Honeymoon {Arriving in Praiano}

After leaving Florence we took the highspeed train to Naples.  We had heard that getting from Naples to the Amalfi coast can be a bit of a hassle with lots of switching trains and buses so we decided to splurge a bit and rent a private car {which for us was so worth it}, and it took us right by Mount Vesuvius on the way to the coast.

We arrived on the Amalfi coast to sunshine and blue skies.....

....and made our way to Hotel Open Gate in the little town of Praiano between Positano & Amalfi.  There are not enough good things I can say about this family run hotel right on the main road {which is essential if you don't want to hike your suitcase up hundreds of stairs}.

Christian had found this place online after a lot of research and everyone was so extremely kind, accommodating, and helpful.  We had told them it was our honeymoon and asked for one of the top floor rooms with a terrace.

The tile in the bathroom was so cute, but the best part about the room.....

....was this insane giant terrace we had all to ourselves overlooking the Mediterranean.  Can you believe it?!?  We were in absolute heaven.

We decided to go for a little walk to familiarize ourselves with the area.....

....and made our way to the little tobacco shop down the road which sold wine, snacks, and the all important bus tickets.

Our hotel from the road - is it not the cutest place ever?

After wandering back to the hotel we were starving.....

.....so we opened up some chips on the terrace and snacked away {different chip flavors in other countries is always a favorite discovery}.

After we had some snacks in our bellies we decided to head down to the hotel restaurant for an apertivo and views.

Pasquale, the main guy in charge who we fell in love with right away, poured us some delicious Aperol spritzes and gave us a few snacks to enjoy as we sat and took in the amazing views.

We couldn't believe we were sitting in this surreal place....

.....no one else was around...

.....and we could take in the views of the coast...

....while admiring our hotel across the street.

How lucky are we?

After apertivo we headed back up to the room.

After a few selfies....

....and a glass of wine from the bottle we brought with us....

…we headed downstairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner.  We shared a bottle of local wine and sat outside on the front patio, watching the sun set and the cars flying by on the road.

I ordered the spaghetti and clams {I had been waiting for seafood on the Amalfi this whole trip and it did not disappoint}....

.....and Christian got their pasta special with an array of seafood that was so delicious.

We of course had to try some local desserts so we ordered this lemon sorbet served in an actual carved out Amalfi lemon {yum!}....

.....and this lemon delight cake, which sounds decadent and overly sugary but in fact was one of the lightest, most delicious desserts I've ever had.  YUM.

After dinner we were tired from a day of travel and sunshine so headed back up to the room to marvel at the moonlight and our pure luck at being in this beautiful place.

xoxo,

stephanie marie