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Ciao Amalfi

LIFESTYLE · April 3, 2015

And Just Then My Heart Cracked Open

First Photo of Amalfi

Recently I’ve had the chance to go through the first six years of photos that I took on the Amalfi Coast, which are on an external hard drive and no longer conveniently on my laptop just a few clicks away. While it was a quick search through file after file for specific photos I had in mind for an exciting project I’ve been working on, I had to stop a few times when I cam across moments I had forgotten.

Then I found this photo. It was taken from a bus coming around the corner into Amalfi one sunny February day in 2007. It was the first time I saw Amalfi. There it was. It’s the very first photo I took of Amalfi.

A person’s life purpose is nothing more than to rediscover, through the detours of art, or love, or passionate work, those one or two images in the presence of which his heart first opened.

– Albert Camus

And just then my heart cracked open.

Posted In: LIFESTYLE

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Comments

  1. Jean says

    April 3, 2015 at 22:48

    This is exactly what happened to me, Laura- but we came into Amalfi from the Positano side.
    It was Oct 2007 and we have been back 3 times more. Would come every year if we could.

    Reply
    • Laura Thayer says

      April 9, 2015 at 19:22

      I sure wish you could come every year, Jean! So glad you’ll be back soon though. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Sandra says

    April 4, 2015 at 00:08

    Oh boy but I can relate to that feeling. My heart cracked open the first time I saw Amalfi on a sunny afternoon in October 2006! I have never been the same since!

    Reply
    • Laura Thayer says

      April 9, 2015 at 19:21

      We’re so fortunate to have fallen in love with the same place, Mom!

      Reply
  3. Sara says

    April 4, 2015 at 01:25

    I know how everyone feels! From the first time I came to AMALFI it was love at first sight! Wow! I was so fortunate and proud that this was the place my parents and grandparents were born. My first trip in 1956. I met all our big italian family! 1962 was our second trip and I knew where all my family lived! I was able to go to their houses by myself ! It was awesome! Then 1970 and 1972. Have been to Amalfi 24 times! Amalfi is where my heart is!

    Reply
    • Laura Thayer says

      April 9, 2015 at 19:23

      I sure hope you’ll be back soon, Sara! xoxo Laura

      Reply
  4. Valerie says

    April 4, 2015 at 13:48

    Beautiful – the photo and the moment it captures. Who ever said that an instant can’t change your life?!

    Reply
    • Laura Thayer says

      April 9, 2015 at 19:20

      That instant sure changed mine, Valerie! Now if only I could remember what the tour guide was saying as the bus turned that corner … 🙂

      Reply
  5. Naila says

    April 5, 2015 at 06:33

    My dream destination! What beautiful photo. I know that feeling – it’s rare.

    Reply
    • Laura Thayer says

      April 9, 2015 at 19:19

      That’s a great point, Naila. It is a rare feeling! I do hope you’ll be visiting your dream destination very soon!

      Reply
  6. Lisa says

    April 6, 2015 at 16:26

    Couldn’t agree more!

    Reply
    • Laura Thayer says

      April 9, 2015 at 19:18

      I knew you would connect with the message, Lisa!

      Reply

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My name is Laura and the Amalfi Coast is my passion and my home. I’m a writer and photographer who is endlessly inspired by the incredible beauty of the Amalfi Coast. Welcome to Ciao Amalfi!

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This morning was a little cloudy when I went out f This morning was a little cloudy when I went out for my morning walk like I do most mornings in Amalfi. Down the coast, across the Gulf of Salerno, rays of light were shining right on the city of Salerno. I had set out with Salerno on my mind because it was there that 82 years ago today—on September 9, 1943—the Landing of Salerno began during WWII. My Grandpa was in the Army during the war - a lot of it in Italy. Yet he would never speak of where he was or what he did, and certainly had no desire to ever see Italy again after the war. While he probably wasn’t in that first landing in Salerno, he would have been somewhere in Italy, perhaps further south in Calabria or in Sicily. I always think of him during these days and wonder about those hard experiences he must have had in Italy. And very grateful for what he and so many fought for and endured. 

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Have I ever shared one of my favorite poems about Have I ever shared one of my favorite poems about Amalfi? It’s by the American poet Sara Teasdale (1884-1933). It’s simple and it’s heartbreaking - like first loves so often are. But I think about it often, especially on night walks in Amalfi. 

Night Song At Amalfi

I asked the heaven of stars
What I should give my love —
It answered me with silence,
Silence above.

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Down where the fishers go —
It answered me with silence,
Silence below.

Oh, I could give him weeping,
Or I could give him song —
But how can I give silence,
My whole life long?
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