The Barone B&B, where we are staying, is a short walk to the Duomo of St. Matthew, a fifteen minute walk to the old city of Salerno, and a thirty minute walk to the adjacent town of Vietri sul Mare. Our itinerary for the day included exploring Salerno and Vietri sul Mare followed by a dinner at the Bambinuto winery.

Salerno

This is our second visit to the Duomo in Salerno.  The nave is simpler than those of most churches in Italy we have seen, but the lower level chapel, where the remains of St. Matthew rest, is more ornate and has a colorful display that features ceiling frescoes representing Gospel passages.  The above photo shows the fresco of the Gospel story of the wedding at Canaan in which Jesus performs his first miracle, turning water into wine — a fitting picture for this blog.  After the Duomo visit, we strolled through the Center of Salerno and noted the outdoor fruit and vegetable markets, weekday activity different from the leisurely Sunday night before.

Vietri sul Mare

The walk from Salerno to Vietri sul Mare features panoramic views of the Salerno waterfront and the active Salerno shipping port. Shortly after crossing into Vietri sul Mare, a town famous for its ceramics, we saw a colorful walkway leading to the beach, several hundred feet below.  Along the walkway, there were places to sit and relax as well as an open air amphitheater which is ideal for a concert or a wedding (photo at right).  After a leisurely stroll along the streets with many ceramic and other small shops, we had lunch at Il Principe e la Civetta (The Prince and the Owl). Ro ordered pasta with tomatoes and I had a calamari salad and paccheri with clams and calamari.  We rested on a bench in the piazza before meeting Simona de Pisapia at her enoteca, Si-Wine (photo below right).  We caught up with Simona and shared a bottle of D’Arapi Spumante Pas Dose’, a champagne style wine from Puglia. Simona has an even greater passion than I have for Southern Italy wines. Coincidently, earlier this year she launched her blog, www.viniitalianidelsud.it, which translates as “Italian wines of the South”.  Just a leisurely kind of day in Southern Italy flowing with the rhythms of the day.

Bambinuto

We finished the day with dinner and a wine tasting at Marilena Aufera’s winery, Bambinuto. We met with her husband, Franco, who is a carabinieri (Italian police force) and her two children, Camillo and AnnaMarie.  We enjoyed conversation on a variety of topics while having a dinner of bread, cured meats, and cheese as an antipasti, potato croquettes, and eggplant with tomatoes.  Of course we tasted her wines. We discussed at length a wine that is not ready to go to the market. This creative wine, named 212.4, consists of a blending of four different vintages of aglianico grapes, fermented and aged differently. The 2010 vintage is fermented and aged in a large stainless steel tank similar to white wines and certain aglianico-based wines as discussed in earlier posts of this year’s Italy trip. The 2011 vintage is fermented in stainless steel tanks and the wine ages in oak barrels, which is the traditional way aglianico wines are produced. The 2012 vintage is fermented and aged as a passito, which is a dessert wine. Lastly the 2013 vintage follows the sgranellare method, with a soft press of the grapes followed by fermentation and aging in an oak barrel. This one-of-a-kind wine will be available around Christmas this year.  In the picture below, taken in the beautiful and comfortable Bambinuto cantina, Ro and I flank Maralena’s family.