11 days in Santa Maria Castellabate

Our new place was a 1 hour drive south of Salerno. Santa Maria Castellabate (SMC) is in a mountainous and remote area with a quiet coastline. The town itself is quite small and runs along the coast. Not a lot of tourists but the ones we did meet were all from Great Britain. We are staying in a 2 bedroom apartment up on a hill with another great view of the Mediterranean (a prerequisite).

There are about 12 apartments in this complex that share a large swimming pool but only a few were occupied in September.   We are starting to enjoy the peacefulness of the price reduced mid / low season.  This place is cheap enough for us to eat out at restaurants more…..who doesn’t love that, especially when the food in Italy is awesome and there is no dishwasher in our apartment.  It’s only a 15 minute hike to town so we plan to go as often as possible.  

One of the other families on holidays was from Wales.  Lisa, Graham, Nathan - 10 and Josh - 7.  The five boys became quick friends as kids do, and spent many hours in the pool together or playing ping pong.

Calvin and I enjoyed many long talks in the pool with Lisa and Graham discussing each of our countries economics, beer choices, leadership, laws (he’s a solicitor – sounds more exquisite when he says it). 


We ate every meal on the terrace and the weather was heavenly. On our first night we were caught off guard by fire floating through the sky.  Of course, it wasn’t floating fire but there were many paper lanterns floating in the night sky at our eye level, just above the town below.  

We discovered the following day that according to Christian tradition, on September 8 of an unknown year somewhere near Nazareth the Virgin Mary was born and over the centuries, the farmers would come into town to celebrate her birth. 

In order to arrive to the religious services on time, many started their journey before the break of dawn. The farmers needed lanterns and these were often carried at the end of stick, candles protected by a frame made of thin cloth. That tradition continues today so that on the eve of the 8th (yes, we are over 1 month behind in our blogging) of September, "pilgrims" carry paper lanterns at the end of a stick as they make their way through the streets of various towns in Italy (Italians love to have festivals).  After a brief speech by the local Priest in the square, the lanterns are released into the heavens and then there’s a big party in the square (Italians love to party).  What a beautiful ending to our first night.

We all agreed that since Devin and I were so lucky to enjoy our birthdays in Europe (Devin will turn 7 in Paris, poor guy), we would grant Aidan, Calvin and Noah a European birthday while we are away. Aidan’s 9 ¾ birthday in September, Calvin’s 44 ¾ birthday in October and Noah’s 12 ¾ birthday in November. So for Aidan’s “birthday” we decided to test our new cooking skills and make fresh pasta in a Bolognese sauce and tiramisu.  


Noah wanted it to be a surprise for Aidan so he and Devin set up a movie on the laptop in one of the bedrooms and the three of them went to watch.  After about 15 minutes of movie time, Noah and Devin began excusing themselves every 10 minutes to come out and help me make the meal.  Somehow, Aidan missed the frequent and lengthy departures and was completely surprised by his homemade birthday surprise. 


Devin wasn’t as crazy about the coffee flavour in the Tiramisu in Florence so we decided to soak the lady fingers in orange juice instead. Other than that we made it exactly like Chef Giovanni showed us and it turned out great.


The pasta was a different story… right off the bat our eggs started running all over the counter and the dough was a little too tough so once we cooked the pasta it turned out more like gnocchi. The Bolognese sauce was great and the tiramisu better than Chef’s, according to the MacInnis boys. Aidan had a great 9 ¾ birthday.
Lightning Storms and Power Failures!

In the middle of the night Devin felt his way along the walls to our room in total blackness. The power had gone out and you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face. Calvin and I couldn’t get back to sleep so we decided to go out on the terrace and sit in the complete dark. The stars were so bright and the whole town below us was out of power as well. We could see the police cars patrolling around and the odd light from a car approaching the town.

Aidan woke up at about :00and joined us on the patio.  Noah could hear us talking and made his way out at about 3:30am so the 4 of us sat in complete darkness and enjoyed the quiet night. The next night the lightning storm started at about the same time of night and this time Noah and Calvin went up to the parked car to get a better view of the flashes across the sky over the sea. At about 5am the storm was right over top of us and the loud clashes of thunder were almost deafening and the rooms lit up with the flashing lightning.


This storm lasted for about 5 more hours and it was a good one. Hard rain beating against the shudders reminded me of good ole Vancouver. In rained all day so we used it to our advantage and made some good advances in schoolwork. By dinner time the rain had stopped but it was cold so we ate in and then pulled out our hoodies from the backpacks and headed down to the town to watch the waves and next storm brewing over the horizon. You would not have wanted to be out on a boat in those waves but it was very intense and powerful so we stayed for a bit to take some pictures.