Food of the gods in Positano, Italy
Sometimes the best tasting food is the meal you eat after challenging physical exertion. This is even true in coastal Italy where all the quality of food is elevated. Mostly the weather gods frowned on us during our recent days along the Amalfi Coast: no boat tour around Capri or ducking into the famous blue grotto, we toured Pompeii through raindrops, our balcony breakfasts happened after we toweled off the balcony, and alfresco dining wasn’t an option. We tried to pivot from our original plans with the grace of ballet dancers. Of course there was beautiful food and wine at every turn and rare moments of blue skies to be savored.
Weeks before our trip I had booked a reservation at Da Vincenzo, where the food lived up to the great reviews I’d read. Larry luxuriated in this grilled amberjack swimming in a seafood broth.
And who would be sitting at a table near us but one of Larry’s patients from Chattanooga!
Taking its cue from our bellies, the moon was full too.
Our balcony breakfast was the envy of the neighbors. Villa Yiara
One rainy afternoon we happened into Ristorante Al Palazzo to avoid a downpour and were romanced with an outstanding lunch. Lobster with linguine.
Cheese filled ravioli with a simple cherry tomato sauce. Mama Mia! After lunch we walked outside to blue skies and a lemon tree pergola.
On our last day in Positano, we decided rain or shine, we were going to hike path of the gods, one of the most beautiful hikes in Italy. We slid into our hiking shoes, still dusty with black volcanic ash from Mt. Etna, and climbed into the back seat of a taxi. For the next hour and a half, our driver, Ciro, skillfully navigated our ascent up these mountains on a narrow cliff-hugging road. Under gray skies and rain, we drove through tiny towns built into the sides of the hills, past steeply terraced vineyards and farms, and backed up once while rounding a hairpin curve so that a large tour bus coming the opposite direction could inch by us.
Piazza Paolo Capasso in Agerola, our starting point, was filled with groups of hikers (many with a guide) waiting for the rain to let up so they could begin this memorable walk. We found a shop selling cheap ponchos and slipped them on. Others were out in the middle of the piazza stretching and limbering up. That seemed like a good idea so we did our own exercises.
We liked our warm up better.
Blue is definitely our color.
Path of the gods is named for a mythical reference in Homer’s Odyssey: this passage was used by the greek gods as they rushed to save Ulysses from the pretty sirens that were on the nearby islands of Li Galli. It is 3.7 miles of rocky path, over 2000 feet up, with breathtaking vistas of Positano and the Sorrento peninsula.
The views were astonishing, even on a cloudy day. Some of the areas had a few feet of grass beside the stone path and then straight sheer drop offs down to the ocean. Never before have I walked so casually close to death.
Several hours later, the rain had stopped at the path’s end, in Nocelle. We were hungry for lunch and nearly chose one of the small restaurants nearby. I had written the name of a restaurant on a post-it note, found in one of the many blogs/articles I read while researching for this hike. The place was on the road towards Positano so we started down the 1700 steps in that direction.
Larry made friends with a horse whose barn sported a spectacular sea view.
It was tricky to locate because google maps has difficulty with the vertical layers in these cliff-hugging towns, but we found it! And what a find it was! Trottoria La Tagliata is a family run farm to table restaurant. There’s no menu; you are just presented with plate after plate of gorgeous home-prepared food. The food comes from their own garden, meats from their farm, and wine from their vineyards. And someone with many years of practice is back in the kitchen making pasta.
Our first course was a bean trio, fried cauliflower, pickled veggies, eggplant, prosciutto and mozzarella.
“Don’t know which wine you want? Have some of our own white and red.” Grazie!
A selection of homemade pasta arrived next. Larry loved the ravioli and my fave was the eggplant manicotti.
From the warmth of our table, we watched the heavens open and pour down buckets of rain, while dark, menacing clouds furrowed their brows.
No lunch is complete without a mixed grill of meats: chicken, sausage, steak and pork.
And finally, a dessert of three kinds of cake and limoncello, the Italian liqueur made from the abundant harvest of lemons in this region. After our two hour lunch, we were so thankful that the rain had stopped and that we still had hundreds of steps to descend and curvy roads to walk to get to our hotel in Positano. After such a feast you either need to walk or take a nap. It was a meal to remember.
Find Waldo.
Our path took us past homes with beautiful terraced vegetable gardens hidden behind fences.
Strawberries with a view.
Lush succulents in a container beside the walkway.
We descended two thousand feet after our morning cappuccinos and arrived at sea level, deeply satisfied that we had hiked the path of the gods and sated by the food of the gods at La Tagliata. It is a path I’d highly recommend should you ever find yourself on the Amalfi Coast of Italy.