Amalfi

As i became aware of this place, i instantly felt harmony – or, how harmony is connecting all the dots in the Universe. This is the place for capturing the beauty, time, – felicity.
I would love to be there.
I would love to be there with those whom i love,
to be stunned by how good life can feel.

The bond to different gems under the sun, different captivating places is resembling, yet different in nuances. I feel close to Amalfi thinking about Amalfi seen through the eyes of the travellers of past. The ones who found themselves in between Salerno and Sorrento, wrote a book, composed an opera, painted a painting, left a small marking from the day they went to St. Andrew`s cathedral, walked through bougainvillea`s, up the narrow stairs by a white house, drank limoncello from an icecold bottle. Those notes, they open Amalfi for me.
Cinque Terra feels somehow more familiar, probably because of the kaleidoscopic range of colors – or because i went to Cinque Terra – in my mind – earlier than i realised there was a similar graceful white town in Campania.
I pondered writing this if something in me would be different, if i would have been born elsewhere. By a blue sea, in a white house surrounded by pink flowers.
The distant calling, – yet, i still feel that i prefer to be a guest who can return, in the spring, to the white house surrounded by pink flowers.
Perhaps we do choose the home, for ourselves? -
a few homes, for our soul.
For the springs, for the autumns.

There is perhaps no other spectacle on earth that can rival the beauty and tranquility of this place. It gave me a new outlook on life. Just bieng there allows one to think and be at peace with oneself. It is an amazing place, with amazing views, amazing people, amazing food, and amazing peace. Every day I dream about going back there. Simply put, it was the trip of my lifetime.

My friends are going to Italy without me cause I’m stuck at the opposite side of the world! =(

Heh. I dream about this place. God, it must be beautiful.

Picnicking with wine and cheese on the beach and wetting your feet in the Tyrrhenian Sea… Could you really ask for more?
If it’s at all possible, if you’re in Italy and have a free day, GO HERE. You won’t regret it.

absolutly unreal…a stunningly small town, and its gorgeous…i love this place

From the pictures I seen and what I’ve heard it sounds like a very romantic place. Naturally I wouldn’t want to go alone. But, I will if I have to.

I thought Sorrento was pretty until I saw Amalfi. It’s the drive up that makes it worthwhile, though – don’t miss that part.

So they say . . . “Its beauty is an epic one: cliffs that are the very embodiment of time, bougainvillea-shaded pathways overlooking the sea, trees seemingly hewn out of rock by the Greeks.”

But what actually captivated my attention was a painting, entitled Amalfi Cappuccini by Carl Frederic Aagaard (b. 1833 in Denmark; click on painting for enlargement). I felt this strange sense of familiarity - as if I had taken a stroll there many years past - yet I have never set foot there. The spatial design of this painting is highly commendable. Notice the multiple lines of perspective which drawn you into its calm serenity. One experiences inner enclosure, a beatitude invoked by the classical architectural lines shaded by the Nyctaginaceae vines. Simultaneously, that leads to open promises along the horizon where the eye is greeted by the magnificent Mediterranean Sea (actually, the Golfo di Salerno).

One of Ravello’s attractions is the Palazzo dei Rúfolo (monuments date back to the 11th to 13th centuries—Arab-Sicilian art at its peak), where Wagner found inspiration for his Klingsor’s magic garden in his opera Parsifal.

Then I discover Amalfi is one of 50 Places of a Lifetime by National Geographic.

And there’s Gore Vidal’s endorsement: “Fifty-one years ago, just out of the army, I was looking for a place to write until at least the end of the century. I came to Ravello on a bright, cold day in March where I stood on a limestone cliff overlooking the Gulf of Salerno, Paestum opposite me, and I thought - and think - this is the most beautiful spot on Earth and so, in due course, I made it my own, and so it will remain until the next lucky visitor takes my place among the cypresses, the lemons, the vineyards of Magna Graecia where thesea-sky are so intensely blue [photo]that you cannot tell where one begins and the other leaves off.”

So we have triangulated the location of Paradise by the works of a painter, composer, and writer. Most certainly Amalfi is now on my agenda (nota bene: 89 kilometers southeast of the Napoli Capodochino airport). Creative forces seem to be gently giving me directions. Ciao!

Title says it all. Okay, I’ve only been across Canada and to parts of Western Europe, but it’s really hard to imagine any place could be more beautiful. Wow. And the food is incredible.

I hope to one day honeymoon here! I have found houses to rent right on the mountain for $500/wk!