The Holy Week (Settimana Santa) is much loved by the people living on the Coast, with Easter processions taking place, like the one on Holy Friday in Sorrento (see “Processioni del Venerdì Santo a Sorrento”).

It also marks the start into the tourist season, the Costiera is slowly “waking up” on the weekend around Palm Sunday.

You can feel it in the warmer breeze (with the occasional black clouds and salty gusts coming in from the seaside). In today’s gallery you can see what it looks like taking a stroll through Amalfi in the Holy Week.

For the last two weeks, the vetrine (shop fronts) have been getting ready for Easter, and you can see – feel – taste it everywhere. And then imagine all these Easter cakes – from the local pastiera varieties to pistachio or orange cream filled colombe.

In the slide show below I’ve added a few impressions for you to savor what the storefront of Amalfi’s Pasticceria Pansa looks like these days.

Take note of the local and mostly seasonal ingredients used for the pastries and chocolates – from lemons, oranges, tangerines, bergamot to almonds and walnuts. In the end, this is delicious Mediterranean health food (read more on Cucina Speziata soon).

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We’ll come back more often to Pasticceria Pansa in the course of this blog – it’s a wonderful example of local business and social entrepreneurship in the South). In the next few blog posts, we’ll take a trip around Amalfi, Positano, Sorrento and Capri to discover what Easter has in store for you.