“The world is quiet here.” -Lemony Snicket

“Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you are gone.”-John Steinbeck

One look at this city makes it easy to understand why I was so glad we pursued the virtually immobile relaxation route in Capri.

There are stairs that lead you all the way up from the coastal beach area to the top of the city. And there are thousands of them. And they look like this:

In order to get anywhere, including up the mountain to your bed & breakfast while carrying all of your luggage that seemed like a pride-inducing minimal amount for a three-week stay in Italy but now seems like a major, heavy, unwieldy mistake... To get anywhere you either take these thousands of stairs, or you catch a bus that chugs up the mountain, picking up passengers only once every hour.  We succumbed to that bus about halfway through our climb while carrying all of our bags, but I'm proud to say that's one of the only times we took that bus. The rest of the time, we bravely forged up and down countless staired passages... After all, we'd come to Positano to see just these very stairs; we might as well embrace them and see what their paths hold!

And they held a lot. Namely a rare peek into how some of these locals live. Positano is supported largely by tourism today, and we met quite a few people during our time in Italy who'd visited Positano, but went up no further than a quarter mile or so into the town. The area near the coast is laden with restaurants, clothing stands, tourist information booths, and artists hawking their work. It's all very cool to see, very lively... but I'm so happy we chose to get off the beaten path and see just what all this village offers. The locals' gardens, their homes, their small farms, their pets, their flowerbeds, their kindness...

We took one entire afternoon and walked ALL the way down, capturing all of the charm as we went. People along the way were so kind and friendly, and seemed to have such an open and honest way about them. The trek down was completely worth it, since we got to experience this less seen version of Positano, which was followed by some of the most amazing views I've ever seen.

Even on a cloudy day, the colors of the city are as rich as the spirits of its people. I can't say enough about how breathtaking this village is... There is just so much to soak up - homemade pastas, vegetables fresh from the garden, wines straight from the vineyard, the simple goodness of people, and scenary clearly drawn by God's hand. Just unforgettable.

"Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life." -Anna Akhmatova

The last week of our vacation in Italy was divided between two parts: Capri (Anacapri to be specific) and Positano. Positano was actually the first place I put on the "cannot miss" list during the early planning stages. I'd seen a show on HGTV where the crew travelled to Positano to film, and I was immediately taken with this "vertical city." With Raja lobbying hard for Capri, and both cities situated very close together on the Amalfi Coast, we decided to make our last week in Italy our "relaxing" week, split between these two gorgeous areas.
First up, Anacapri...
I'm not even a little bit ashamed to say that we left our hotel only a few times for lunches and dinners. By the time we arrived in Capri, all of the walking we'd done through the hilltowns had caught up with us, and I didn't think I could take many more steps. I mean honestly, legs shaking and wobbly. Thank GOODNESS we'd put Capri before Positano in the timeline... You'll see why in just a bit.

Anacapri literally means "Above Capri." The name is apt, as it's situated at a higher elevation, and overlooks the busy port of Capri, Marina Grande. It also offers expansive views of the Mediterranean Sea, including Mount Vesuvius.

Mount Vesuvius

 

The pool sucked me in and held me there. Each day, we had brunch, then immediately plopped ourselves into lounge chairs and remained pretty much immobile until it was time to get ready for dinner. 

 One day Raja finally got fed up with all of this "relaxing" and we actually took a car down to Capri to explore the more bustling area. It was crowded and fast-moving... Very fun, but not as great for picture taking. I got a couple good ones at least. :)

That was about enough sightseeing for me on this leg of the trip. I missed the lounge chairs desperately. ;)

As all good things must come to an end, we soon sailed off to the village of Positano for our very last stop on the adventure. (Well, that's a lie... We had to go into Naples proper to fly out to the US, but I'm trying to forget that little jaunt.)  I was so excited to see what Positano held in store. We waved "Arrivederci" to Anacapri, and headed just a tiny bit closer in to the coast to see Italy's vertical village.

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." -Mark Twain

While we didn't plan to do too much shopping in Florence due to being there such a short time, there were two things we did want to try to find if we could: some leather shoes for Raja, and some leather gloves for me. Raja did some research for us in order to figure out where might be best for us to browse, and came up with two solid options: Luciano for the gloves, Francesco da Firenze's shop for the shoes.
The glove experience at Luciano is easy to sum up.

Awful. Terrible. 

We took a few steps in the store, where we were not greeted by the only clerk in the entire store. The space is tiny, so he couldn't have missed us. But that's okay... I don't really need to be greeted warmly by a shop owner as soon as I walk into the door. Sure, most of the Floerentine shop keepers had been extremely friendly and inviting as we wandered into various storefronts, but that's okay if Luciano's owner was a bit more reserved. Reserved quickly turned into rude, however. If we had a question about a certain glove or wanted to see a particular glove closer, he was very snippy with responses and generally acted like it was a huge burden to show us any gloves in his shop. After about 3 minutes of complete rudeness, Raja and I headed out the door.  It now made perfect sense why this shop was known for producing high-quality leather gloves,was easily discovered through a few minutes of research on the internet, but was completely and uncharacteristically empty inside.

We warily headed down to Francesco's shoe shop, hoping the experience would be vastly different. I was a bit rattled by the whole episode at Luciano, but Raja had been so looking forward to trying to find some custom-made shoes that we forged ahead. Sadly, when we arrived, the shop was closed for their mid-day break. We peered through the windows at all of the shoes in their window display, just to get a general idea of what was available, as we planned to return during their evening opening hours.

But then, a man's head popped up into the window, and he smiled hugely. He must have been in his work studio in the back and seen us walk by and stop to window shop. He made his way to the front door of the store, unlocked it, and greeted us boisterously in a very thick Italian accent. Despite the fact that we couldn't understand much past "Bongiorno!," this cobbler's smile said it all as he eagerly waved us into the store.

So the good news was, we quickly saw a shoe that we both liked for Raja. The bad news was that our knowlege of the Italian language encompasses about 10 words, and Francesco's knowledge of English is every bit as limited. Somehow, between lots of gestures, nods and shakes of the head, and even some sketching on brown paper, Raja and Francesco were able to understand each other well enough to start the process. Both parties were genuinely happy to be patient, drum up what little they could of the other's native language, and try his best to understand and respond. When I hesitantly held up my camera to ask if I could take some photos, Francesco lit up and immediately began showing me all around the store: I was free to explore deep into his cobbler's studio, take pictures of anything I wanted, and he promised to smile big in any people pictures. :) 

Here's Francesco himself:

Wandering around his work space was incredible. Everything he makes is done in-house, from scratch. The tools and machines he uses are so different from what you see in a big factory.

There were so many kinds of shoes to pick from! We stuck mainly to the men's dress shoes area, but there were dozens of different sandal templates, plenty of heels, different kinds of driving shoes, comfortable walking shoes... Any kind of shoe you need can be found here.

This is the design Raja modeled his own purchase after.

Once the details of the shoe design were worked out, the measurements started. No fancy machines here, no sir! Just a cobbler with some paper and a pencil to create the adjustments necessary when he discovered that Raja's right foot is slightly wider than his left..

So far, Francesco and Raja have done a pretty good job of navigating through this process despite an almost complete inability to use words effectively due to the language barrier. When this guy below wandered into the shop, Francesco apparently asked him in Italian if he could speak English. And he could! He was happy to help answer all of the questions that each side had for the other side. I thought this was going to be where things became hilarious due to all of the possible misunderstandings that could have occurred, but surprisingly, there was hardly anything lost in translation. The peace of mind for both Francesco and Raja was priceless - Things were on the right track, and both had a good understanding of what was going on.

The nice guy stuck around throughout the rest of the process, just in case he was needed, since he was shopping anyway. That made the last half of the transaction go much more quickly, since he was able to translate things whenever needed. Francesco's head, and mine, swiveled back and forth between Raja and the makeshift translator.

By the end of the process, we were pretty much one big happy family. Francesco truly couldn't have been nicer, and his wife also came in who was bright-eyed and lovely and eager to help. We bid our nice translator, Francesco, and his wife goodbye. If all went as planned, Raja's shoes would arrive to our door in about 3 weeks! SUCH a different experience than we'd had at Luciano, thank Goodness. :)

Within a few weeks, Raja's shoes did, indeed, arrive at our apartment. Since the process was so different due to the language gaps, the sketching on brown paper as opposed to high-tech measuring techniques, etc. we were optimistic but not certain that the shoes would be a perfect fit. But they were! We'd left Francesco's shop in Italy a few weeks back with nothing but faith... Faith in his long-standing strong reputation in this industry, faith in his kindness and willingness to take the time to try to get things right despite less-than-ideal circumstances, and faith in his craft and passion for that craft. We couldn't have been more right.

Francesco da Firenze

62R Via Santo Spirito

Phone: 011-39-055-212428 
Francesco da Firenze's Facebook Page