Vietri Sul Mare

Sorry, for the lack of photos...but I am using the free internet in the hotel lobby. The P-Man and I left Rome on Saturday afternoon, and took a VERY scary looking train to Salerno. The train was going to a million places...final destination...PALERMO!!! A couple of the train cars were absolutely covered in graffitti, but the train number matched, so we hopped on the ghetto train. We found our seats, and asked the man seated across from us if this train was indeed headed to Salerno. He assured us it was. Two and a half hours later, we arrived in Salerno, a pretty little resort town, and took a short taxi ride to Vietri Sul Mare. The hotel was beautiful, perched on the edge of a cliff, with a super cool James Bond type elevator located in the centre of the patio that magically transported us down 3 floors to our rooms. I keep expecting to see DR NO holding that big fluffy white cat, every time the doors open! After we settled in, we headed to the poolside restaurant for some lunch. It had been a long time since breakfast, and as I had been a nervous wreck on the ghetto train, I needed some food. We both had a plate of spaghetti with tomato and tuna and capers and olives. It was great! The tuna was strongly flavoured, as were the other ingredients. The whole dish was salty and rich, and I immediately felt a million miles away from Rome. Now I was at the sea.

Later that evening, we headed up to the bar for a drink and a snack. We had sampled some delicious local wine with lunch, and decided to continue the trend. Along with our wine came the most appetizing tray of snacks. Forget potato chips or mixed nuts...this selection included sweet shrimp with a creamy sauce, tiny grilled rounds of zucchini, chunks of tangy Parmesan cheese with peeled roasted hazelnuts, delicate little balls of fresh mozzarella cheese with the sweetest cherry tomatoes, basil and olive oil, and smoky, rich pieces of raw fish. The wine was marvellously cold and refreshing, and the snacks were all extraordinary in their own way. We sat looking over the edge of the patio, at the lights of Vietri Sul Mare glittering below. We ordered another glass of wine, before taking the tiny little James Bond elevator, in the DARK, back to our room.