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TRAVEL · March 24, 2024

A New Season Begins – March 2024

Happy Spring! It's that time of year when shops and restaurants are spiffed up, the ferries start running again, and the bakeries are full of Colomba cakes for Pasqua. That can only mean one thing: a new season has begun! If you're visiting the Amalfi Coast soon, here are a few things happening ...

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TRAVEL · October 23, 2022

Amalfi Coast Autumn Festivals & Events

With mild temperatures and plenty of sunny days, autumn is a beautiful time to visit the Amalfi Coast. Do keep in mind that September is in many ways a continuation of the summer. It's still quite warm and is one of the best months for swimming and enjoying time outdoors. Temperatures do start ...

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HISTORY & CULTURE · August 6, 2022

The Museo della Bussola e del Ducato Marinaro in Amalfi

Walking through the narrow streets of Amalfi, navigating its passageways and staircases, is a journey through time. Especially in the quiet moments, you can almost hear that these old stones speak stories. These are the stories of countless people—yes including you—who have followed these same ...

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LIFESTYLE · November 26, 2020

Steinbeck’s Salty Turkey and Thanksgiving in Amalfi

As an expat, holidays are always a bit different from what they once were. You can recreate traditions, but without the familiar places and, most of all, the familiar faces of family and friends, the holiday can feel quite flat. Of course, there are new families created and friends found, but it's ...

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HISTORY & CULTURE · November 18, 2020

William Kentridge’s “More Sweetly Play the Dance” at the Arsenal of Amalfi

There are few places in Amalfi where the history of the town can be so well felt in its very stones than the Antico Arsenale della Repubblica di Amalfi - the ancient Arsenal of the Republic of Amalfi. Just a few steps from the busy traffic circle Piazza Flavio Gioia, the Arsenal is where Amalfi's ...

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PHOTOGRAPHY · July 12, 2020

Connoisseurs of Blue

Blue wasn't always my favorite color. When I was young, I don't even recall having a favorite color. I wasn't ever particularly good at coming up with an answer to those inane yet popular favorite thing questions kids seem so fond of asking. Over the years, it's more like I've grown into blue. From ...

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LIFESTYLE · March 28, 2020

Thoughts from Amalfi during Coronavirus

Over the past 13 years, I've written a lot about the Amalfi Coast. About beautiful beaches, about my favorite hikes through quiet villages, about food, about the people, and really most everything in between. Plot twist. So here I sit at my tiny desk inside our small house right in the historic ...

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HISTORY & CULTURE · February 4, 2020

Restoration Begins on the Duomo of Amalfi Facade

“It has been said that, at its best, preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a mutual concern for the future.”– William Murtagh, first Keeper of the National Register for Historic PlacesThe Duomo of Amalfi is sporting a drastically new look these days. Over the last few ...

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TRAVEL · January 12, 2020

Amalfi Coast 2020 Travel Inspiration

Now that the holiday season has wrapped up, it's that time when we start looking ahead at the year to come. If you're planning a trip to the Amalfi Coast in 2020, I've gathered together some special experiences to help with your planning or perhaps even inspire you to book a trip to the Amalfi Coast ...

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HISTORY & CULTURE, SHOPPING · September 3, 2019

Dalla Carta alla Cartolina – A Unique Paper Experience in Amalfi

There's one thing I remember loving for as long as I can remember. Surely you have something like that, right? For me it's paper. There was magic held in the pages of my favorite picture books I read as a little girl. Hours spend folding colorful pieces of paper into impossible origami shapes (with ...

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WRITING · January 6, 2018

My One-Word Theme for 2018: CREATIVITY

For many years now, I've started the new year by choosing one word that encapsulates my goals and intentions for the year ahead. While there are a lot of people out there doing this, I think the idea was inspired some time ago by my friend Michelle over at Bleeding Espresso. I find with my attention ...

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TRAVEL · November 11, 2017

“L’Estate di San Martino” in Amalfi

During breakfast this morning, I heard the weatherman on the TV talking about the "Estate di San Martino," which means the Summer of San Martino. This is similar to what we call an Indian Summer in the USA. It's when the weather is particularly nice after a cold spell, but it refers specifically 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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