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Villa Cimbrone - Romantic Spots in Ravello

TRAVEL · February 12, 2012

Where to Propose on the Amalfi Coast

With San Valentino just around the corner, romance is definitely in the air. The Amalfi Coast is one of the top travel destinations for romance in Italy – popular for engagements, destination weddings, honeymoons and special anniversary celebrations. As a romantic at heart, I would love to share ...

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Italy, Travel Inspirations · May 18, 2010

Travel Inspirations: A visit to the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi

Sometimes it’s hard to put into words how the places we live and travel to become a part of who we are. I’ve been enjoying the Travel Inspirations series here on Ciao Amalfi, because it’s given us all a chance to hear tales from some great travel writers around the web. Last week Cherrye Moore told ...

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Travel Inspirations, USA · May 11, 2010

Travel Inspirations: Looking Further Than Your Own Backyard

  So far in our Travel Inspirations series we’ve been all over the world, including Italy with Robin Locker, to England & Italy with Lisa Fantino, to sunny  Naxos, Greece with Mike Sowden, to Hiroshima with Abigail King and  Australia’s Gold Coast with Cecil Lee. We’ve heard tales of ...

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Travel Inspirations · May 4, 2010

Travel Inspirations: The World is Just a Passport Away

  Some of us were stamped “traveler” when we were born, and couldn’t wait for the day when we could pack the suitcase, grab the passport and head out for adventures around the world. My good friend Lisa Fantino at Wanderlust Women Travel and I were certainly marked from an early age as ...

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Travel Inspirations · April 27, 2010

Travel Inspirations: How Traveling to Italy Inspired Me to Change my Lifestyle

  If you’re just stopping by, be sure to check out the other posts in this series where we’ve been off to Naxos, Greece with Mike Sowden, Hiroshima with Abigail King and  Australia’s Gold Coast with Cecil Lee. This week the Travel Inspirations series brings us back home to bella Italia ...

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Travel Inspirations · April 20, 2010

Travel Inspirations: Naxos, Unseen

  So far the Travel Inspirations series has taken us to Hiroshima with Abigail King and  Australia’s Gold Coast with Cecil Lee. As I read these thoughtful guest posts, I’m reminded what it is that inspires me about daily life on the Amalfi Coast. I’ll be sharing some links to my writings ...

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Travel Inspirations · April 13, 2010

Travel Inspirations: Australia’s Gold Coast

  For this week’s Travel Inspirations series we’re off to Australia with travel writer and photographer Cecil Lee who shares with us one of his most inspiring travel destinations. Travel photography fans, be sure to check out Cecil’s photo blog Travel Feeder to travel around the world in ...

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Travel Inspirations · March 30, 2010

Travel Inspirations: The Power of Healing in Hiroshima

I am very please to launch my new series called Travel Inspirations with a guest post by Abigail King from Inside the Travel Lab. Sometimes it’s around the familiar corner and sometimes it’s around the world, but you never know when your travels will take you to a place that hits you deep, a place ...

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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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