#1 Amalfi Coast

There was a scene in "under the Tuscany sun" in which Diane Lane found herself in an old town by the ocean where she was looking for her new love interest in a stunning white dress. I always wondered where that surreal and oh-so-not-Tuscany place is. Well, it turned out that it is not in Tuscany at all. That was something called the cinematic liberty and the place is one of the coastal towns along "Costiera Amalfitana", the Amalfi Coast, located in Campania in Southern Italy. It is said that Napoleon's brother first visited the place and fell in love with it. As a matter of fact, he was so in love with it that he decided to put in a road along the precipitous coastline to connect a string of little fishing villages that otherwise could only be reached by boat. As recent as 50s, the place was still out of the traveler's map. Only until more recent time, was it discovered and hailed as THE most stunning place to visit.
To start off, getting to the Amalfi coast was a dazzlingly undertake. Having driven the road to Hanna in Hawaii and the treacherous Sierra Gorda in Mexico, Curtis and I were still have hair-raising moments driving along the incredibly curvy and narrow road along the cliff, on which locals and visitors could be easily told apart. Italians are notoriously bad driver, or perhpas they are just used to it, and they also tend to make all their phone calls on wheel. From Pompeii, we took the local road S163 along the coast, passed Mount Versuvio and skirted the first town Sorrento for it tended to be a bit chaotic. The stunning nature beauty started rolling out in front of us once we got on the south side of the peninsula. A string of cliff-hugging gravity-defying towns awaited for our descent and ascent: Positano (me and the town pic2), Praiano, Amalfi (Curtis and the town, pic3), Atrani, Minori, Ravello until one can reach Salerno, a large and busy port city, the antithesis to the villages.
We stayed in Amalfi, one of the most picturesque towns and found our hotel Luna Convento a real charm. It was indeed a 13th-century San Assisi Convento that was converted into a hotel. The cloister and the well within remained original. It completely hang itself on the cliff and our white-washed room has windows with that unbelievable view, you know, one of those views that was a bit like a postcard we saw on numerous stalls but still absolutely breathtaking (pic1, view from our window).
We were lucky to be there in March when it was warm but large swarms of tourists haven't yet descended. And as it worked out, our 4 days in Amalfi was not filled with anything particular, but whenever we felt liking it, walking around various towns, eating incredibly fresh sea foods and drinking lots of wines. Really, it did feel like a true vocation, one without an agenda but a sole purpose to relax. Amalfi was a wonderful place just to do that. With vast ocean, shadowing peaks, warm sun and great foods, what more could we ask?
One night, we were sitting on the Piazza presided by the 9th century Duomo, it was quiet and rather romantic. The only noise were from some young children playing on the square. One guy on a small scooter made a quick stop in the square, took a drink from the fountain and hurried off (obviously, people drink from the fountain). Locals holding groceries were heading home, chatting in their rhapsodic Italian. A clear sense of authentic life was still conspicuous right there in front of us, despite of everything else set up for visitors. At that moment, we quietly fell in love with the place.