...and the rocket's red glare

We awoke this morning to the sounds of cannon’s firing! Well, really we don’t know what the sound was exactly but it sounded liked cannons! (All this medieval stuff is getting to my imagination!) Most likely it was probably thunder since it rained and poured all night long and the sea was restless. I got up occasionally to look out the door and at times it was raining so hard I couldn’t see past the roof in front of us. But I could still make out cars driving on the Amalfi Coast. I guess even pouring rain doesn’t stop them from coming and going. I was glad I was inside and not sharing the road with them.

Yesterday afternoon we shopped at the local market for groceries. We know that they close on Sunday and wanted to get our week’s worth of whatever while we could. Of course they rest from the hours of 2 to 5 PM, so we got there right at 5:00 PM to shop.


Imagine a store that is only as large as your living room. In the store was a meat counter, a small milk & butter area, tons of dried pasta, lots of canned tomatoes, a few boxes of cereal and a wine and beverage area. They had grocery carts sitting outside but there was no way we could have taken one in to shop. I believe the carts are there to lug your groceries home and then return the cart! Every time we saw something different we wanted to try, I reminded Jim that since we were carrying this load up 120 stairs, maybe we should not overdo today and make sure everyday next week we shop.

We like to eat breakfast at home and so we usually find a cereal or two that we like. In Paris it was easy; they had many different kinds to choose from. In Sorrento it was a little harder but we found a granola with fruit and nuts for Jim and bran with fruit for me. All along, in both cities, we have noticed a lot of cereals with chocolate added. We, of course, stay away from those as being “junk” food!


I assume the Minori shop owner must have gotten a good deal on the cereal because our only choices were:
Corn flakes
Granola with chocolate chunks
Bran flakes with chocolate flakes added

We decided to go with the flow and get the granola with chocolate chunks and the bran flakes with chocolate flakes. We are now converted! Both cereals were delicious and I am sure that the chocolate is the dark chocolate variety that has added health benefits! So we are going to spend the week eating our chocolate granola and choco-bran cereal without any guilt.

Fresh bread appears on Monday’s, but we found a loaf in the market yesterday. Having no toaster in the apartment, I plugged in the little grilled cheese sandwich maker and buttered 2 pieces of bread and grilled them. It turned out so great that I made 2 more!
I impress myself with my ingenious ways of making do. To dry clothes in a dryer is a luxury. Actually to wash clothes in a washing machine is a luxury too. Luckily I only washed one load of whites last night so that we can maybe have them dry in a day or 2 with all this rain. They are hanging damp in our living room waiting for the sun to shine so I can place them on our little ledge.

It rained most of the day today. And the cannons kept firing most of the day also. Finally Jim looked out towards the sound and in the darkness of the sky he could make out a flash. It then occurred to us that someone was letting off fireworks. We aren’t sure if there is some festival going on or just kids setting them off in the rain. But they are loud and they do sound like cannons!

We walked down to the little restaurant where we had a delicious lunch yesterday and wanted to give them our business again. It was raining really hard by then and when we got to the door we were shocked that the tiny restaurant was filled! They brought tables in from outside, found a little space for us and we all sat crowded in the restaurant together. The husband runs the place (a nice Italian man), his sister is the cook (very good) and his wife is the PR person as she is multi-lingual coming from Holland. She helps out when it gets busy and was there today for that reason. Their little son hangs around and it is a quite cozy place. Yesterday there was no cannelloni, today there was no pizza. But they serve the best mixed salad and pasta we have had in Italy. Anna, the wife, kept saying she was sorry they were so busy, but this tour group came in with about 12 people. I thought the saying, “When it rains, it pours” was pretty appropriate in this case.


We walked a bit then headed back up the stairs. I have a question that Jim can’t answer: Does it count going down the stairs like it counts going up the stairs? Yesterday we went up 4 times and down 4 for a total of 960 stairs. Today it was only 1 down and 1 up for 240 stairs. Do we get to count the down stairs as part of our exercise or is it free because it is so much easier? We did notice our stopping place is a flight higher than yesterday (maybe because we weren’t carrying 50 lb suitcases or groceries).

We got a knock on the door after we got back and a nice Australian couple asked us if we wanted their extra groceries. They are leaving for home tomorrow and had some leftover spices, tomatoes, olive oil, etc. We were grateful for the food since now we don’t have to carry it up the stairs!!!!!

Tomorrow if the weather is good, we are going to explore the town and visit the Roman Villa. In spite of the rain, this little town is a perfect place to enjoy the Amalfi coast.

Tonight they had a regular fireworks show in the Amalfi. It was a regular 4th of July display! We could see it (and hear it!) out of our windows. Print this post