Andiamo! Citalia Magazine Winter 2023

Gennaro Contaldo
My childhood
on the Amalfi Coast
Ever wondered how Citalia’s Brand Ambassador
and celebrity chef Gennaro Contaldo spent his
youth? Then dive right in.
What was it like to grow up on the Amalfi Coast? Freedom,
pure freedom. I come from a place that's 30 metres above
the sea…our family house sits right on top and the night of
my birth my father said, ‘The sea is rough, be sure to close
the window properly!’ I guess because I could have tumbled
into the water…
As a child, the sea was my swimming
pool, the mountains were my back
gardens, and our little village of
Minori was my playground. I don't
even remember when I learnt to
swim, as we would be at the beach
every day. It was pure bliss.
I used to get up in the morning and go jump in the sea.
When I was in school my friends and I couldn’t wait to finish
the school day so we could be wild, perhaps go fishing
or even hunting in the mountains. I used to get told off a
lot - probably because gallivanting around in the hills with
weapons was a little dangerous. But it was like living in a
kind of paradise. Everything was and still is so simple.
There are just 2,000 people living in Minori today and back
then there were probably less. We knew everyone, or at
least all the kids our age. When I go back and look at my
friends I think - and sometimes even say - ‘Gosh how old
you’ve become!’ But then when I see in their eyes I suddenly
feel we’re all young again.
It’s almost a disadvantage to be born in a place like the
Amalfi Coast, because you don’t fully appreciate it.
When I was about 10 years old, I began to see people from
around the world in my hometown. I remember asking a
child my age from Milan why he was there, and he told me
they were on ‘holiday’. I didn’t even know what this word
meant, let alone understand why they would come to Minori.
It was only when I began travelling all over the world and
settled in England, that I began to realise. Someone showed
me an old Roman ruin somewhere, and I thought, ‘What’s
the big deal? My sister lives in a house built by the Romans’.
When I came back as a young adult, I had the aha moment,
‘Oh my God! My hometown is so very beautiful - wow, wow,
wow! No wonder people love it here’.
There’s a rhythm to life in Minori that is still the same as it
always has been - everyone still stops for lunch at 1pm, and
the shops all still close for a siesta. As a child I would walk
the few hundred metres home from school and you’d hear
people singing from their balconies, the rattle of dishes, and
the wonderful smells. I couldn’t wait to get home.
22
Citalia.com