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Amalfi Coast – Eating like Italians
- Monday, October 20, 2003 |
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After a few days in the picturesque town of Positano, we took a boat south to the touristy town of Amalfi. From there we hiked to a nearby fishing village called Atrani. We enjoyed a few days of without another tourist in sight with plenty of rocky beach time, clear blue water, and hiking. We hiked up the steep canyon (1.5 hrs.), through the olive groves and lemon trees to the town of Ravello. The views of the coast were just incredible. The hike down dead ended on the main coastal road about 2 miles from Atrani. We had to compete with buses, scooters, and cars for space on the winding, sometimes one-lane road. Fun!
We had some amazing food on the Amalfi Coast. The seafood, pasta, and veggies were incredibly fresh and tasty. Most of farmers use organic methods without pesticides. Veggies aren’t genetically engineered. Perhaps that is why they taste so good??
First of all bread is served with every sit down meal and you are charged about $1/pp for it. Italians eat in several courses: House wine, 1st plate is typically pasta or soup, 2nd plate is meat or fish, followed by salad and/or veggies, then café and dolce (coffee and sweets). Restaurants also serve a digestif drink after the entire meal. This is usually in the form of a cold shot glass of limoncella liquor or another citrus flavored liquor. Pretty big meals! It sure is fun eating slowly for almost 1- 2 hours every night.
Salad/Veggies are served at the end of the meal because greens aid digestion (duh!!). Good idea, no?
We wonder how some of the Italian folks we met stay so skinny when we’ve seen them eat platters, upon platters of food. Possibly, they don’t snack between meals. Also, the individual portions of both pasta and meet aren’t as overwhelmingly large as they are in America.
The pizza is also VERY tasty - thin crust, fresh tomatoes, some pizza has no tomato sauce. A pie is about $5 and is about the size of a medium pizza in the USA. We’ve been eating way too much pizza.
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