Ciao! I'm Laura.
  • Journal
  • About
  • Writing
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Journal
  • Books
  • Podcast
  • About
    • Writing
  • Contact

Ciao Amalfi

LIFESTYLE · November 17, 2010

Favorite Italian Films: Rome Adventure

This week Lisa Fantino from Wanderlust Women's Travel Dreams is here to share with us about one of her Favorite Italian Films. It's perfect for those of you who love old films, love Italy and love traveling vicariously through movies. (Yes, yes ... and yes!) Welcome, ...

View the Post

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 ...

View the Post

FOOD & DRINK · November 1, 2010

Cookbook Review: My Calabria by Rosetta Costantino

It is my pleasure this week to welcome fellow southern Italy expat blogger Cherrye Moore to share about a new cookbook. Cherrye writes often at her blog My Bella Vita about the beautiful region of Calabria where she lives, and this week she is here to tell us about a new cookbook called My Calabria: ...

View the Post

TRAVEL · October 26, 2010

Tempting Tuesday: Falling in Love with Florence

This week Cecil Lee, travel photographer extraordinaire, is back to tell us about Florence, another spot in Italy he fell in love with during his travels earlier this year. And since I just visited there for the first time this past spring, I know what it's like to fall in love with the beauty of ...

View the Post

LIFESTYLE · October 20, 2010

Favorite Italian Films: Il 7 e l’8

There are days when you just need a laugh, and that's when you pull your favorite funny film off the shelf. This week Cherrye Moore from My Bella Vita is back to tell us about her favorite comic Italian film. Even if comedies aren't your first movie choice, you'll enjoy traveling to Palermo, Sicily ...

View the Post

PHOTOGRAPHY · October 15, 2010

Photo Friday: Early Morning in Florence

  Last week I was invited by Katie Greenaway over at Olio di Oliva e Sogni di Vino to write about one of my favorite photos. I chose this one from my trip to Florence last May, because it reminds me of the beautiful moments I spent watching the city come to life each morning. If you're looking for ...

View the Post

LIFESTYLE · October 13, 2010

Favorite Italian Films: La Meglio Gioventu

I've been having fun traveling around Italy with the Favorite Italian Films series. And getting some great new additions to my must see list! This week we're off on a jaunt that takes us through some of Italy's top travel destinations with Katie Greenaway from Olio di Olive e Sogni di Vino as she ...

View the Post

WRITING · October 3, 2010

Weekend Reads: “The Wedding Officer” by Anthony Capella

Is there anything better than disappearing for a weekend with a good book? I love stories that pull you in and transport you to another world, especially if that world is someplace in beautiful Italy! For Weekend Reads, Lisa Fantino from Wanderlust Women Travel is here to tell us about one of her ...

View the Post

TRAVEL · September 28, 2010

Tempting Tuesday: In Love with Venice by Cecil Lee

While Venice might not be geographically all that close to the Amalfi Coast, it is a place very close to my heart. The first time I traveled to Italy, I visited Venice and only Venice (with a little jaunt to see the Museo Ferrari in Maranello), and it was a memorable trip. For this week’s Tempting ...

View the Post

LIFESTYLE · September 22, 2010

Favorite Italian Films: La Vita è Bella

For this week’s Favorite Italian Films series, I’m pleased to welcome Cherrye Moore from My Bella Vita to share with us her favorite Italian movie … and a great language learning tip, too! Welcome, Cherrye! _________________________________________________________   Many multi-linguists—my ...

View the Post

LIFESTYLE · September 15, 2010

Favorite Italian Films: L’Ultimo Bacio

I’m happy so many readers enjoyed the first installment in my Favorite Italian Films series last week with Lisa Fantino’s review of Under the Tuscan Sun. That’s one of my favorites! This week Katie Greenaway from Olio di Oliva e Sogni di Vino is here to tell us about one of her favorite films in ...

View the Post

LIFESTYLE · September 8, 2010

Favorite Italian Films: Under the Tuscan Sun

With the Venice Film Festival under way and three big movies out in America - “Letters to Juliet,” “The American” and “Eat Pray Love” - all filmed in Italy, I thought it would be good timing to host a series of guest posts on Favorite Italian Films. I’ll be weighing in on some of my favorite flicks ...

View the Post

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next →

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

  • Journal
  • Moon Amalfi Coast
  • Newsletter
  • Contact

Amalfi Coast

  • Amalfi
  • Positano
  • Ravello
  • Amalfi Coast

Explore

  • Travel
  • History & Culture
  • Food & Drink
  • Shopping

Laura Thayer

  • About
  • Writing
  • Book Reviews
  • Work with Me

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. 💜
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Disclosure

Copyright © 2025 Ciao Amalfi · Theme by 17th Avenue