The spirit of Minori

If you are following my blog, you most probably know by now that this summer, me and @thegreywidow, took our backpacks and the "big troll" (that's the huge troller) and went on our way to see the Amalfitano Coast. During my stay there, I didn't have the time to get into details each evening. I was coming deadbeat after some tens of kilometres (at least that's what my watch was telling me) and apart from taking the photos off my SD card, find a good one, develop it and stick it to Steepshot, I couldn't do more.

But there is so much to tell and show about that wonderful area, that I have to find some time and post here at least some articles about some of the places I have seen and in order not to get my audience bored, I will post only about the really interesting ones that touched me in ways I've never been touched before (like a kindergarten kid in the lap of a Catholic priest).

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We arrived almost in the evening...

It was not getting dark yet but by the time we had the legal shower and managed to get out of the hotel and check for a place to eat something, the evening was upon us. Though the bus trip from Salerno was not that long, the bending road was a killer.

For some reason, I didn't put "big troll" in the trunk of the bus, into the special compartments it's got under the windows. Instead, I prefer to hold on to it like an idiot all the trip, which wasn't a short one, if we're speaking about time. There were times when the bus was getting crowded so I was somehow pushed on the ladder of the bus, holding that troller as my life depended on it. I had to hold onto something also with one of my hands, while the backpack (which I suspect to weight about 8 kilograms) was starting to kill me already.

The famous "Amalfi Drive" is fucking curvy. And narrow. Like a virgin over-sized latino woman. I have no fucking clue how buses were passing along each other on some parts of the road. Also, I'm really surprised that people don't die around daily.

And to think I wanted to rent a "motorino". Fuck no! This is no place to experiment with my riding skills.

I think a few times I could have fallen if the doors of the bus would snap and not hold my weight and my bags weight, as the driver was pulling a hard left and my body, squashed on the stairs, was pushing far right.

And the heights. I fucking hate heights. How happy I was that I finally touched the ground after that flight and in less than 3 hours, my palms are fear sweating again because of a damn road. I guess the driver was going 30 but it damn felt like he was going 80. Especially from where I was staying... from the bottom of the pit, WITH "big troll" on top of me - the damned stairs.

We finally reached Minori but for me, it felt like a year through the ordeals of Hell. I picked up "big troll" (that's about more than half of me) and we managed somehow to get out of the small, crowded bus. There we were. Minori.

Hotel was easy to find. There were basically two 4 stars hotels in Minori and they practically shared one of the walls. Decent place, what can I say? It costs an arm and a leg, it better be at least decent. Because that's what it was. Nothing more, nothing less but!... it served its purpose as a retreat after those deadly walks we like to take during the day. Trying to miss as little as possible in the given time. In the end, I come back home with ankle pains or ruined feet.

No olives at the breakfast though. That's a biiiiiig minus right there, I'm telling you. And everywhere we went out eating, they don't bring that olive oil they make around these parts. What is wrong with you people?! Bring the olive oil, as the Greeks do. It's not expensive anymore, as it was in Antiquity.

Lovely view of some pretty old architecture right as you'd come out of this hotel (down below). Appreciated it.

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The perfect Italian flavours of Minori

I guess there's nothing more Italian than Minori. That's how I see this beautiful country right now. Minori, the smaller town that came out of the wealthy Romans villas, is set right on the small river, Reggina and in Ancient times, this settlement, together with Magiori (walking distance) got their names. It was "Reggina Maior" and "Reggina Minor". The Romans had easily understandable names.

This place is a UNESCO Heritage protected site (I guess most of the Amalfitano Coast is) and I could see that since I got out of the bus. Crowded buildings, many of them dating centuries, are making this small settlement look exactly like I was imagining it and throughout our stay, I couldn't be happier that we chose it. We discovered its true flavour once we came out of the hotel and started roaming the narrow streets on which only the motorinos are making up the traffic and we started enjoying the small, traditional, family shops all around.

I wouldn't say that the population here is made up of elderly people. It is clear that we are not seeing a situation as in many Romanian villages where the young people are living and only the elders stay behind to turn off the light. Instead, here you can see both elders and youngsters mixing up and creating a great Italian "spice", where traditional (and traditions) are put on the table correctly with the spirit of the young. Everything around is inherited, everything here has tradition and everything here is taken forwards. The touristic area manages to support this healthy way of living and of passing forward the know-how and hospitability.

As I'm coming from a former communist country, which managed to win its democracy in 1990, it's very painful to see a restaurant here that has a 50-60 years tradition (at least). Some businesses are already in their 3 generation inheritance while my country's best case scenarios are 28 years old. But those are few and for sure there are not a lot of restaurants offering the expertise.

People know each other here. I think that there are fewer natives around than in my own village, that packs around 7000 souls. In the few days we spent here, we also started to recognize them. You pass by them every morning, as we are moving towards another tourist attraction, they are either opening up the stores, or getting on their scooters, or maybe just sweeping the pavement in front of their business. Like the guy and the dog below, we were meeting them, in the same place, either in the morning or in the evening. Same bench, same crossroad, same dog.

Seafood is perfect in Minori. In the evening we've arrived we didn't even go check too much for a restaurant. We were already very hungry and didn't have the power to go looking very deep. So in the first, nice restaurant, we found close to the sea, we found a table and we've taken our chairs. The old guy in a suit that came to take our order was very nice. So nice that he even appreciated my bad Italian. So nice that he went and opened a nice bottle of Chardonnay only for me, the guy that ordered only a glass (I don't have the partner to drink together with me).

We took the seafood risotto and a Marguerita, just to open with the most Italian things we could eat. I have to admit that this risotto was the best I ever had and the price (15 euro) was really less than I was expecting to pay and less than I paid in other places during our stay - but it still remained the best I had.

I have to remark also one "pasticeria" that welcomed us since we first arrived. Sweets here are impossible to describe. The place was full during evenings and all over the tables, you could see only great chromatics on the plates, good looking tiramisus and incredible smells when it came to drinks. The variety of teas they had in the menu was also overwhelming. Coffees? What can I tell you... maybe some of the best I ever had. What can I say? Italians and the foods they are famous for are not a lie.

The beach is pretty small here and the sand, like on the majority of the beaches around, is sand made out of rocks, not out of shells. Its granulation is pretty big and the colour is dark. That makes it collect temperatures like crazy and the sand will be pretty hot already at 11 o'clock in the morning. More than that, it gets very crowded, fast and if you ask me, the best time to have a swim and feel that you've enjoyed the sea and the coast is after 6 o'clock in the evening. Anyway, the sea is very warm and also the air is better because the Sun is already hiding behind the mountains and the temperatures start falling.

We also had the privilege to witness Italian people cheering and supporting the Napoli team in this summer's derby with Lazio. It was just like in the movies. If the terrace of the bar/restaurant has a TV that transmits the game, well, then it will be full and people will stop while walking in order to watch the game from the sidewalk. There are screams, there are loud talks and ample hand gestures in their famous way of non-verbal communication. When you check out the movies that show you this part of Europe and its inhabitants, there's absolutely no exaggeration. This people really talk about 50% with their hands while they mumble something in an Italian dialect that I don't quite understand (and I like to think of myself as an Italian speaker).

Minori is a sight for sore eyes, a place to stay when you are looking for real Italian flavours and when places like Amalfi City and Positano seem to crowded (or overly touristic). It is also a good "hub" to move around the coast. From here you can start a very well thought touristic approach of the coast and I can tell you that 4 days are enough to see everything important. 4 nights are also quite enough to taste Minori. Dinners will be exquisite because the place is so small that you can't really find "bad restaurants".

  Posted also on my blog www.ddma.ro, a place on the world wide web where I'm trying to promote Steemit, my writings and my country. In that order. I post through the @steempress-io plugin and I make my life easier (writing and formatting in Wordpress is much easier than on steemit.com or busy.org)