Caru' Cu Bere Restaurant - Bucharest ROMANIA

If you’re visiting Bucharest, you can’t go without giving this place a try – Caru’ Cu Bere Restaurant. Serving traditional Romania dishes, this place also provides a whole lot of entertainment throughout the evening, which all makes for some dinner excitement and fun. You can find this place in the heart of Bucharest’s Old Town at Strada Stavropoleos 5, București 030081, Romania - www.carucubere.ro

Walking through the entrance of the wooden and glass rotating doors, you are hit with the magic that is Caru’ Cu Bere - high ceilings with all wooden interior and décor, spiralling staircases and a bar in the middle of the room, with an undefined entertainment floor space - the building is like a historic architectural museum. This restaurant is huge and spacious and on a Saturday night many seats are filled. People are seated outdoors, undercover, inside and upstairs, in an open space, which delivers a vibrant atmosphere, surrounded by music and dancing.

The traditional Romania food is served simple and homely, with basic flavours, so don’t expect 5 star dishes and plating. A dish on the menu, that must be tried, is the impressive large pork shank, succulent and juicy, accompanied by sides, perfect for sharing between two.

A great venue with lively atmosphere, if you're visiting Bucharest and haven't been to Caru Cu' Bere, make sure you get your Romanian food experience here. It will be an eventful and enjoyable evening, without a doubt.

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Biutiful Restaurant - Bucharest ROMANIA

If you’re looking for some good hangover food or simply craving that juicy burger, fish & chips, nachos or a glazed rack of ribs, you can be sure to find it at Biutiful Restaurant located in the lively heart of Bucharest - the Old Town (Address: Strada Gabroveni 6-8, Bucuresti, ROMANIA).

Arriving here for a lazy late Sunday lunch, the place radiates with an energetic ambience. When you walk into this place you are surrounded by beer barrels, the old western wooden kinds and the sleek brass ones too – old meets new. The design of this place is sophisticated vintage crossed with modern warehouse chic, with its wooden and brass furnishings, blended in with the exposed ceiling and bare brick walls… love it! It can make you feel as though you’re in some kind of unique Quinton Tarantino movie, with the numerous theatre studio lights overhead… Scene 1 ACTION - bring on the feast!

Thinking about glazed ribs all week, the only sensible thing to do was to order some. Delightfully delicious and accompanied with a uniquely tangy coleslaw, perfectly rounding out the dish. The other order was the Biutiful Tower Burger, which I only saw and existed for a couple of minutes as it was inhaled and gone forever, signs of a delectable burger.

Most of the tables were booked, but we were lucky as it was easy to seat a party of two. It’s sometimes a pain to make reservations, especially if you’re spontaneous and like to take the day as it comes, but I would recommend advanced booking for this place, if you don’t want to leave your burger fix to chances.

Besides the great atmosphere and food (getting my tastes buds stamp of approval), the other good thing about this restaurant is that it doesn’t take reservations after 8pm and is open until 1am, which is perfect for a late night filler with no need for organisation - http://www.biutiful.ro/

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The ancient Roman city ruins of Pompeii – ITALY

With a late departure flight, a stop in Pompei to visit the ancient Roman city ruins of Pompeii was in order. The town of Pompeii is roughly an hour’s drive from Positano and half an hour from the Naples airport.

There are different spellings around the town, Pompei and Pompeii. The modern city today, is Pompei and the ancient city ruins site is Pompeii, with two i’s. Now that that's clear, here’s a little history and why it’s an interesting place to visit. In 79AD an enormous volcano eruption happened about 30km away from Pompeii, with its destruction leaving around 6 metres of ash covering the whole city. People suffered from extreme heat conditions and ultimately perished. The city was rediscovered about 1,500 years after the tragedy and now lies mostly uncovered. It is the main tourist attraction in Pompei and has been for over 250 years – that’s the history in a nutshell.

The walk around the historic grounds is enjoyable, especially on a sunny day. Walking through the remarkable part of history, you’ll find well preserved historic items and bodies, due the lack of air and moister under all the ash, that once buried and suffocated the ancient city. The bodies found were astounding to see, as many of them were found in intriguing positions, a moment frozen in time. Very sad, but tells a historic story of the devasting events preserved from thousands of years ago.

Overall, we spent about 3 hours walking around the ancient city and didn’t even manage to cover every pathway, as it was built covering such a vast area (if we had an audio guide, we might still be there!). I would recommend grabbing some sandwiches/snacks and drinks for a picnic inside to relax and take it all in. It was a highlight and a great end to a weekend.

 

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The towns of Amalfi & Ravello - ITALY

If you're staying in the nearby town of Positano, the lovely coastal town of Amalfi is a good stopover for a browse Here you will find the ‘Cathedral of Amalfi,’ which is a nice little tour, if you’re into seeing a bit of history and art. The unguided tour will take less than an hour to get through. We did it in about 20 minutes, it was good to see, without reading into every detail. Plus, a patisserie was spotted just outside the Cathedral, before we headed in, and that's all we could think about at the time! So we made a quick tour of the Cathedral and went to Andrea Pansa.

'Andrea Pansa' is a sweet tooth’s heaven, this patisserie has everything your tooth will desire from cupcakes, biscuits, donuts, sweet tarts, nougats, luxury chocolates, candied fruits and obviously, the traditional Italian pastries. Try the La Sfogliatella. it looks something like a pastry lobster tail filled with a creamy custard - ridiculously delicious! Take a seat and put up your feet, the interior offers the ambience of sweet Italian charm.

RAVELLO - If driving along the winding roads doesn't make you ill, the town of Ravello is a short distance from the town of Amalfi. Situated up on the hilltops, offering amazing views of the Amalfi coast and lookout over the ocean. With the sun shining, you will find locals with their children strolling about in the town's main square, just in front of ‘The Duomo Ravello.’

A beautiful garden resides in 'Villa Rufolo.' Situated near the town's main square. The garden offers luscious greens and old stone architecture, plus not to forget the views of the big blue coast. When it comes time for lunch, through a short tunnel (just outside the entrance of Villa Rufolo) you will find a restaurant called ‘Garden.’ It’s a great place to relax and have a bite to eat, surrounded by stunning views.

The menu choices may seem limited and boring but don't be fooled. The food is divine and comes out served on colourful hand-painted tableware. Lunch here, definitely hits the spot – seriously satisfied! Overall, Ravello, during the low season is fairly low key and quiet. So the best time to visit would be during the summer, from July to about mid-September when the ‘Ravello Music Festival’ is in full swing, providing music and opera -http://www.ravellofestival.com/home.php

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Low season weekend in Positano - ITALY

Low season in Positano means something like a ghost town. Starting from November through until the end of March, with about 80% of the restaurants, shops and hotels closed. If you go during one low season and find a favourite restaurant, don’t count on it being open the next low season, as hotels and restaurants rotate each year. But if you don't like the busy tourist crowds, then it's the perfect time to visit!

High season or low season, the scenery in Positano is breathtakingly stunning and still enjoyable with the minimal things. Low season in Positano makes for the perfect get-away, if you live in a bustling hectic city and want to get away from it all, to relax and reset. It's a romantic and pretty town, especially when the sun is shining, you’ll feel like you’re living in a postcard!

 

Staying at the bed and breakfast ‘Villa Yiara’ the owners were accommodating and kind. The room was gorgeous with a sea view terrace, overlooking the big blue ocean. In the morning, breakfast is brought to your room at the time requested and includes pastries, breads, yoghurt, fruit, fresh juice and coffee/tea. If the sun is shining, the only way to have an unforgettable breakfast is outside on your private terrace.

The stroll from ‘Villa Yiara’ to the main beach front is about 15 minutes, depending how many stops you make along the way for that Kodak moment. At every turn there's a beautifully stunning view that makes it irresistable to not capture. Walking around (in March) is quite pleasant, especially when the walk involves a lot of ups and down, many climbs and inclined streets. It makes for a great workout to burn off the calories before the carbo load!

Strolling the streets and exploring every corner and stairway, is eventually going to work up a huge appetite. ‘La Pergola’ is centrally situated, right on the main beach. As one of the closest restaurants to the shoreline, it offers a casual atmosphere. Providing the best views of the famous hillside. All the houses look as though they're stacked on top of one another like jenga pieces, creating a colourful stack. Besides the famous views the food is very good, full of flavours, sure to satisfy the taste buds. The menu offers an array of choices from pizza, pasta, meats and seafood.

For dinner, as many restaurants were closed during the low season period, the B&B owners recommended ‘La Tagliata.’ The restaurant has a free pick-up service, where they’ll pick you up for dinner at one of either times - 7pm or 8pm from your hotel and drop you off again, after a 3 hour food affair. The restaurant is located about a 10 minute drive from Positano’s main area and is situated up high, overlooking the ocean and mountain sides. The restaurant has ‘no menu’ but serves up a 5 course sharing affair for your party (appetizer, first course, second course, main and desserts) and includes a bottle of wine for about €35 per person.

The food overall was good simple home-cooked dishes. So if you’re after authentic Italian home cooking, this is the place to be. The restaurant is family owned and run, with the mother in the kitchen and the son, cousins and uncles running the front of house. They also live in the same building (yes, it’s their home, so the best bet is this restaurant is open every low season). They also grow their own vegetables, what’s not to love. Overall, a lovely experience with wonderful service, family style.

All in all, Positano is a wonderfully gorgeous and peaceful town, during the low season. Recommended mainly for couples looking for a short weekend get-away, but not so much for families or groups. As most of the town is shutdown and uneventful during off season, especially for those looking for more. Amalfi and Ravello are a short drive away, East along the coast, if you wanted to break up your relaxation time and see more.

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