On a crisp and warm spring day last March I went to the beautiful city of Salerno.
Who knows me knows that Campania (along with Sicily) holds the most special place in my traveler’s heart, because there’s so much beauty and history to enjoy there that it’s really a sin not to catch a flight/train/car/whatever and go there.
In the morning the city was beautifully fragrant of coffee (could that be otherwise in the land of coffee, by the way?), and its soundtrack was of happy giggles and laughs of people all around.
Of course I could not resist and had to enjoy a (another) coffee (WHAT? Only 80 cents? Are you kidding me? – Not.) with the obligatory chat with the man behind the bar counter. Talking to strangers is always quite intimidating to me, and in fact at the very beginning I tend to cut short and slide away, but then I force myself to stay and after a while I get relaxed and then everything comes natural and I enjoy each conversation very much. Yes, shyness is my best enemy.
First thing first, we wandered through the streets of the city centre, and it was just like I had already imagined them: winding like a maze, crowded with picturesque corners, with a rich offering of the best street scenes all well seasoned with that taste for simple life that teaches me how to appreciate the little things we take for granted every single day.
Looking up I got lost throughout the geometries of the balconies and the upper parts of the buildings, all while imagining what would have been like to live in a cream, cappuccino or light pink home. Most importantly, only few steps away from the sea.
Looking down I was fascinated by the calmness I saw in people’s eyes, I got enarmoured with the colours of the local desserts and I was captured by a fried food whose name I can’t remember but its goodness I still can.
So, because the weather was amazing (the weather is always amazing if you’re in the heaven called Campania or Sicily), we went to say “hi” to the sea. Salerno’s promenade was fantastic: there was a fairground and a ferris wheel and people everywhere enjoying a simple walk or their lunch break. I had to repeat that to myself: lunch break by the sea: isn’t that what’s life is all about?
Photography | Words: Rosamaria Filograsso
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