $122.

From the Ferry Building it was an easy hop on the F street car (love the vintage cars!) and we were back at the hotel by 10pm and were ready for some serious sleep...it was a long but really enjoyable day, especially since the weather had been so terrific...sunny and breezy the whole day!

Saturday, July 4th

The game plan for today was to stop for coffee at the Blue Bottle Coffee Cafe (http://bluebottlecoffee.net/). It's located at 66 Mint Street at the corner of Jessie, and lucky for us, just a couple blocks away from our hotel (they also have a location at the Ferry Building).

On Saturdays they open at 8am we got there just before they opened. It's a good thing I knew what I was looking for, because before they opened the only sign was about 10 feet high on the building facade and it was a blue bottle on a small grey square. Once they opened there was a sandwich board sign placed on the sidewalk.

I am definitely the "designer" coffee junkie...according to my mom I don't drink "real" coffee...so it was only logical that I had the caffe mocha...which was excellent. Mom had a cup of the organic drip coffee and by the smile that spread across her face after the first sip I knew I had hit a home run in the coffee selection for the morning! :) We also each had a brioche because they looked good, and tasted even better (I don't even want to think what the butter content was in those tasty little morsels!). I had the bacon and gruyere cheese brioche, mom had the chive and chevre brioche. For the 2 coffees (mine was $4.50) and the 2 brioche the bill was $18.

In hind-sight we probably should have just had our coffees because what followed for the remainder of the morning could be considered a total food fest...yup...I'm talking about the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building!

When we were happily caffeinated we walked over to Market Street (and Powell) and took the F street car (this time it was the vintage car from Milano, Italy) to the Ferry Building because I really wanted to roam through the Farmer's Market. Mom is a fantastic cook and even though we couldn't buy any of the perishable produce, I thought it would be fun to poke around...and it was.

Being Saturday there were LOTS of vendors...fruits, vegetables, flowers, olive oils, honey, jams, breads, meats, seafood, herbs, spices...it was colorful and beautiful...great picture opts! Mom bought some lavender honey, rosemary salt, and lavender salt and I bought some organic orange marmalade (btw it's fabulous!).

While we were walking around we found the "holy grail" we had been keeping our eyes open for. The Roli Roti (http://www.roliroti.com/) truck...again, thanks to Kristina's Fodor's trip report back in the spring I knew this place had fantastic porchetta sandwiches. When we walked by at 10am the sides of the truck were open and the rotisseries were loaded with chicken and pork and slowly rotating...OMG...it smelled soooo good and we had just had breakfast 2 hours ago, plus samples of strawberries, peach, peanut brittle (you get the picture here!)

My strategy was to do the San Francisco City Guide (www.sfcityguides.org) tour of the Ferry Building at 12noon...so at 10am we still had 2 hours. We continued to check out the market and then at 10:45am...no I am not kidding! We went back to the Roli Roti truck and you guessed it...there was already a line at least 10 people long!

We got in line and as we stood there watched as the line kept getting longer and longer behind us. Then a celebrity spotting... As we stood and waited for the line to creep forward there was a group a 3 or 4 people that got behind us...no big deal...then I heard one speaking on their cell phone...the voice sounded so familiar. As I slowly turned around there was a tall, slender African American woman standing a few feet away. I finally figured out it was Aisha Tyler, comedian and former Talk Soup host. It looked like she was with friends and I didn't say anything but it certainly made me feel better knowing this svelte celebrity was going to chow down on a porchetta sandwich too! :)

By 11am we were munching on the most incredible tasting sandwich and roasted potatoes ever (definitely get the potatoes...REALLY good!). The pork was tender, yet had that crunchy outside, the ciabatta bread had just enough firmness on the outside and softness on the inside and the caramelized onions and cress topping was the perfect finishing touch. We bought one sandwich and split it...was definitely more then enough! By 11:30am the line for the Roli Roti must have had 30 people in it!

After our delicious lunch we walked around a bit more, and went across the street to check out the arts and craft stalls. Just before 12noon we went to the stairs at the front of the Ferry Building, which is the designated meeting point for the start of the Ferry Building Tour. The tour guide we had was Sue Walsh and she was terrific...the history of the building is really interesting and with just 9 people on the tour it was a great way to spend an hour.

Once we were finished with the tour we walked over to the N-Judah line and went to Golden Gate Park. We made our way to the Flower Conservatory and paid the $5.00 entry fee ($3.00 for seniors) to go in. It's a pretty interesting building...worth reading the history about the building that are the big display boards as you walk in.

We then walked over to the Japanese Tea Garden but decided not to go in...we were starting to fade. Fortunately right in front of the Japanese Tea Garden was the #44 bus stop. We hoped on the bus and took it out of the park to Irving and 9th. Now a little digression here...while on the Ferry Building tour we noticed the shoes the guide had on and really liked them. We asked here where she got them and she told us a store called On the Run at Irving & 9th. At the time, the streets didn't really mean anything to us, but as we got off the bus and looked at the street signs it dawned on us..."where's the store"? As the bus pulled away, there was the store right across the street...so we popped in to see if they had the shoes...

Yup, they did. After trying them on and not finding much success there was another similar pair. We thought..."why not" so I tried them on....ahhhhhh!!!! OMG...soooo comfortable! One shoe purchase later we were ready for a coffee break. Lucky for us there was a Starbucks just across the street, so we stopped for a much needed break and sat down for about 30 minutes.

By 4:30pm we had finished our coffees and were revived enough to catch the N-Judah line back to the Powell Street station. As we exited the Powell Street station I noticed all the banners and posters for Wicked which was playing at the theater up the street.

When we got back to the hotel I stopped at the concierge desk to ask if they knew if there was a matinee performance on Sunday. The concierge couldn't have been more helpful. He did find out that there was a Sunday matinee and there were tickets available, but for some reason they can't book tickets...no problem...the theater is just about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

At about 6pm we walked up to the theater box office and bought 2 tickets for the matinee the next day. And not just any tickets, but the front row aisle seats of the loge...we were smack in the middle of the stage...I think we got really lucky because even the ticket agent at the theater was a bit surprised when those seats come up as available...good karma I guess!

When we were finished at the theater we decided it would be a good idea to start heading to the restaurant for our 8pm reservation. Being the 4th of July the street cars and buses were packed and some of the buses were being re-routed, so I didn't know how long it would take us to get to the restaurant.

And ahhhhh...the restaurant...thanks again to Kristina for posting about her experience at A16 (http://www.a16sf.com/) I decided to check out the restaurant's website and found the chef had just won the James Beard award for Up and Coming Chef and even better their wine listed included wines from a winery on the Amalfi Coast that I had just toured in April...more good karma! So, I booked a reservation for 8pm via Open Table. The name of the restaurant comes from the highway that runs through the Campania region of Italy and the food is reminiscent of that region.

The restaurant is located at 2355 Chestnut Street. We arrived a little early...at least I was able to manuever the bus system even with the holiday changes...loved that map! :-) At 7:30pm this restaurant was packed...wall to wall...all but one or two tables were filled and the bar/chef's table had every seat occupied (recession???) The service here was fantastic...the server attentive but not "hovering".

We started with a glass of prosecco each and the mozzarella burata on crostini and an order of fennel salumi for appetizers. Then we had the fennel sausage and pepper pizza, which was terrific (however the pepper oil they gave in a separate little pitcher was VERY hot...only put it on one piece and that was enough for me!) We also had the lamb meatballs with giardino entree and a side dish of cannellini beans. All were wonderful but the cannellini beans were the clear winner at the table. We ended the meal with a chocolate tart that was not too sweet and a bit crumbly, with 2 espresso and a carafe of the Marisa Cuomo red the bill was $140...we did use one of the Open Table $20 gift checks here...every little bit helps! :-)

After dinner we walked down the street one block to wait for the #30 bus. As we sat down to wait we noticed the digital board said the next bus would be in 38 minutes...ugh...looks like we had just missed one...then after 5 minutes the board had changed and the bus arrived 3 minutes later...and it was practically empty. We slowly made our way along the street...lots of people and cars about and between the buildings we could catch glimpses of the fireworks over the bay. As we continued to head towards Market Street the bus got more and more crowded. We hopped off at Howard and 3rd and walked a couple blocks back to the hotel.

It was another great San Francisco day!

Sunday, July 5th

Today was the only day we had grey, cloudy skies with a few rain sprinkles...but that didn't deter us!

We started the day back at the Blue Bottle Coffee Cafe. This time we just had coffee...after the food fest that occured the day before we could stand to scale back a bit! :)

We hopped on the N-Judah line at Powell Street station and took it to Irving & 9th, just like the day before. Once we got off the N we walked around the corner to wait for the #44 bus that would take us into Golden Gate Park and just steps from the deYoung Museum.

We had 9am tickets for the King Tut exhibit...thanks to Fodorite YK for suggesting to book the earliest time to help alleviate the crowds. It was still crowded at 9am, but at least we were the first group through the exhibit, so we did not have to contend with any lingerers from a previous time slot! (good tip to know for timed entries!).

We got to the museum at about 9:15am...it seemed like we waited forever for that #44 bus to arrive! But we sailed right in and got our audio guides...definitely worth the $7.00 extra for the audio guide...it really brought much more meaning to the exhibit for me to have the audio...some really interesting stuff. The artifacts are truly extraordinary and I was in awe of how well preserved it all was. It took us about an hour, give or take to meander our way through the exhibit and we stopped at every piece to listen to the audio...there were also several displays that were not on the audio guide, so we stopped by those to read the description of the piece.

We then spent about an hour walking through the permanent exhibits...nearly not enough time there is so much in this museum. I would love to go back...I could spend an entire day in there! BUT I did want to make time to go to the 9th floor observation deck, which we did. Unfortunately it was so overcast that we didn't have amazing panoramic views, but we could still make out the top of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We left the museum at about 11:30am and retraced our steps on the #44 bus and N-Judah line. We dropped some bags off at the hotel (we did make a shopping stop at the museum shop!) and then stopped for a coffee at a little coffee shop (Amici Cafe on 5th) before heading over to the theater for the matinee of Wicked.

The show was such fun...fabulous costumes and set. The singing was great, the girl planning Elphaba was spectacular and we really did have first rate seats. The show ended at about 5pm. I did not have dinner reservations this night because the restaurant I wanted to go to doesn't take them. So we walked a little way down Market Street and got on the #31 bus and headed to Fillmore Street.

Now the day before the bellman at our hotel mentioned to us the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival was going on this weekend. Well, until we got off the bus I completely forgot about this. Fillmore Street was cordened off to traffic and for blocks and blocks there were stages set up and people were litterally dancing in the street to all the different bands that were playing. At one set up they had a dance floor and the band was playing swing music and people were dressed in sailor outfits and 40's (I think it was 40's) dresses just like it was a dance-a-thon...such fun.

I did make a slight miscalculation with this bus route and when we got off at Fillmore we had about a 6 block walk. Although it was up hill, it wasn't too steep, so we just took our time and in about 15 minutes we made it to the front door of SPQR at 1911 Fillmore Street (http://www.spqrsf.com/). This restaurant is a sister restaurant to A16 and SPQR's specialty is Italian food...of course! :)

After forging our way through the throngs of Jazz Fesitval goers I thought...oh no, there is probably going to be a long wait...not the case at all! When we walked in the place was busy but there were a few tables available so we were seated right away...it was still fairly early around 6pm, but we didn't have much to eat today so we were both hungry.

We started with a carafe of white wine that the server suggested and I don't even remember the name, something similar to a pinot grigio. We had an appetizer, or what on the menu was called a Grande Antipasta, called Farinata. This was a chickpea pancake (very thin) with caramelized onions, and anchovies...absolutely fabulous...in fact we contemplated ordering a second one, but refrained...it was very kind of a combination socca/pissaladiere just like we had in Nice last year!

Mom had the lasagna, which came out of the kitchen "atomic hot", just like mom likes it. I had the pasta carbonara which was beyond delicious...so creamy it melted in my mouth. For dessert we had lemon cream with raspberries served with the perfect crumbly butter cookies...it was a perfect ending. With 2 espresso the bill with tip came to $135.

Instead of taking the same way back to the hotel, we walked up 3 blocks and got the #1 bus to Powell Street (the coveted map in action again!) and walked to the hotel. Tonight was the earliest night we had on the trip...but a well deserved rest was definitely in order!

Monday, July 6th

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day so the game plan was to catch the ferry to Saulsalito and walk around and take lots of pictures. We got to the Ferry Building with plenty of time to get the 10:15am ferry. We bought round trip tickets, $7.85 one way for me and $3.90 one way for mom and then stopped at Peet's Coffee to have our morning java.

We left the dock and had a beautiful 30 minute ride across the bay...great views! The ferry wasn't very crowded at all...not the case on the afternoon return. We arrived in Saulsalito at about 10:45 am and walked along the main street along the water front.

At about 11:30am we decided we wanted to sit down for lunch since all we had was the morning coffee. We went to Poggio at 777 Bridgeway (http://www.poggiotrattoria.com/) for an early lunch. I will admit that after we sat down on the outdoor patio I thought "maybe this is a bit to upscale" for our lunch...but I should not have feared! It was a terrific setting, sitting outside on Saulsalito's main waterfront watching the world go by!

I ordered the lamb panino with giardino and it was excellent...the lamb was really tasty! Mom had the squash blossom, proscuitto and mozarella pizza...which tasted great. As with many of our meals on this trip we shared each order so we could each have a taste of 2 things! My notes get a little scarce here, but I think lunch cost aroung $35.

After lunch we walked about the marina area and into a few little shops and galleries. We were back on the ferry boat for the 1:55pm departure and back in San Francisco by 2:30pm. The ferry was much more crowded going back and I'm glad I was able to take most of my ferry pictures on the morning ride over.

We stopped at Ciao Bella Gelato in the Ferry Building to have a tasty treat. I had the mocha chip and fresh mint flavors, mom had the mocha chip and ginger...all were very yummy. A small cup was $4.25. We then made our way to Union Square and walked down Maiden Lane. By 4pm we were back at the hotel to take a little breather.

Around 5pm we left the hotel and went back to the Ferry Building. Our plan was to go to Hog Island Oyster Company for happy hour. But the place was mobbed (special $1 oysters at Monday happy hour!) and we didn't want to fight the crowd. We walked down few shops to the Ferry Plaza Wine Bar and as we walked in 2 seats at the bar opened up...more good karma! And happy hour wines were $4 a glass..what a bargain! We spent about an hour and half there. I had 2 glasses of prosecco (not the happy hour special), mom had 2 glasses of the house chardonnay (they were on happy hour special) and we had a plate of Boccalone Salumni which was delicious.

Just before 7:30pm we walked over to La Mar to meet friends of mine who live in the bay area. This is a Peruvian restaurant at Pier 1 1/2 on the Embarcadero (http://www.lamarcebicheria.com/web/intro.php).

We were all very happy with the meal...honestly, never having had Peruvian food before I didn't really know what to expect. We had our friends pick out the wine since they are much more wine savy then I am! We then decided to have 2 appetizer plates, both were excellent.

The first was a cerbiche sampler plate (similar to cereviche). I am not a huge raw fish fan...but these were REALLY good! The second was a causas sampler plate, it was 4 little towering concoctions, 2 with purple and 2 with yellow mashed potatoes each with a different topping. The toppings were crab salad, asparagus, tuna, and mahi. I know I am probably masacreing the descriptions but I really enjoyed the causas.

For entrees I had the scallops and clam risotto in a golden buttery broth/sauce. Mom had the tenderloin stirfry that she could cut with a fork it was so tender. Our friends both had the tuna entree and it looked and tasted (according to them) great.

We ended the meal with the Peruvian take on tiramisu, which was ok, but not spectacular. For the four of us the bill was $254 before tip.

We had great evening catching up with friends and before we knew it, mom and I were climbing back onto the F street car bound for our hotel.

Tuesday, July 7th

The return home...Up and packed our bags then headed off for the old "stand-by" Starbucks. We then stopped at the Powell Street BART station to get our tickets to the airport...I figured it would be easier to get the tickets while we weren't standing there with our suitcases!

We walked back to the hotel grabbed our bags and checked out. By 10am we were back at the BART station waiting for the train. We arrived with more then enough time for our 1:50pm flight...but I always err on the side of caution and get to the airport way in advance...hey, what if the BART train had broken down...then where would we have been! :-)

The flight to Atlanta was delayed about an hour...this would make our connection close but still do-able. As it turned out I had nothing to worry about. As we trotted off the plane in Atlanta I looked at the monitor and in my rush only paid attention to the gate number. As we rushed up to the gate for our Savannah flight I did a double take...now the flight was to leave at midnight...ok, not soo bad in the grand scheme of things...only about an hour late.

Well as we sat and sat and sat...our friends from work appeared and we all had a great chat about everything we had done over the last few days. Then they boarded us...at 11:30pm..I'm thinking...great...we are actually going to take off on time. Then we sat and sat and sat some more on the plane. I think we sat there for close to an hour and a half...can I just mention here the flight from Atlanta to Savannah from take off to touch down is usually less then 30 minutes!

Finally at just before 2am we took off...but hey, here's the bright side...our plane was first in line for take off at the time of night! :)

We landed at about 2:30 and I was never so glad to not have to wait for checked luggage. I was home within 30 minutes and crawled into bed...and yes, I did go to work the next day...but foresight told me to tell my boss before I left that I would not be in until noon time! :)

West Coast Weekend!

I'm San Francisco bound on Friday! Really looking forward to exploring the city I haven't been to in over 10 years. It should be lots of fun.

I've got dinner reservations at The Slanted Door, A16 and La Mar. We will have to "wing-it" at SPQR since they don't take reservations but I'm excited about all the restaurants we've picked.

Not to mention we have tickets for the King Tut exhibit at the deYoung Museum!

Stay tuned for a trip report when I return!

Paris Plans Changed

No Christmas in Paris...but that's nothing to be sad about because we didn't cancel going to Paris, we just moved it to the end of May 2010!!!! I can't think of a better time then Spring in Paree!

And I've booked a FABULOUS apartment for us in the 7th! Through Paris Perfect Apartments! Check out their website at www.parisperfect.com, we are staying in the Meursault studio...fantastic views!! Oh the planning is going to be sweet!

What to do with an unused Paris Metro Carnet?

Why plan a trip to Paris of course!

The other day while chatting with mom, she asked, "What should we do for Christmas"? Well, with only one day off for the holiday this year it would mean taking a few more vacation days then we had for the last 2 years when we went to Rome for the holidays. BUT, since I have an unused Carnet (10 Paris metro tickets) why not make it a Parisian holiday!

Nothing is firm yet, we don't have plan tickets, but I am in email contact with a highly recommended apartment rental company. Now it's just a matter of sorting out the details, but one of the apartments we really liked is available during the dates we want....Stay Tuned! And, yes I know it will be cold! :)

A weekend in the garden....

The Atlanta Botanical Garden that is!

Over the long Memorial Day weekend, and after only being home 2 weeks, mom and I took a quick trip up to Atlanta.

Originally when we planned the trip we didn't really have anything specific in mind to do, other than stop at Trader Joe's and load up on wine...hey, girls have to drink! But a co-worker mentioned there was an exhibit at the botanical garden of Henry Moore sculptures.

I had never heard of Henry Moore, but googled the Atlanta Botanical Garden website and it looked like an interesting place to spend a few hours.

We left home on Saturday morning in pounding rain, and it didn't let up for several hours...not a fun drive. After making a quick stop at an outlet center outside Atlanta we arrived in the Perimeter Area of Atlanta right around lunch time, so a stop at Doc Green's for a salad and sandwich were in order.

We checked into the hotel just after 4pm. We had plenty of time to freshen up before we were to meet Regi, Scott and Julia and Parish ( http://www.parishatl.com/home.php) for dinner. Scott met us at the hotel just after 6:30 and we piled into my car to go to the restaurant.

It was a fun evening of good food, wine and friends. Parish is in the Inman Park neighborhood, which mom and I have started to explore more on each of our trips to Atlanta and we are liking more and more every time we are there...lots a great restaurants.

We said our goodbyes after dinner and headed back to the hotel. And yes, it was still raining. Not as heavily, but it was still grey and cloudy.

Mom and I woke up on Sunday to more grey clouds, but the rain was holding off. We decided to go to the botanical garden in spite of the threatening weather. After a quick stop for breakfast at the Einstein Brothers bagel shop down the street from the hotel we were equipped with google directions to the garden. In less then 30 minutes we arrived and bought our tickets.

It was about 11am and although there were others at the garden, it was not packed with people. In the main visitor lobby of the garden there is a beautiful Dale Chihuly glass chandelier...I love his work. With a map to the garden and sculptures we were on our way.

What a pretty place. The flowers and gardens are lovely and the sculptures, which are enormous were placed perfectly. There were 20 or 25 sculpture. We spent about 2 and a half hours wandering through the garden looking at each and every sculpture. And we were fortunate to have the rain hold off, so we didn't get wet. A highlight of the garden was the orchid conservatory...truly beautiful flowers. I managed to take 250+ pictures!

When we were ready to leave we went back to the lobby area and in a room off to the side there was a 30 minute video of the life of Henry Moore, a really interesting man. It was a fabulous way to spend the morning/early afternoon.

Lucky for us on the way to the garden I noticed a Caribou Coffee Company shop just down the street, so at about 3pm we stopped for a cold icy coffee before finding the TJ Maxx in Buckhead where I did some serious damage to my credit cards.

Before our shopping excursion I texted Regi to see if he wanted to join us for dinner and he said yes. I had made a reservation on Open Table for a place called Parks Edge...I chose this place mostly because for a Sunday night reservation I would get 1000 points. This place did not disappoint!

We arrived about 30 minutes early and the place was not crowded at all, so we sat at the bar waiting for Regi and chatting with the owner, Richard...he is quite an interesting guy. After about 45 minutes Regi arrived and we chatted more with Richard before sitting down in the dining room.

The food was absolutely fantastic. We had 2 appetizers, a calamari dish and a goat cheese filled wonton dish...both were delicious! I had the swordfish entree, Regi and the snapper and shrimp entree and I can't remember what mom had, but it was also a fish dish. Everything was fabulous and to top it all off we had the warm blueberry tart...yummo!

Another great meal and a terrific way to end our weekend! Monday morning we made our requisite stop at Trader Joe's to stock up on wine and other sought after goodies and we were back on the road going home by 11:30.

Trip Report: 9 Friends, 10 Year Anniversary, and 11 Days on the Amalfi Coast and Rome

There is no better way to celebrate a 10 year wedding anniversary than with 9 friends on the Amalfi Coast of Italy with a couple days in Rome tossed into the mix. This is the tale of my trip to the Amalfi Coast at the end of April, 2009.

The background story goes like this…

My friends Sandy and Alan would be celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary in May 2009. For their 5th anniversary we did a trip to Tuscany for a week. Back in the spring of 2008 Sandy sent out an email to all 20 of us who went on the Tuscany trip to see who would be interested in a 10 year “event”. At that time there were lots of positive…”yes I’m coming” responses from the 20 of us who were on the 5 year anniversary Tuscany trip. After several months the numbers dwindled and the final count for the 10th anniversary trip was 9 from the “original” 20.

The original plan for this 10 year trip was to go back to Tuscany, and me being the travel junkie/researcher/planner that I am, I offered to help Sandy research villas in Tuscany. Plus Sandy was 7 months pregnant at the time and I thought she might like a little help.

As I scoured the internet for the perfect villa I had been reading several posts on Fodors about the Amalfi coast, especially Ekscrunchy’s fabulous trip report. This area really started to pique my interest, so you can imagine my absolute delight when I got an email from Sandy saying she had been considering changing the location from Tuscany to Amalfi and would the “gang of 9” mind? Heck NO…I will go anywhere in Italy.

Our course had changed and I started looking for villas in the Amalfi coast. The villa gods were shining down on us and with absolute good fortune Sandy had a friend who visited the Amalfi coast several years earlier with a group of friends and stayed at a villa in Piano di Sorrento, about half way between Sorrento and Positano. Sandy contacted the owner and Presto! We were booked into La Grotta dei Fichi (www.grottadeifichi.it) for April 25 – May 2, 2009.

You can imagine what the logistics might be for a group of 9, but throw into the mix the fact that Sandy and Alan live in Hong Kong, Alastair lives in London, Julia, Regi, and Scott live in Atlanta, Patrick and Michelle live in Raleigh, NC and I live on Hilton Head Island, SC. But, fortunately we are all seasoned travelers and the plan was to just be at the villa on April 25th. Some of us traveled together, others met along the way.

I choose to fly on my own to Paris where I would meet Regi and Scott and then fly to Naples, the closest airport to the villa. Others in the group chose to arrive in Rome, rent a car and drive to the villa.

My logic behind purchasing my airfare….when Regi, Scott and I decided to “band together” for the rental car I suggested that we fly into Naples since it was only one hour from the villa and after having the experience of flying into Rome and immediately driving 3 hours to Tuscany I didn’t want to put Scott, (who is the designated driver, since I don’t drive a stick shift car), through a long drive after a trans-Atlantic flight. Believe me one hour was enough!

Prior to purchasing airfare I pitched the idea to Regi and Scott of extending our trip after Amalfi and going to Rome for a few days at the end of the trip (I can’t help not going to Rome…one of my favorite cities…they liked the idea, so we got open jaw flights arriving into Naples and departing from Rome. This actually worked out because unbeknownst to me the remaining members of the gang decided to spend their last few days in Rome too and we all were in Rome before returning home…good thing we all like each other!

I am all about getting to my destination with the least amount of aggravation (aka…as few connections as possible) and with lots of “cushion” time…if I have to wait 3 hours for a connection, I will wait 3 hours. I purchased my flight on Delta which left Savannah, connected through Atlanta, then Paris and finally arriving in Naples. I typically try to avoid connections at CDG because of horror stories I have heard, but at the time I booked the flight I had no choice and I was given a 3 hour connection…I was good with that.

Scott and Regi on the other hand, booked airfare that took them to airports of the east coast! However, they were booked on the same Paris to Naples flight that I was booked on. The clincher for them was that their arrival time at CDG was only 1 hour prior to the departure of the Naples flight…too risky for me…but they were OK with it and that is where the rest of the story begins….

Friday, April 24, 2009

I was able to check in on-line the night before my departure, except I couldn’t print the boarding pass for the flight to Naples. This didn’t surprise me since it was an Air France operated flight and it was departing on Saturday, so I asked at the Savannah airport to get a boarding pass for that flight and the agent was able to print one for me without any trouble.

The flight to Savannah was 30 minutes late, but that didn’t cause any trouble and the subsequent flight to Paris was uneventful and I was able to snag the coveted exit row/aisle seat.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Landed at CDG at 6:30am and it felt like an eternity before we arrived at the gate, it took a few minutes to get the jetway in place and then I was off the plane and following the signs for connections. Thanks to all the fodorites for the helpful tips about connecting through CDG…it was a breeze, but then again, I had 3 hours!

I did go through passport control at CDG and my passport was stamped. Fortunately there is a separate line for connections…make sure to look for the signs; otherwise you may get shifted to the other line for passengers terminating their trip in Paris. I had a wait of less then 5 minutes at passport control, it could also have been because it was 7am…and not as many planes had landed yet.

Once through passport control I followed the signs for Terminal 2F where my Air France flight would depart from. There was very clear signage and after a stop at the ATM I was riding up on the escalator to the departures area.

I did have to go through a security check point and ran into a bit of a line there, but from touchdown to arriving at the Naples flight departure gate, it took approximately 45 minutes. If Regi and Scott’s flight arrives at CDG on time and they are as lucky as I at passport control and security they should (just barely) make the Naples flight.

I sat for a few hours reading, having coffee and checking the Delta website to see if “the guys” flight had arrived.

As the Naples flight started to board I was still the only one in my “little band” that was there. I got up to board when my seat row was called and like a desert mirage there walking down the terminal was Regi and Scott…a bit sweaty and out of breath, but they made the flight!

The Air France flight was full but it was a relatively short 2.5 hour flight. They did serve breakfast…croissants and yogurt. We arrived in Naples right on time (12:30) and by some miraculous act Regi and Scott’s bags were the first to appear on the baggage carousel (I’m an advocate of carry-on only, and didn’t have any checked bags). We were out the door and on the rental car shuttle bus in no time and within minutes at the rental car lot and packing our bags into the 4 door Fiat Punto. Scott was able to get some kind of discount on the Hertz rental car through his work and for 10 days was paid $330 for the car.

It was a beautiful day, sunshine and blue skies. Traffic was heavy along some portions of the road, but we took our time and made a stop at the side of the road near Sorrento to get some lemon granita…welcome to the Sorrentine Peninsula!

We finally found the villa after passing the turn for it. I knew something was amiss as we were driving along the Amalfi Coast Drive and I said to Scott…”I believe if we come to Positano we have gone too far”…not 5 minutes later…there is the sign…”Welcome to Positano”…we find a place to turn around (not an easy feat on the Amalfi Drive!) and we find our way back to where we missed a turn…the villa is definitely “off the beaten path”! By now it’s about 2:30, but no one is at the villa yet. We decide to take a little drive and find a small place selling gelato…we stop for our first of the trip. This becomes Scott’s rule...at least one gelato a day (and why stop at one, when you can have 2 or 3!)

At 4:30 we decide to give the villa another try and this time the owner (well, actually the owner’s son, Vincenzo, who manages the villa) is there and let’s us in.

Oh My Gosh! Is the collective response upon opening the front door! This place is spectacular. It literally runs parallel along the cliff face, there is even a cage and pulley system to get the luggage from the entrance to the house.

The house includes 2 bedrooms downstairs, a twin and a double. The main level has a living/dining area, kitchen, and ½ bath. Upstairs has a study with 2 twin beds and a double bedroom and the top floor has a spiral staircase to a fitness room with 2 beds and a sauna.

There is an outdoor kitchen, outdoor dining area, pool with jacuzzi (although it was too chilly during our week there to use either the pool or Jacuzzi) and an outdoor grotto bar. All of this is overlooking the sea…it is truly breathtaking.

Within half an hour the rest of our group arrives and it’s terrific to see everyone, some of us haven’t seen each other in 5 years.

After getting freshened up and chatting with everyone we decide to all go to dinner together to a place Vincenzo (aka…the owner) recommends. The restaurant’s name is Il Panorama and it is a quick 10 minute or so drive from the villa.

The food was excellent and we ordered a lot for everyone to share. The vegetable anti pasti was good the squid on the seafood anti pasti was fabulous. There was so much being passed about the table, but my choice of the eggplant parmigiana was a winner. The homemade pasta dishes were out of this world good and the arancini were gigantic, but only so-so tasting. The house wine was really good, but the crowning touch of our first meal together was the limoncello. My gut told me this stuff was homemade too…it was so smooth and I caught a glimpse of the bottle, more like jug, it was poured from and there was no label on it…another reason I think it was homemade.

After dinner we all made our way back to the villa to relax and chat…and yes, I was still awake after a long travel day…but when I did finally go to sleep I slept like a log!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

We had a very leisurely morning and we had a lovely breakfast at the villa. Vincenzo had left fresh eggs, bread, tomatoes and cheese for us and with a quick trip to the market we were set for a fun way to start the day with a delicious breakfast prepared by Alan…who knew he could cook eggs and slice bread so well!

After having our al fresco breakfast we all split up in a few groups to venture out and explore. Regi, Scott and I decided to climb in the car and drive down the Amalfi Coast Drive with our destination being Ravello.

What a stunning drive. We stopped along the way to take lots of photos and arrived in Ravello at about 3pm. I decided to go into the Villa Rufolo and had a great time taking pictures. The guys decided to do their own thing and explore the town. The villa gardens overlook the sea and are lovely and there were some terrific views. Lucky for me, there was a photo exhibit at the villa so after walking about the grounds I poked around the exhibit. The theme of the exhibit was courage and it was courage in lots of different forms. Some of the photo themes were sports, religion, and war…mostly contemporary photos. I really enjoyed it.

I met back up with the guys and we went into the church in the main square. I was a bit surprised at the simplicity of this church. In the basement there was a small museum that had some interesting mosaic pieces (which made me think of fodorite LaArtista!).

We headed back to the public parking lot where we had parked the car and used the ticket machine to pay the parking fee (€7.50). We drove back down the mountain to Amalfi and stopped for an apperitivo…after all a girl needs to have a glass of prosecco!
At 7:30pm we were back on the Amalfi Coast Drive, supposedly heading back to the villa. A wrong turn detoured us through Positano, as the sun was setting and the lights of the town were coming on, it looked picture post card perfect and wasn’t such a bad detour in the end!

Instead of coming back to the villa, once we got back on the right path, we drove right to Risortante Zio Sam, just a few minutes drive from the villa. To our surprise and good fortune the rest of our gang was there!

We joined them and had more seafood anti pasti (good, but the night before at Il Panorama was better), and a variety of pastas, and pizzas. The pizza here was fantastic. With wine and espresso to end the meal we were a very happy group.

We all returned to the villa for another great evening of conversation.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Today the weather took a turn for the worse and it was overcast with grey skies all day that turned into rain in the afternoon.

We decided not to venture to far and after another leisurely morning at the villa Regi, Scott and I jumped in the car and headed to Sorrento to have lunch and explore. The drive to Sorrento didn’t take more then 15 or 20 minutes and we found a parking garage a block or so from Piazza Tasso.

After parking or I should really say wedging the car into a spot we were off to walk about and poked in several of the shops in the Piazza Tasso area.

Because the guys were hungry and unlike me they never really care where they eat, I agreed to stop at the first place they liked, which was a non-descript English pub along the main road through town. I don’t even remember the name of the place, and the only memory I do have of it was that I think I ate the absolute worst pizza in Italy there…I know…what was I thinking ordering pizza at an English pub…I won’t make that mistake again!

After lunch, we explored more of Sorrento walking to the Marina Grande, there wasn’t much going on there in the late afternoon. And we wandered into a church or two. Unlike most of my other trips, I decided on the this trip to pretty much just “go with the flow” so although I did do some prior research, I did not have my usual lengthy list of information, just a basic guidebook that I pulled out every once in a while, so there were probably some places I missed, but that just means a return trip will be on my travel “agenda”!

Before leaving Sorrento I stopped in a shop to buy some prosecco to bring back to the villa and then we were headed home…or so I thought.

Scott likes to take different routes so instead of retracing our “steps” to get back to the villa we decide to try and take another route. Unfortunately I didn’t have a very good map, just the general one of the area in my guidebook and after a while I wasn’t recognizing the names of towns on the road signs…however I did know that the big island to our right, then our left, then our right again looked suspiciously like Capri. Looking back know, we were at the very tip of the Sorrentine Peninusula and if we kept driving we probably would have eventually found our way back to the villa using a different route, but after about 2 hours, we gave up and started following the signs back to Sorrento and ultimately retraced our original steps from the morning ride into Sorrento…ahhhh…it’s always an adventure with the guys.

Honestly, I felt so frustrated because I knew there had to be a way to get back to the villa from where we were but I got so turned around and no, we did not have a GPS…Scott forgot to pack his!

We arrived back at the villa at about 6pm and the weather was really starting to turn nasty. Not just rain and grey clouds, but very windy, hard rain, white caps on the sea and very little visibility. It was the perfect night to stay in. We all decided that getting pizza from Ristorante Zio Sam’s was a great solution to the question of dinner, so we sent some of the guys out to get the pizzas and of course more wine!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The weather situation improved slightly today…it wasn’t as windy, but most of the day we had off and on showers between bouts of sunshine. And today was the day Sandy and Alan had booked a private guide for Pompeii and Herculaneum.

The guide, Franco, was booked through the villa owner, Vincenzo and for the whole day was €200.

We left the villa and followed Vincenzo in his car to Sorrento where we picked up Franco and drove (we had 2 cars) to Pompeii. The ride there was quick and easy. The fee for the guide did not include our admission into Pompeii, we each paid the €11 entry fee. Franco was a good and interesting guide. This was my second time to Pompeii, my first was more then 20 years ago and I’m very glad I went again and Franco was very knowledgeable. He can tailor a tour to group interests, we just asked for his basic Pompeii tour. We must have spent a couple, maybe 3 hours seeing the major sites in Pompeii.

Even with the on again off again rain I thought this day was a good one to visit the site. We were not sweltering in the sun and although there were other visitors, I would say there really weren’t any big crowds to speak of. We left Pompeii right around lunch time and decided to stop at one of the restauranst/sandwich places at the site’s entrance. I was really pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food at this place. I had a caprese panino and it was delicious. After lunch we all piled back into the cars and were off to see Herculaneum. Fortunately the rain in the morning was not a steady downpour and we got to see Pompeii in relative dryness…the story was different at Herculaneum. As we drove to Herculaneum the rain started coming down harder. We got to the site and paid our entry fee, another €11, in retrospect we could have purchased a pass that would have allowed us entry into both Pompeii and Herculaneum, but I don’t remember the price of the pass or if it would have saved us any money. It’s something to look into though for future trips.

In spite of the rain I really enjoyed seeing Herculaneum. In fact, I liked it more then Pompeii. It has an interesting history and the site, although smaller then Pompeii seems well preserved.

We spent about an hour and a half at Herculaneum and it did seem a bit more crowded then Pompeii, maybe because it is smaller, but there seemed to be many more school groups there than at Pompeii. And wouldn’t you know as we were finishing the tour and getting ready to leave the sun came out!

After dropping Franco off back in Sorrento we all headed back to the villa where Patrick and Alan took to the kitchen and whipped up a fabulous pasta dinner for all of us. Great food, good wine and lots of laughs that evening…it couldn’t get much better…OR, could it?

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

We got a late start today but the only “plan” was to go to Positano for a the day, so there wasn’t a big sense of urgency. The rain had finally stopped, but it was still a little chilly.

All 9 of decided to go to Positano, so we piled into 2 cars (one was an Alfa Romeo that fit 5) and off we went. We found a parking garage, parked the cars and walked down into the town. Once in the town we all meandered about making our way eventually to the beach area and going to lunch at one of the cafes along the beach. I don’t recall the name of the restaurant and being 9 of us, we ordered a few pizzas and appetizers for the table along with some beer, wine and water. It was such a beautifully sunny day and after a few days of rain the sun was welcomed with open arms!

After several hours of wandering the narrow lanes and having lunch and of course gelato for Scott and a few of his gelato accomplices we headed back to the villa for a very special dinner.

Vincenzo, not only manages the villa but according to Sandy he is a “budding gourmand” and as a gift to Sandy and Alan for their anniversary he offered to take a few of us to the market, buy the ingredients and cook dinner for us this evening.

Earlier in the morning Vincenzo met Regi and Michelle and took them shopping…for 3 hours! But the reward was definitely worth the effort. Vincenzo had spent most of the day prepping for this dinner…including an incredible amount of stuffed zucchini flowers that he would fry and yes, he even made the batter from scratch! Vincenzo arrived at the villa around 6pm to start the cooking and what a meal it was!

He made a fantastic “deconstructed” eggplant parmigiana. It was 2 pieces of grilled eggplant and he placed fresh tomato, mozzarella and basil between the grilled eggplant slices…my idea of heaven on a plate it was so good…even me, the non-cook (but very appreciative eater!) could make this dish at home!

He then prepared 2 types of bruschetta, a tomato and basil variety and a mushroom, rocket, and parmigiana cheese variety…I loved the mushroom one…I can even taste it now as I write this!

Then came 2 pasta dishes, one with zucchini & spaghetti the other with clams and rigatoni. And as if that wasn’t enough to satisfy our appetites, we ended the meal with fresh strawberries. This was a quintessential Italian meal…we sat down to eat at about 9pm and when all was said and done it was past midnight…another night of great food and company. And we really didn’t think it would get any better…until the next day came along!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Just when we thought Vincenzo’s generosity couldn’t get any better he asked us if we would be interested in taking a tour of a small winery and having lunch there. This was a no-brainer for us, since we do like our wine! We all replied with a resounding yes and Vincenzo set up the tour for Thursday.

Vincenzo had told us he has a friend who is friends with the son of the winery owner and this particular winery had won some kind of award for it’s white wine…my foggy memory is telling me that it was the best white in Italy in 2007, but I don’t have any other recollection of the award particulars.

So, here we are thinking we are going to tour a little “mom and pop” winery out in the middle of no-where…well, we were partly correct. We left the villa at about 11:30, with Vincenzo, since he would need to be our translator and he wanted to meet the winery owner too! We headed along the Amalfi Coast Drive toward Furore and we kept driving and driving and driving, up, up, up the mountain. After about an hour Vincenzo realized we missed the place (he hadn’t been there before) after a quick turn around and a stop for directions we were on the right track and found the Marisa Cuomo Winery, quite literally clinging to the side of the mountain. The website is http://www.granfuror.it/

This is a private (very small) winery that also has a B&B (maybe 8 rooms) and trattoria with an unbelievable view of the coast. The name of the trattoria/B&B is Albergo Ristorante Bacco the website is http://www.baccofurore.it/ The owner, Andrea and his wife Marisa could not have been more wonderful.

Our little group was the first EVER tour they have done at the winery. We were shown the very sleek and modern processing machines and then went into the cave/storage area that is attached to the large modern processing/bottling room. It was really such a treat to have such a personalized experience.

During the entire tour Andrea, the owner, was taking photographs of our group with what I can only say looked like a “mega-professional” camera (who knew...winemaker and photographer!). My intuition was telling me that we maybe the first group to do a tour of this winery, but not the last…the thought occurred to me that our faces might be gracing a future brochure for this winery! But there were also other motives for the photos. After we toured the winery building it was off to the vineyard. Now the land here is not the rolling hills of Tuscany, the land here is steep and rocky…how the vines grow I have no idea but the vineyard is thriving and is on several, what I would call, terraces carved into the mountain and smack up against the 2 lane road…we walked through the vineyard, very careful not to damage any of the vines while Andrea kept snapping away with his camera!

At about 2pm the tour portion of the day was over and Andrea invited us to sit down in the trattoria for lunch. The minute I walked into this trattoria I knew we were going to be in for a treat. The décor was bright and inviting the far wall was floor to ceiling windows that led out to a patio area that is also used for dining. The view of the azure water and the entire coast was breathtaking.

There was another party in the dining room, a group of about 12. It clearly looked like they were celebrating something. Sandy leaned over to me and asked what I thought the occasion was. Once I saw a priest in the group I said it’s either a wedding or funeral. Boy…am I good or what…we asked our host, Andrea and I was right…it was a wedding celebration, the bride and groom had just had their town hall wedding and I scored points with Andrea knowing that there was a town hall wedding before the big church extravaganza!

We proceeded to have a remarkable 7 course lunch with white wine pairings at each course. And since Andrea found out there were several red wine lovers in our group he also opened a bottle of his red. I don’t profess to be any kind of wine expert, I basically just try different wines and which ones I like, I like…I have no education or professional knowledge of wines…but let me say I LOVED all the wines we tasted at lunch! The wines we had were: Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco, Costa d’Amalfi Ravello Bianco and the Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco Fiorduva, which I believe was the award winning one. We also had their rose which was quite good as well and the red we had was the Costa d’Amalfi Ravello Rosso Riserva.

We started with a frito misto plate that included fried zucchini, calamari, arancini, little local shrimp and crayfish. There were then 2 pasta courses, one with large thick tubular shaped pasta. The other with a shape of pasta I had never seen before, it looked like two “S’s” interlocking together…this was Andrea’s personal favorite!
Once the pasta courses were finished then there was the fish course. Now, here is where hospitality shines…Sandy is a vegetarian, so Andrea had his chef prepare her a vegetable dish instead of the fish…and Scott does not eat fish at all, and he wasn’t making a big deal about it, but someone else at the table mentioned this to Andrea. Andrea immediately had his waiter tell the chef to prepare a steak for Scott! Oh My God…out of the kitchen comes this incredible looking piece of steak for Scott…talk about making your guests happy! As if all this wasn’t enough, next we are served a beautiful fruit plate, kiwi, pineapple, oranges, currents, blueberries, raspberries, all dusted with lemon powdered sugar. But, it doesn’t even end there! To our astonishment out come plates with 2 types of cake, one is a lemony-custard/cream cheese pie and the other a chocolate gooey confection (not quite cake, but more a soft fudge-like consistency) made with layers of eggplant with candied citrus fruit on top. I never would have thought to pair eggplant and chocolate, but it was fantastic! To top it all off we had espresso, but declined the limoncello Andrea offered us! As we were finishing our meal and getting ready to leave we asked Andrea for the check. To our absolute astonishment Andrea reply, “You were my guests, there is no charge”!!!!! In my experience this meal for 9 (actually 10 including Vincenzo) would have easily been in the range of €80 per person…we were all floored. In a show of our appreciation after lunch we followed Marisa (Andrea’s wife, who he named the winery after! And she appeared to be the “numbers” person of the couple!) to her office and happily purchased 3 cases of wine plus a couple extra bottles of their “Reserve” variety. We all were able to take a couple bottles home with us and the rest we had for the next couple days at the villa.

Now we thought the day was ending here, but Andrea had one more surprise for us. All the “pro” photos he was snapping away while we were touring the winery and a few at lunch he had burned to a CD for us! The CD also had a variety of other promo shots of the winery and it was a wonderful souvenir of our spectacular day at the winery!

At about 5pm we all piled back into our cars and headed back to the villa, very full and very happy! Since we had such a marvelous and hearty lunch a full dinner was not in the cards for this night and we all just lazed about the villa this evening having snacks and the delicious wine we had purchased…it couldn’t have been a better day and it was one of (if not my most) favorite day of the trip!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Today was a perfect weather day…bright and sunny… the perfect day for a trip to the Isle of Capri. Five of us decided we were up for the jaunt to Capri and somehow managed to wake ourselves in time to get the 9:40 fast ferry from Sorrento to Capri. Although I will admit we did drive at break-neck speed to make it the ferry in time. Patrick dropped us off at the ferry dock we purchased our tickets and made the ferry with time to spare.

The ride to Capri was quick, but the ferry was packed…it was the Friday of the May Day holiday weekend and we knew the ferry and Capri in general was going to be crowded. We were in Capri by about 10:30am and since we didn’t have time to get a cappuccino and coronetti before we left the first order of the day was to stop for a little bit of morning sustenance. We just picked a café a little away from the ferry dock and had cappuccino and a little snack. I was happily satisfied with the cappuccino, since I wasn’t sure how it would taste given the touristy location of the café, but I think even the worst cappuccino I’ve had in Italy surpasses the best I’ve had at home!

Once we were all pleasantly caffeinated we decided to splurge on a taxi to take us to Anacapri. All the taxis on Capri seem to be convertible, but no matter how may times we asked the driver he wouldn’t put the top down on our taxi…he probably was hoping we wanted a full tour of the island, but we just wanted to get to Anacapri. The ride was €25 which is a bit steep, but there were 5 of us to split the cost.

When we arrived in the center of Anacapri we decided the first thing we wanted to do was ride the chairlift up to the top of Mt. Solaro. This was one of the things that was on my “really want to do this” list, and I’m very happy that we did. It was such a beautiful day…clear blue sky, sun shining, sharing the experience with great friends, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect setting. After lots of picture taking we climbed back onto the chairlift for the ride down. We stopped for some gelato and then took a wander through the streets doing a bit of window shopping. We had become savvy by this time and instead of hiring another taxi we hopped on the very convenient public bus and went to Capri Town (one ride was €1.40). The crowds in Capri Town were enormous, the streets were packed, and the line for the funicular was lengthy. We took a pass on the funicular and walked about ogling the windows of the shops…Wow! A bit more then I usually like to spend! Having experienced Capri as a day tripper, if (or when!) I return I would definitely like to spend a night or 2 on the island to experience it when the day trippers leave.

By 3pm we hoped on another public bus and went back to the Marina Grande to have lunch at a waterside café. Again. I was really pleasantly surprised by not only the quality of the food served (I had a Caprese salad…of course!) but also the speed of the service. But that may be because at that location the staff are used to dealing with tourist who are in a hurry…however we did not feel rushed at all and we still made it to the dock for our 4:15pm ferry back to Sorrento. When we disembarked in Sorrento the guys were waiting for us and we all went back to the villa for our last night and another fantastic meal!

Tonight Sandy and Alan had pre-arranged with Vincenzo for a pizza tasting dinner tonight at the villa. Vincenzo, his sister and her boyfriend arrived at about 6pm to start making the dough…yes from scratch and to start the pizza oven…what a fire! It was fun watching Vincenzo making the dough…who would have thought those simple ingredients would make such tasty pizza!

The pizzas were out of this world good. Vincenzo made 12 different kinds! He started with a basic rosemary foccaccio and each one after that kept getting better and better. I can’t even remember all the varieties. I know we had some that were all vegetarian some with meat, some with just cheese. By number 10 we were all bursting at the seams…we said, “Vincenzo, enough…basta!” He replied, “I have 2 more to make…I can’t let the dough go to waste”…well, who could argue with that logic and 2 more were made.

Then as we all sat at the table in a “food coma” Vincenzo brings out the gift from his mother for Sandy and Alan’s anniversary…the best lemon, cream and cheese pie I have ever had…homemade and oh so smooth and creamy…yes, of course we all had to have a piece…we would all be rolling to Rome the next day! With the wine we had from the winery to wash down this fantastic meal it was the perfect finishing touch to a fabulous week on the Amalfi Coast!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Today came all too soon, it was another ideal weather day and it was hard to say good-bye to our perfect vacation villa. We were all up and ready to go by about 10am and we were on the road by 10:30am on our way to Rome.

It was an easy drive; however the traffic coming to the Amalfi Coast was bumper to bumper. Once off the Amalfi Coast Drive it was a smooth ride on a modern highway. I suggested we stop at an AutoGrill so Regi and Scott could experience highway food at its finest and it did not disappoint.

This is where Regi, Scott and I had decided to diverge in our hotel accommodations. Regi was able to get a discount through work at the Crowne Plaza St. Peter’s, which is about 3 miles from St. Peter’s. It’s a perfectly lovely modern hotel, and they have a shuttle bus with regular service to the Centro Storico of Rome. And this is where Scott and Regi stayed.

When I’m in Rome I really like to stay in (or within easy walking distance of) the Centro Storico. I was able to get a deal (through my credit card) for a single room at the Hosianum Palace Hotel at Via dei Polacchi,23 (http://www.hosianum.com/) just a few blocks from Largo Argentina.

It’s a small (28 rooms) hotel with an interesting history and I would not hesitate to stay at this hotel again, I highly recommend it. It was very clean and the single room I had was more spacious then I thought it would be. The location was great, just on a side street off Via D. Botteghe Oscure. I will mention that I got a terrific rate because of my credit card deal, but prior to my trip I checked their website. Rack rates for singles were listed at about €245 per night, however at the time I was there they were running a website booking special of &euro:120 per night for a single (I think it was around &euro150 for a double)…so they sometimes have deals. In fact, I inquired at the front desk about booking a room for my trip to Rome this coming October (see, I really do love Rome!) and the desk clerk advised me to wait until closer to October when she thought the rates would come down.

After freshening up and getting settled into my room I met Regi and Scott at the Crowne Plaza shuttle stop, fortunately for me, it was right around the corner from my hotel! We then walked over to Gusto (near Piazza del Popolo…ok, so it wasn’t a short walk…about 20 minutes!), I picked this place because when I was there last December they had a great aperitivo buffet. We were to meet Sandy, Alan, Julia and Alastair there. It was about 8:30pm by the time we arrived and the rest of our group was already there. Unfortunately the buffet was very picked over and looked nothing like I remembered from December…probably because 1.) it was later in the evening this time and 2.) not as many people were there in December as in May! Note to anyone going there…get to aperitivo at Gusto early rather then late to have prime choices of the buffet!

After a glass of prosecco and some snacks we headed out for a late evening passegiatta (forgive my misspelling!) and ended the night with drinks at a café in Piazza Navona…how much more Roman could we possibly get…a perfect ending to our arrival day in Rome!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Today was the last day in Italy and I was in Rome and going to make it a fantastic day. I started with a great breakfast at the hotel (included in the room rate). The breakfast room was in the basement and was actually 2 large rooms and the breakfast selection was large. In the warmer months the breakfast is served in the rooftop garden, which is quite lovely and in the evenings cocktails are served there. The breakfast included eggs, bacon, and sausage as well as the more traditional Italian fare of coronetti (really soft and fresh!), fresh fruit, yogurt, ham and cheeses. And you can ask the attendant for cappuccino, which was very good…so good I had 2 with my coronetti!

Just after 9am I was out the door and roaming the streets near Campo dei Fiori snapping pictures, because the weather could not have been better. Note here…my last 2 trips to Rome were for the Christmas/New Years holiday (2007 and 2008) so it was fabulous to have early morning blue sky with fluffy white clouds and sunshine! (Plus it was great finally having daylight until 8pm on this trip!).

At 10am I walked over to St. Ivo because I have decided this is my favorite church in Rome…although I still have a lot more to see! I went to mass and just spent time inside the church soaking in the beautiful interior. I never get tired of sitting in this church. And a point of information, I’ve been told this church is only open on Sundays from 10am-12noon…and in my humble opinion it is so worth the effort to get there and have a look around.

After mass I walked over to Piazza del Popolo taking pictures the whole way. I stopped into the church of Santa Maria del Popolo because I missed seeing the interior of this church last December and really wanted to poke around instead. When I got there mass was being said, so I took a seat and gazed all around. I’ve observed in Rome that the exterior of churches can be very deceiving, the outside can look like nothing terrific and when you step inside your breath can be taken away!

When I left Santa Maria del Popolo I headed in the direction of the Trevi Fountain, because even though I know I am returning to Rome in October, I have to toss my coin in the fountain for good measure and to ensure a return even after October’s trip!

Once the coin tossing was complete I wandered over to the Pantheon and realized I was just around the corner from San Crispino…one of the famous gelato shops in Rome. In my last 2 visits to the Eternal City, I did not have any (not once!) gelato…maybe because it was winter and I wasn’t in the mood for the frosty treat that is gelato. But, this time I was ready for a treat and it was around lunch time. I had a small cup of the coffee flavor and it did not disappoint…delicious and creamy!

I continued my walk and meandered over to Piazza Farnese and stopped at Bar Farnese to rest my tired feet and have a glass of prosecco…is it ever too early for prosecco?! By 3pm I still hadn’t heard from the rest of the “gang” so I decided to go back to the hotel for a little rest and start packing my bag and I was to meet my Roman friend Francesca at 6pm. By 5:30pm I heard from the “gang” and they gave me the address of the bar they were at, near Piazza Navona.

Francesca arrived at my hotel right at 6pm on the dot and she was agreeable to meet up with my other friends. We had a lovely walk to Piazza Navona and had time to catch up on what was new in each of our lives. We miraculously found my friends at a bar on one of the small streets off Piazza Navona and spent the next hour enjoying each others company. All to soon Francesca had to leave and the rest of us made our way to Ristorante Maccheroni at Piazza delle Coppelle, 44 (http://www.ristorantemaccheroni.com/) .

This restaurant was a great choice for our “last meal” together. It’s much larger then it looks. When you enter the dining room is fairly small but there is a lower level down a spiral staircase with several more dining rooms. We were seated down stairs in an empty dining room, but within minutes every table was full. I was very happy with the meal at this restaurant. I started with a breasola, rocket and parmesan cheese anti pasti…it was delicious. All of us choose different pasta dishes, and I had the pasta alla amertriciana and it was excellent, as a matter of fact all the pasta dishes were fantastic. I was really surprised at the portion size…very generous…maybe another result of many tourist dining here…I’m not sure. But I did make sure I took their business card when I left. When we were leaving I noticed they also have a fairly good size outdoor dining area along the front of the restaurant. I would not hesitate to go back to this restaurant; we had a great experience there.

After dinner we all walked over to the Pantheon stopping at San Crispino for a final gelato of the trip. It was a great way to end our Italian adventure.

Monday, May 4, 2009

My flight from FCO was scheduled to leave at about 10am, so I had arranged for Rome Cabs to pick me up at the hotel at 6:30am…remember…I’m always the early one to the airport! As usual they were there right on time, actually 10 minutes early! I was at Terminal 5 by 7am and there was absolutely no one in the check in line. I was through security and on the bus to the departure terminal in no time at all. Of course I had my ritual last cappuccino and coronetti at Tazzo d’Oro and then settled in for the wait to board the flight.

The flight to Atlanta was actually a Northwest plane and crew (but a Delta codeshare) and the plane was nowhere near full. There were people spread out in the 4 seat across center rows all by themselves! The flight was uneventful, and we landed a little late due to some weather conditions, but I had more then enough time to get my bag (yes, I checked my bag on the return because of the wine), go through passport control, re-check my bag and go through security again before getting to the gate for my Savannah flight with about an hour to spare.

It was a fabulous trip with great friends and I would do it all over again in a minute!