Painting the Norman Tower (Torre Normanna), Amalfi Coast, Italy

Norman Tower, Amalfi Coast, Italy

Painted en plein air on my April 2015 trip to Italy's Amalfi Coast. The Norman Tower is the biggest and oldest of the rectangular style towers  built as a defense for 800 years of struggle with Saracen bloody raids from the sea. Built around 1250 to 1300, it is one of thirty along the coast. Currently houses a restaurant and meeting facilities.

This scene  was a 10 minute walk from our apartment in Maiori.  I set my easel up on the side walk under tree but was still in the sun. Ten feet to my right was a restaurant/caterer  so this idealistic scene  was accompanied by the odor of cooking food from the kitchen fan. Soon there was a delivery truck with a  load of fresh fish. Next the orange suited street sweeper came along with his long handled dust pan and a twig broom to remove all of yesterdays cigarette butts. There are lots of Italian smokers and they use the sidewalk as ash trays. Over our stay I noticed this  and other cleanup provided a lot of employment and kept the beauty of the region. After that a noisy garbage truck backed in to the curb with it's bumper one foot from my left leg. The odor of  garbage in the truck and the containers being emptied from the restaurant filled my nostrils. Still the scene was  engaging. The slanted wall to the left  supports  the highway of a 1000 curves, SS163, and one can walk along the side of it to reach the Tower. I could have painted the scene from a lower perspective on the beach in a more environmentally friendly spot but the small wheels on my equipment cart were tiny and would hang up in the fine grey sand and pebbles that compose the beach. (Guess I could have carried it). I looked up to see the smiling face of our landlord. He was wearing a heavy black overcoat ( I thought dressed for Sunday) and it was in the 60's Fahrenheit. When I asked about it he said he was riding his motor cycle and needed it. He knew I was an artist so I was easy to spot when he passed by and he wanted to see if things were fine with our rental facilities.
By now it was near 1 PM and  people who looked like they were part of a wedding party were standing in the vicinity. Ten minutes later a limo parked some 50 feet up to the left and soon there was a bride and groom in the scene. I may not be the best age guesser but she looked about 20 and  he looked about 40. She wore a beautiful white maternity wedding gown and he a tux. So i guess they have weddings on Sunday in Italy.
Here is a pic of the paved walk/park area along the entire Maiori  beach front. Maiori has the longest beach on the Amalfi Coast. Way in the distance is my wife and daughter, identifiable by the raised four wheel scooter my daughter used to be rapidly mobile with in spite of  her broken ankle (3 weeks before the trip), Separate close of her on the scooter. More about the advantages of traveling with someone handicapped in later posts.

Has brakes  good for the sttep down slopes of the Amalfi Coast

Maiori Beach Promenade