Ravello - August 20

On Monday, Laura had organized a day out for us to Ravello, a beautiful town up in the hills northwest of Amalfi. Alessandro is a wonderful tour guide and we have explored the Amalfi coast with him before. So Laura booked him for this trip to take us to Ravello this day and Pompeii later in the week.

After a steep and winding drive up to Ravello, Alessandro dropped us off at the gates of Villa Cimbrone, which is a beautiful property with extensive gardens and terraces on a promontory featuring amazing views. From there we wandered through town, had lunch at a cafe with a nice patio, and then visited Pasquale's Ceramic's, where we have bought some lovely pieces in the past. Somehow we needed to buy some more :-).

Then it was back to the car, and down to the hotel for cocktail hour and dinner. We love Ravello and its surrounds!

Amalfi - August 18 & 19

Saturday October 18 was Dan's birthday. We rose late and mostly stayed at the hotel where the views from the rooms and restaurants never give up. At the Santa Caterina you have a choice of four restaurants, each with a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean.

In the afternoon we took a shuttle into town to explore. Then back to the hotel where we had booked a dinner at Glicene for Dan's Birthday. The food and service were excellent ... and yes they do serve absurdly long breadsticks!

On Sunday, we enjoyed another lazy day of luxury at the hotel, this time venturing down to the pool deck at the bottom of the cliff. Laura and I even swum in the sea for a while, since the sea was calm, albeit a bit cold. In the evening returned to Al Mare for dinner al fresco.

Italy Vacation Overview- October 2025

Laura and I originally planned this trip, to take Laura's son Dan and his fiancee Audrey to Amalfi, back in 2024, but Laura broke her leg a week before departure and we had to postpone by a year. So this trip had a lot of anticipation built in. It was a 10 day trip including travel days and we decided to stay in Amalfi the whole time, at our favorite hotel in all the world, the Santa Caterina, which sits on a cliff top just outside of the center of Amalfi.

We flew British Airways out of Austin on October 17 with a connection in London landing in Rome on the afternoon of the 18th, from where we took a car transfer to Amalfi. As returning guests, the hotel staff made a great fuss of us on arrival and got us settled into our home for a week. That evening we had an early dinner at the hotel's "Al Mare" restaurant. To get to Al Mare, you take an elevator down the cliff side. Al Mare is an open to the air restaurant which is cut out of the cliff rock with views across the bay.