My wife and I were back in Italy for the 2nd time in 18 months. We loved it the first time and it’s been even better 2nd time round. After 4 fabulous days in Rome we took the bullet train to Florence where we spent another 4 glorious days. AND THEN ! On Thurs, March 27th Martin our good friend and limo tour driver picked us up at 9am at the Hotel Berchielli for the long drive to Salerno for a 6 day stay. IT’S ALL GOOD ! For the first few days we hung out around the town center revisiting our fav places and trying new ones. On Saturday, March 30th our friend and limo driver Eugenio picked us up near our apartment at 9am for the drive to the Archaeological Park of Herculaneum . . we toured Pompeii during our previous visit.
FABULOUS TOUR ! Soon after we arrived we hooked with our friend and tour guide Pina also an archaeologist. The next day our limo driver Giovanni picked us up at 9am for a tour of the Amalfi Coast. SPECTACULAR ! The scenery was beyond breathtaking. First stop was in Sorrento where we saw Mount Vesuvius across the water then Meta where we met the staff at Limoncello di Capri and bought a bottle of Limoncello for a friend back in California. Next stop was Positano then Amalfi where we stopped for a coffee break. LUNCH TIME ! A number of very good restaurants had been suggested to us by our Italian friends and the one we chose was Sal De Riso . . great dessert options.
Giovanni parked his Mercedes across the street and left us to go have lunch elsewhere. WOW ! We could see there were two Sal De Riso restaurants opposite each other. It was 1.20pm when we entered the one on the left . . Pasticceria Sal De Riso. OMG ! Lots of decadent looking desserts, beautiful cakes and gelato, gelato gelato. I met Romina Apicella and Anastasia De Riso at the display counter. Soon after a helpful server named Enrico escorted across to the other restaurant for our lunch. We soon seated ourselves at a table inside the elegant dining room. While taking photos of the dining room I ran into Anastasia again who asked to take photos with my iPhone 16 Pro . . of course.
A polite server named Vincenzo came by to take our lunch order. FIRST UP ! I asked Vincenzo for a craft beer and he came up trumps with the house beer . . an Amalfi Coast Pale Ale – 5.6% abv and it tasted darn good. We had already enjoyed a lot of delicious pizzas during our Italian vacation so why not another one. ITALIAN MENU ! Neither of us could read Italian let alone speak it but artichoke caught our eye so that was the one we ordered to share. It was around this time that we found out that Sal De Riso was the most celebrated pastry chef in Italy and was renowned world wide for his inspired dessert masterpieces. And Sal and his wife had even met the Pope.
WHOOPEE ! Our fabulous looking Neapolitan pizza arrived neatly divided on 2 plates . . how thoughtful. My wife loves artichoke and there was lots of other yummy toppings on top to our liking. MOUTHSATIONAL ! We thought our perfectly cooked pizza tasted amazing . . up there with the best anywhere. I later told Fabrizio the master Pizzaiolo that we loved it. ANOTHER BEER ! The first one went down well so I ordered another one plus two to go. DESSERT ! We had eyeballed every single dessert in the Pasticceria near door and picked out the ones we wanted . . I even took photos. So it was 1 x Chicco and 1 x Asia. Both came out beautifully presented with scoops of house made Gelato !
VERY DELICIOUS ! It was the perfect finale to our incredible lunch. WHAT FUN ! Around this time I met Andrea the incredible manager who gave me a personal tour of the wine cellar downstairs, the private dining room and introduced me to Fabrizio the Pizzaiolo plus the rest of the lads in the kitchen. THERE’S MORE ! We rejoined our limo tour driver Giovanni and continued on to Ravello . . . what a slice of Heaven ! On Tues, April 1st we had 10am date with Daniele the owner of Cycling Amalfi who was dropping off our 2 rental eBikes . . same models we rented 18 months earlier. OUR MISSION ! We intended to ride our eBikes from Salerno to Minori to see the Villa Romana e Antiquarium di Minori.
VERY BEAUTIFUL ! Every now and then we would stop to take photos. The Roman Villa was cool to see from up above but we decided it wasn’t worth paying for a tour. We headed back towards Salerno at 2.30pm but stopped for lunch at Pasticceria Sal De Riso . . no pizza today. Our new mate Enrico remembered us straight way and seated us at a table on the outdoor patio. A server came by to take our lunch order . . 1 x Burger & Fries which came out fast and tasted pretty good. It had been a long day with the bike ride and we needed to get the eBikes back to Salerno by 5pm. I took a few more photos and met up with Franco another manager. A VISIT TO SAL DE RISO ON THE AMALFI COAST IS A MUST !
