Major and Minor

I haven’t been reading all of the blog for the last two days. So if Jim has already stated this I apologize. But I wanted to say: We love the Italian people! Those who we have met thus far have been so kind and congenial. We love watching the children play in the square, the parents walking the babies, the older men playing cards with each other and everyone treating each other kindly. I know that this is definitely a small town and everyone knows everyone, but it is a refreshing change. We really feel at home here and though we don’t share any Italian heritage and the language is more difficult than French, we feel a part of these people. I know they think we are the “tourists” but we don’t feel that way here. They do a good job of concealing it!

We started out the day with a great breakfast of egg sandwiches. Part of our grocery inheritance the other day was some eggs. All the eggs here are brown and they never refrigerate them. I don’t know why they don’t and we do. We haven’t had a lot of eggs since we started our travels so it was nice to break up the daily grind of cereal (plus our little quart of milk was gone). I had purchased some mayonnaise at the corner market (lucky to even find it) and hard-boiled the eggs, put a bit of mayo in, toasted some bread in my handy sandwich griller and made a great breakfast!

As we left our apartment today there must have been a funeral at the church that sits right behind us. There were flowers everywhere and the bells did a special song at 11:00 am. Many of the stores right in the area of the apartment were closed. We suspect a favorite local passed away and by the amount of flowers that were delivered, he/she must have been very popular.
We decided that since so much was closed in town that we should go into the neighboring town of Maiori, the town just south of us. It is larger than Minori, but as we compare town to town, it still ranks as little. The bus ride on the coastline only takes 5 minutes but we could hike up the mountain and then down the mountain into Maiori and that would take 1 ½ hours. We opted for the bus today as Jim was a little under the weather (he won’t tell you this but his fish “fantasy” dinner the other night didn’t agree with him, could it be the head of the octopus he ate?). Maiori is just as quaint as Minori. It has the local churches, the piazza by the sea where the locals gather and visit and a shopping district. That’s about it, plus hotels and bed and breakfasts.

As we walked to the bus stop we passed a patisserie. I have noticed that meringue cookies are a big thing over here. In France, it was more like an Oreo; 2 meringue cookies with a filling. In Italy it is a large, saucer sized meringue glob with chocolate bits on top. They have always sparked my interest because everyone has them. So…….. I thought today was a good day to see what they are all about. I pointed to the kind I wanted (they have different toppings on them; chocolate, dusted coffee, candies). I opted for the chocolate dusted meringue cookie.

I must not be used to sweets (I never eat them!) because these are the sweetest cookies or dessert I have had! Very light, very sweet, very crunchy and very good. Jim says we have these in the U.S. but I think only at Christmas and certainly not the size of a baseball! We stayed for awhile, just long enough for me to do a little shopping, and caught the next bus back to Minori.

Not wanting to walk up the stairs quite yet, we decided to have lunch at our little “Europa Café” where we have eaten on a couple of occasions since we arrived. We had our usual; mixed salad, a pizza and the pasta of the day; tagatella with mushroom sauce. As always it was delicious and we are happy to give this little mom/pop restaurant our business. They are the nicest people and always happy to see us.

We hit the market before it closed for siesta and got some things. The fruit market was nearby so we went there too. In the fruit market you aren’t allowed to handle the fruit. The owners do it for you. You tell them what you want and they pick out the fruit and veggies. I did a lot of pointing but they always find just what I want. I point to pears, and they say “Not soft” so then I say “Soft?” and then they find 2 lovely pears. It really is a joy to shop where you can trust the people to find you the best because they know their stuff.

Tomorrow we are traveling to Ravello, the little town up in the mountains. This is the town that Jim saw in the distance the day he went exploring. It is a 3 hour hike if we wanted to do it that way but we are going to take the bus though so that our strength is conserved for seeing the town. It is quite beautiful and all tour books highly recommend it. Though it is only up the hill, we have to do 2 bus transfers to get there. We should have some spectacular pictures for tomorrow. Ciao! Print this post