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TRAVEL · August 19, 2012

Chestnuts in August

Weekends in August are generally a time to avoid the beach on the Amalfi Coast. Crisi or no crisi, I swear half of Italy is on the beach in Amalfi this time of year. With hotter than usual temperatures right now, unless I can nab a spot close to the edge of the water I feel like reenacting the "I'm ...

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HISTORY & CULTURE · August 11, 2012

Memoriae | Igor Mitoraj Ravello Festival Exhibition

Every year the Ravello Festival is centered around a theme running through the art exhibitions, concerts and cultural events that take place during the summer.  Memory is the theme of the 2012 Ravello Festival and the current exhibition Memoriae, Mitoraj a Ravello. The monumental sculptural works of ...

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TRAVEL · June 3, 2012

Ready for the Regata!

The Amalfi Coast woke up this morning to a sunny June day, picture perfect for the 57th Regata delle Antiche Repubbliche Marinare! Flags are flying all over town and it promises to be a fun day. We're all ready for the regata! To share the festive spirit, here are some photos I took on Friday in ...

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TRAVEL · May 18, 2012

Signs of Summer on the Amalfi Coast

Maybe it's the Nebraska girl in me, but few things capture the feeling of summer quite like watermelon. Yesterday I stopped into one of my favorite fruit and vegetable shops in Amalfi. The couple ahead of me had asked for a piece of anguria (watermelon), and the woman in the shop was busy cutting ...

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LIFESTYLE · May 5, 2012

Enjoying the Twists & Turns of Life on the Amalfi Coast

It's been a rainy spring on the Amalfi Coast, but yesterday was the perfect day to take my scooter out for a ride. While I have been out for some short trips, this was the first time I enjoyed a ride with the spring scents in the air, the sun shining and the trees all leafed out. As soon as I ...

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TRAVEL · April 20, 2012

PlanetSolar Visits Amalfi

As my eyes scanned the familiar view across Amalfi's harbor, they stopped at something with a large, flat top docked on the opposite side. "What is that?" I asked my husband as we stood there squinting into the sunshine. "It looks like a spaceship landed in Amalfi," I said. And with that there was ...

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TRAVEL · April 13, 2012

Let the busy days begin!

If it hasn't started to get rolling yet, the long weekend for Easter is the official start of the tourist season along the Amalfi Coast. In the days leading up to Easter last week, the mornings were already buzzing in Amalfi. Tourist buses have started to arrive nearly every day from Sorrento, ...

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Villa Cimbrone - Romantic Spots in Ravello

TRAVEL · February 12, 2012

Where to Propose on the Amalfi Coast

With San Valentino just around the corner, romance is definitely in the air. The Amalfi Coast is one of the top travel destinations for romance in Italy – popular for engagements, destination weddings, honeymoons and special anniversary celebrations. As a romantic at heart, I would love to share ...

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LIFESTYLE · January 16, 2012

The Magic of Sunrise

Early this morning, we made our way around the familiar curves on the way home from the Naples airport. The only hard part of having family visit is that eventually the time comes when we have to haul the suitcases back up the stairs—invariably at an unreasonable hour of the morning—and make the ...

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TRAVEL · December 21, 2011

The First Snow on the Amalfi Coast

Yesterday morning we woke up to find a dusting of snow on the tops of the Lattari Mountains high above the Amalfi Coast. It was a beautiful sight in the morning sunshine. It doesn't snow often down at lower altitudes, but I do love the wintery setting of seeing it on the mountaintops. The snow ...

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FOOD & DRINK · December 7, 2011

Picking Mandarin Oranges in Amalfi

When they're ready, word begins to spread through the family. The mandarini—mandarin oranges—are ready! This is a moment I wait for eagerly each December, when the mandarins are ready to be picked in Vettica. If you've traveled around the Amalfi Coast, or small towns most anywhere in Italy, you've ...

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TRAVEL · December 3, 2011

On the Road Home

Earlier this week I arrived back home in Italy at Naples' Capodichino airport, the closest airport to the Amalfi Coast. Anyone who has driven on the autostrada through Naples knows that the stress of  international travel is nothing compared to simply surviving the short drive from the airport to ...

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Ciao!

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!

Ciao Amalfi

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Latest on Instagram

Celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with a newsl Celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with a newsletter inspired in part by this beautiful song by @samantha_whates & @mgboultermusic. While I could never decide on just seven bookshops for my whole life, I’m sharing about seven remarkable indie bookshops I visited earlier this month in Bath and London. The link is in my bio, but swipe through the photos here for a look inside - each bookshop is tagged if they’re on Instagram. But definitely give them all a follow: 
@persephonebooks 
@mrbsemporium 
@toppingsbath 
@sherlockandpages 
@huntingravenbooks 
@hatchardspiccadilly 
@lrbbookshop 

Long live the independent bookshops! 📚
Thanks Amalfi … I needed a little reminder of th Thanks Amalfi … I needed a little reminder of that this morning. 🩶
Magic to watch the reflections dancing on the wate Magic to watch the reflections dancing on the water. Magic when they’re frozen in time. Just so much magic all around. I could spend a long time in moments like these. ✨
While it’s been a beautiful Easter Sunday in Ama While it’s been a beautiful Easter Sunday in Amalfi, I’m still processing all of the incredible experiences from my trip to England last week. And, thanks to “Square Haunting” by @francescawade, I am still very much haunting the streets and squares of London. Her book opens with this marvelous quotation from Virginia Woolf’s diary written 100 years ago today on April 20, 1925 (photo 1). It captures just what it felt like I was doing days ago - including a saunter through Bloomsbury Square (photo 2). Diving into this book over the weekend has felt like I’ve been able to linger even longer in those rare April days of spring blooms and blue skies in London. 

This book caught my eye immediately at the ever so charming @sherlockandpages in Frome (photos 4 & 5). How could it not when it was surrounded my one of my all time favorite books (“Letters to Camondo” by @edmunddewaal) and one of the best books I read last year (“All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me” by @patrickbringley)?

Hope that your Easter weekend has been a lovely one - with a little bit of “street sauntering & square haunting” wherever you may be!
Just had an unforgettable spring day visiting the Just had an unforgettable spring day visiting the Jane Austen House in Chawton as an early birthday present for myself.(Quite a bit early as it’s not until June.) But earlier this year I decided to have a Jane Austen theme for the year, especially since 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth in 1775. I do love a theme! Seeing the place where she wrote all of her novels, her tiny twelve-sided writing table, a quilt she made, and sitting in the garden listening to the birds sing is altogether something I’ll never forget. ✍️
Watching the colors of the sea and the fish swimmi Watching the colors of the sea and the fish swimming and thinking of the deep connections of old friends. And this poem by Mary Oliver. Hold tight to the friends who always find a way to say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment.

Mysteries, Yes 
— by Mary Oliver

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
Mary Oliver wrote in a poem that “happiness isn’t a town on a map.” But when the little bit of wisteria blooms in Amalfi, I’m not so sure. 💜
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