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Ciao Amalfi

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LIFESTYLE · March 16, 2017

Is This Your Cat?

From the moment I met our cat Toulouse, it has been an adventure. This furry little guy arrived one Monday morning three and a half years ago, when someone buzzed at our gate and asked, "Is this your cat?" When I looked at the orange and white fuzzball with impossibly big ears, I had no idea what I ...

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Ciao Amalfi Toulouse

LIFESTYLE · February 17, 2014

Brave Toulouse

Today is two months since Toulouse's big day. Early in the morning on December 17th, we packed up Toulouse and headed off to the veterinario, the vet, for surgery on his right front leg. You might remember the dramatic way little Toulouse came into our family on a Monday at the end of last summer. ...

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Ciao Amalfi Coast Travel Marina Grande December

LIFESTYLE · January 20, 2014

Passing Time

Just the other day a fan on the Ciao Amalfi Facebook page left a nice comment and asked if I was still writing my blog. Yes, I sure am! But, of course, not as frequently as I would like to be writing. It has been a busy period here with work, life, travels, the holidays and the unexpected adventures ...

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LIFESTYLE · September 23, 2013

A Month with Monday

The thing with Monday mornings is that you never really know what to expect. A month ago I was having a productive and busy day when there came a buzz at the intercom by the gate in the garden. I couldn't quite understand what the person was saying, so I pushed the button to open the gate and went ...

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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!

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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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