Agropoli

We are on the coast south of Naples, south of the Amalfi Coast, in Agropoli, in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania. The town has some lovely parts, a castle, small port, beaches, clear clear water, but it's not a particularly famous tourist destination, or not yet.





We've rented a house ten minutes up the hill where we are surrounded by olives, figs, grapes, goats, loose horses, wandering cows with bells, cats lurking at dinnertime, all just like the southern Italy you read about in the storybooks. The last few kilometers of the road up here look something like this:



And we arrive at "our" house, nearly the last on the road:



The house opens up wonderfully to terraces and air, with a view north over the Tyrrhenian Sea towards that Amalfi Coast and out to Capri. It's a bit cooler than down on the beach, but plenty warm enough for swimming (me and our friend Laura here):



We found out on arrival that the house comes with a caretaker (maybe attached by family to the landlord?) who lives next door on a little farm and comes in the mornings to sweep and water and she has surprised us a couple times with treats from her farm and kitchen, ricotta from her own goats and a pair of arancini, spectacularly good.

 




There are plenty of dogs around and I can get a small dose of one next door:



We've had thunder and lightening storms to watch several nights, and when it's clear you can watch a bat head out for the evening and an owl that drops off our roof hunt in the field across the road from us.

We are finding it awfully easy to relax.