We had arranged for a full day driver/guide to take us around the region of the Amalfi Coast on Sunday. Having been on the roads around Amalfi once before, on a bus from the cruise ship, we knew we did not have the “Luigi the race driver” skills to tackle the turns and other Luigis. So Bonnie researched the providers via TripAdvisor and other web sites to select Gianluca’s company because he advertised licensed guides and had good reviews. We had given him the description of wanting to tour the area and if possible, experience some of the makers of the foods from the Amalfi region, artisanal providers of the oil, limoncello, buffalo mozzarella.
Gianluca designated one of his drivers, we shall call him G. I shorten his name not to protect his innocence, I am sure he was severely lacking in that area, but because even though he told us his name many times, I never could understand it. At the end of the day he gave us his business card and although I never would have guessed it, his name started with a G. Also this is not an altogether positive story about G, and he made it clear he has many, many cousins, so you never know. Sometimes anonymity can be useful. Back to the story of our day.
We were out bright and early, meeting G on the street outside our B&B at 8:30 for a 10 hour day. A nice van pulls up and a huge fellow with slicked back hair comes out, introduces himself for the first time (swear I thought it started with a T) and we take off.
“G”
He tells us that we are very lucky to have him as a driver for he had the connections to get a friend to open his limoncello factory (yes that was his term) on a Sunday just for us. Valentino was the limoncello maker and a very friendly guy. We enjoyed the demonstration he gave us and judging from the early morning sampling the products were quite good.
In part to make it worth his while to open his place of business for us, and also because we like his products we placed an order that may make it back before us. Part of the price that Valentino had for coming in on Sunday was for G to provide him a ride back to his house in Positano. We enjoyed his company, when he and G were not bantering back and forth in Italian, and Valentino was so taken with Bonnie that when we got to his place he had his wife throw down a sample of his newest product, some sort of fruitcake, only with limoncello in it. So far so good.
The next stop was G’s cousin’s Mozzarella factory.
Evidently cheese makers don’t get Sundays off in Sorrento. Honestly don’t remember the cousin’s name, and it truly was a factory. As far away from artisanal as you can get in Italy. We got the tour, tasted the product, it was bad. Fresh from the tank it was rubbery, had a chemical taste.
Ok, nice limoncello crappy cheese. G was one for two. It was his cousin so we didn’t tell him how bad the cheese was, also we didn’t buy anything. Onward we go, it’s about 11:30, we are heading to Positano and G asks us what time we wanted lunch and where we wanted to go. Thinking that he would join us for lunch, every other guide we had experienced on our trip had, we asked for his recommendation and invited him along. Nope, his plan is to drive us to town, find a place to park the van, give us “free time” to explore Positano on our own, have lunch and meet him back at the van when we were ready. At this time it was clear that the guide role was only an honorific title with G. We did spend a couple hours, sans G, walking around the shops of Positano and had a lovely seaside lunch.
The rest of the day was pretty disappointing we would ask a question about the area history, architecture, people or landscape and we would usually get a G family story in return. Heard an awful lot about his fishing cabin pictured here
But he was lacking knowledge we had come to expect from guides. Great driver, really good at managing the traffic jams from the multitudes of scooters that were out for a Sunday drive. Groups of 100 scooters at a time weaving around buses and cars. After our second drop off for “free time” this time in Ravello we asked G to end the day early and take us back to the B&B, all told we were still with him for about 7 hours.
At this point G goes into his pitch/beg for Bonnie to go on TripAdvisor and give him an excellent rating…..I mean a full 3 minute beg…..Bonnie stayed cool and asked him if Gianluca employed any licensed guides in his operation. G, said no, that licensed guides were too costly. Not real happy campers, but it was easier to stay quiet since G had the Napoli vs Torino soccer game playing on the van radio, he is a big fan. End of tour. Bonnie did want to write a letter to Gianluca expressing our disappointment with the level of guide service that was provided compared to his advertising. We wrote the email, but I persuaded Bonnie to hold off sending it until we were on the airplane in Rome, with number of cousins this guy had, no telling what kind of family connections could be in play.
But our day continued. We walked down the driveway at Ercole and met two older women who spoke very limited English. We headed out to the terrace to cool off and talked with Valentina, her mother, her grandmother and the local legend that is her grandfather, Lelo.
Lelo, the legend goes, started working at age 11 carry heavy sacks of flour on his back. He was from a family of 11 children, his father had died so he needed to work to help the family. He kept carrying heavier and heavier objects, further and further. Once carried a piano on his back. Anytime anyone needed something heavy moved, they called him. Even Maria from the ceramic shop had a story. He is an artist, rock carving and sculpting.
Helped remodel his wife’s mother’s house into the Ercole B&B to provide income for the family, mostly his granddaughters. Documentary TV shows have been made about him in France and Germany. He is 75 years old and just had a knee replaced. He spoke no English, Valentina translated a lot, but while Valentina and Bonnie were having a separate discussion, I could have a whole conversation with him speaking Italian and me speaking NY English, you know, English with emphatic hand gestures. Cute as a button. His wife, maybe a few years younger, was out weeding the vegetable garden the whole time and Mama was cutting out patterns from cloth for her day job as a seamstress. They get together every Sunday at the B&B for lunch and to do chores. Picking lemons, weeding the garden, cleaning, painting, repairs, whatever needs to be done, the family gets it done together on Sunday and every other day of the week. We were to learn from MariaGrazia, the older sister, later in our stay, that their father had died 5 years ago of a gunshot wound. Lelo had been looking after his Princesses since then. A legend indeed. And a much better ending to our Sunday in Amalfi than G.
There was also dinner. Another shuttle from a different restaurant, this time the owner, maybe 70, picked us up and drove us home too. We were joined at the restaurant by a wedding party, announced with fireworks. Wouldn’t be a complete post without a little food love.
