MAGICAL SANTA MARIA DI CASTELLABATE, CAMPANIA, ITALY

 Caroline and Pino are home from their trip to Spain and the Camino Santiago.  They will be home for a few days so we are out exploring in the south of Italy.  Here we are at Santa Maria di Castellabate.  We are directly on the Mediterranean in a beautiful apartment that has a kitchen, bedroom and living room and a modern bathroom. Our unit has a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean. 

 This picture is taken from our balcony.  As you can see it rained before we got there, but all of our four days were filled with sun and warm weather.  We stayed at a place recommended by Caroline called Palazzetto Floria.  If you ever want a quiet getaway, this is the place to go.  When you get there you park your car and you never have to use it.  Everything is in walking distance, restaurants, shops, authentic Italian grocery stores and more.

 We did use the car to do some traveling from there.  You will see in my future blogs pictures of Paestum (an ancient Greek city) and the ruins of Pompeii. It was kind of interesting when we got lost in the city of Pompeii.  I'll save that for my next blog. It's funny now, but trust me, it wasn't then.  Anyway here is a picture of our beach taken from the balcony.

 Santa Maria di Castellabatte is an idyllic magical fishing village.  Here is a man fishing off the rocks early in the evening.  I am not sure what he is fishing for, but he had probably an eighteen ounce weight and a long pole so he can cast far out.  Most of the restaurants serve fish. Not the kind, however, that we are used to in the U.S.  They have a lot of anchovies.  But I did see squid and prawns on some menus.  They did have meat but not much variety.  Of course always pasta for the primi course. 

 Here is another view of the beach from our balcony.  As you can see it is not crowded even on the weekend.  Those mountains you see in the background are part of the Amalfi Coast.  The water between the two coasts is called the Tyrrhenian Sea.  The water is  crystal clear and warm.

 A sunset view from our balcony.  The area is very safe and the people are friendly.  My family on my mother's side came from southern Italy and my grandmother who lived with us until I was around twelve and only spoke Italian in the house. Having heard that Italian before I was able to understand and even speak some of the language there.  I am told it is a combination of dialect and Italian.  I found it very comfortable.

Here you see a picture of a restaurant where we had dinner one night in Santa Maria di Castellabate.  This restaurant is at the hotel Residenza d'Epoca 1861 which is part of the property where our apartment was located. It is a bed and breakfast, also very nice with hotel rooms right on the sea also.  The meal was great and served the Italian way. 

One morning while I was taking my usual walk (passeggiata) I noticed this man repairing fishing nets.  The bins to the left of the picture are filled with nets.  I am guessing that these nets are used to catch the anchovy and other small fish, judging by the small size of the openings.  Remember, this city is an ancient fishing village. Right behind him is a small boat basin where all the boats are located. And, yes they do all this by hand.  The boats are small and have older motors.

At the top of a hill on a long winding road behind Santa Maria di Castellabate is the hamlet of Castellabate.  It is about 900 feet above sea level.  Here is a picture of our beach below.  You can't see our building because it is just a three story structure housing nine apartments.  Here they call them apartments and at home we would probably call them suites.

Another view of the coastline. This coast, facing Amalfi is called the Cilento and is all located in the National Park.

Another view looking the other way.  It looks large but there are only around 8,000 residents in the area.

If you remember in a previous blog I had a picture of the mountains behind our hotel and that there was a large structure at the top of the hill.  I also said I would find out what that is up there.  Well here it is.  It is called Castello dell' Abate. The castle of the Abbot.  The castle was built in 1123 for the Benedictine Abbot S. Costabile Gentilpore who was also the founder of the city.  As I mentioned earlier this is all part of the National Park and is also an UNESCO World Heritage site.

Here is a picture looking up at the castle.  I am not sure about that building inside the walls.  We were up there after in the afternoon and the castle was closed.  You have to adjust your schedule when in Italy unless you are in the major cities.  Everything closes at 1:00 P.M. and opens again at 4:00 P.M. and usually stays open until 7:30 or 8:00 in the evening.  If fact we couldn't even find a place that was open to have lunch.  Not the we needed it, if you know what I mean.  Most of the restaurants that serve dinner do not open until 7:30 or 8:00 P.M. We go at 7:30 and find most of them not busy then.  They start getting crowded when we are leaving around 9:00 P.M.  Remember the Italians still have their siesta between one and four in the afternoon. I tried it my self a few times.  I don't know but they may be on to something.

Another view of the castle.  Just around that corner is a small courtyard that one of the locals told us you can get a small pizza and eat it standing up as it is just a small window type food place.  Well we went there and it also was closed. Oh well, back to the car and down the winding switch back road to our temporary home and some snacks from the fridge.  From Castellabate we visited two of Italy's main attractions. The Paestum and, of course, the ruins of Pompeii. I took many pictures and will include them in my next blog.  See you then.