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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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SHOPPING · May 4, 2011

Criscuolo Arte e Bijoux in Amalfi

Over the quiet winter months many shopowners take advantage of the down time to rearrange, redecorate or repaint their shops to have them looking great when the spring season begins. I was very excited to see the work that my friend Michelangelo and his family had done in their lovely shop called ...

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PHOTOGRAPHY · March 1, 2011

The Vision Changes – The Eye Remembers

_________________ Later this week I'll be making a trip back to Minnesota where I attended graduate school at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. For many years while I worked on my Masters in Art History, I assisted with planning and hanging quite a few exhibitions for the Art History ...

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TRAVEL · November 9, 2010

Tempting Tuesday: Church of Santa Trinita in Florence

Anyone who knows me knows that I can't walk past a church here in Italy without stopping. And if it's open, I just have to pop my head inside. In big cities and small towns alike, so many of Italy's artistic treasures tucked away inside churches. Even if you're not usually one to stop at religious ...

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PHOTOGRAPHY · October 8, 2010

Photo Friday: A Kiss on Ischia

  Walking down a pretty street in Ischia Porto on the island of Ischia, this sensual terracotta panel caught my eye. How could it not? It was positioned on the corner of light yellow colored building, and in the meltingly hot sun it seemed particularly passionate. With cooler autumn weather just ...

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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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