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LIFESTYLE · June 6, 2011

A Saturday in Amalfi

Now that the weather is sunny and warm, daily life in Amalfi is starting to take on its summer feel. The harbor is busy with boats, buses are lined up three rows deep and there are people everywhere enjoying the town. A couple of weeks ago I was in Amalfi on a beautiful Saturday, and I took some ...

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LIFESTYLE · May 2, 2011

A Kayak Lesson in Atrani

A few weeks back I was walking through Atrani on a bright and sunny April day. The water was clear and shimmered in an intense mix of green and blue. I stopped to take a look at the beach, which still hadn't been cleaned up and moved back into place after winter. The scene was thorougly winter, with ...

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LIFESTYLE · August 29, 2010

Southern Italian Generosity

This morning while shaking a rug out the window (Yes, I actually do that.), our friendly neighbor called across the garden asking if we’d like some tomatoes. Of course! These neighbors have some terraces of land that they put to very good use and work hard every day tending all kinds of fruits and ...

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What's On · June 13, 2010

Summer Religious Celebrations in Atrani

    Two Sundays ago I went for a wonderful walk from Scala to Atrani with two new friends from England that I met through Ciao Amalfi! who where staying in Atrani. Experienced walkers on the Amalfi Coast, they showed me a new pathway I hadn’t explored yet, and along the way we shared ...

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LIFESTYLE · June 2, 2010

Forza Amalfi!!

Today is a holiday here in Italy called La Festa della Repubblica, which celebrates the vote on June 2, 1946 that ended the Italian monarchy and established Italy as a republic. Many of you might remember from last year that the 2nd of June is also when the Regata Storica delle Repubbliche Marinare, ...

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LIFESTYLE · May 13, 2010

A Magical Evening of Tango on the Amalfi Coast

  A couple of weeks ago I received an email from my friend Lisa at Wanderlust Women’s Travel Dreams telling me about a tango event happening on the Amalfi Coast. Lisa asked me “pretty, pretty please with skittles on top” to do a post on the evening of tango dancing. Would I mind? Well, Lisa ...

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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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