Mario from Maiori

 We've returned our rental vehicle and I'm missing the convenience of a personal automobile--even though there are limits to my bravery in Italian traffic. 

It's been almost two weeks since we took our daughter to see the Amalfi Coast and surrounding villages. Although lots of people drive themselves along the coast highway, we took a bus service down and back from Sorrento.  Given that even though I wasn't driving and had to spend much of the trip in the back seat with my eyes closed, I think it was a good decision. Occasionally, the driver would pull off for photo ops, and we spent a few hours walking through the town of Positano--definitely a high priced but gorgeous tourist trap.  The end of the Amalfi Coast bus trip (before returning to Sorrento) was the town of Amalfi.  The options were to wander around as we did in Positano, or to take a boat trip to see the surrounding villages. I'm really grateful we opted for the boat trip.  All the occupants were either Spanish, English, or French speakers, so the tour guides took turns explaining what we were seeing in those languages.  Their Italian accents were so strong that it seemed to me like they were saying everything in Italian.  A woman next to me was from Barcelona and she said the Spanish sounded more like Italian to her than otherwise.

After the boat ride, we went to a seaside restaurant for lunch.  The food was excellent, but the company turned out to be the highlight of our visit to Amalfi.  Lydia took a photo of our table, and behind us you can see a delightful fellow peering over in our direction.

He introduced himself and talked our ears off. He was visiting from a nearby village because his wife was in the hospital. 

He told us that he was turning 90 in 15 days and was planning on singing and dancing at his birthday party.  He asked if we liked Neapolitan music--and what was my favorite. I said, "Turna A Surriento."  He sang it for us.  I asked him to sing it again so that I could get a video.  He wanted to sing another song instead.  I recorded it, but it wasn't quite as fun as the first song. He opened a gift wrapped package full of pastries and insisted that we share them with him.  It was a wonderful lunch.  True to the culture, this man was dressed to the nines, simply because he was out in public.  Suit coat and tie.  He said he was grateful that even though he was 90 years old, he still had all his mental capacities.  He said his wife was struggling with dementia. Robyn asked if his wife was beautiful. He said she was, but that he was always more handsome than she was.  He got out his wallet that was full of 70 year-old photos.  It was a lovely and memorable part of our trip along the Italian coast.