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Ciao Amalfi Coast Travel Cathedral of Amalfi

PHOTOGRAPHY · April 11, 2014

Foto Friday: The Duomo in My Dreams

I woke up this morning just after sunrise but before the alarm beeped the beginning of a new day. I'm a morning person, even on the mornings when my body feels like starting a little bit slower. Even before I had moved, my brain was fighting its way through the fog of sleep and when I woke up it was ...

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Amalfi Coast Travel Ravello Walk

TRAVEL · March 17, 2014

Bends, Curves and Checks in Ravello

There is a staircase I follow often to visit family that leads from the main piazza of Ravello, through and under the Villa Rufulo and past two churches. The first church is the much photographed Chiesa della SS. Annunziata. But my favorite view of it is the one you see above, which is so nicely ...

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Ciao Amalfi San Biagio Church Amalfi

PHOTOGRAPHY · January 31, 2014

Foto Friday: San Biagio in Amalfi

This week's photo shows one of my favorite spots in Amalfi where you can see how the buildings were built right into and around the mountains. I love how they're all stacked up on top of one another! At the top of the heap is the Church of San Biagio (or Saint Blaise). The zigzag staircase leads to ...

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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 · July 16, 2012

Hurrying Up and Waiting on the Amalfi Coast

I grew up hearing the motto "hurry up and wait" often, and we did in fact do a lot of waiting when I was a kid. It was a habit passed down by my grandfather from his days in the Navy to my mother growing up on a small family farm in rural Nebraska. It's a habit I've been grateful for over the years, ...

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LIFESTYLE · July 29, 2011

Photo Friday: Salve

I pass this whitewashed entrance to a house on my usual walk, and every time the work "Salve" painted above the doorway catches my eye. This common expression of greeting in Italian simply means "hello," but I always wonder about it as I pass by. I've never seen anyone coming or going, there are ...

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PHOTOGRAPHY · July 22, 2011

Photo Friday: The View from the Top

I haven't been to Capri yet this year, but I'm itching to go! The island is stunning in so many ways, and it's one of my favorite spots in the area for taking photographs. I took this photo of the dome of the Santo Stefano Church at the end of last summer, and I don't believe I've shared it here ...

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LIFESTYLE · March 23, 2011

Coming Home Again to Amalfi

One of the small pleasures of going away is coming home again. When you love the place where you live, it becomes like an old friend that you haven't seen in awhile. You notice, perhaps, how they're wearing their hair in a new way or the new glasses. With a town like Amalfi, it's the small details ...

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PHOTOGRAPHY · March 18, 2011

Photo Friday: Amalfi at Sunset

A couple of weeks before I left Italy for this trip to America, I walked for the first time along the Via Maestra dei Villagi, an ancient footpath that connects Amalfi with the hamlets of Pastena, Lone, Vettica and high up in the mountains to Tovere and Pogerola. We walked it at sunset from Lone ...

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PHOTOGRAPHY · January 7, 2011

Photo Friday: Architectural Layers

The architecture of the Amalfi Coast is endlessly fascinating to me, and the Duomo of Salerno is one of my favorite spots in Campania. I took this photo in the beautiful atrium looking up to the 12th-century bell tower. To learn more and see more photos (including one of the crypt you won't want to ...

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PHOTOGRAPHY · December 10, 2010

Photo Friday: The Fearful Fountain

Usually, the photos I pick out each week for Photo Friday jump out to me. Often they're nice memories from an event or something that I've done over the past weeks or months. Other times I scan through my photos and nothing seems quite right. This one, however, is perfect for this week. It's been ...

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PHOTOGRAPHY · November 26, 2010

Photo Friday: Watching Over Amalfi

I don't think I'll ever tire of taking photographs of Amalfi's Duomo of Sant' Andrea. There's something so intriguing to me about the design and its situation at the top of the grand staircase watching over all the activity in the town's main piazza. While walking down the 62 steps a few weeks ago, ...

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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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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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