Amalfi Coast!

This weekend we headed to Southern Italy to the beautiful Amalfi Coast. We stayed in Sorrento and traveled to Capri, Pompeii, Naples and Positano. It was a 6 hour bus ride, which wasn’t actually that bad. It was a chartered coach, and we got to watch Entourage the entire time. The tour guides were three guys my age who were pretty cool. They were from Seattle and had studied in Florence during college and they decided to come back. Once we arrived in Sorrento, we headed to our “hotel.” The hotel was actually what they referred to as “bungalows” which in all actuality were little cabins like you stayed in at camp. It wasn’t my ideal lodging, but seeing as how we had air conditioning and were never actually there, it was ok. I stayed with my four roommates and the other four girls were next door. When we walked into our “bungalow” there was a set of bunk beds in one “room” and two twin beds in the other, but the room was so small that they were pushed together. I managed to push them apart a little, I really didn’t want to snuggle with Tracy for 3 nights and we managed to get around. The most interesting part of this lodging experience was that it was like a jungle. It was called Villagio Verde which means in Italian, “Green Village”, and it was green. There was like a pergola type structure over the entire area that was covered in grape vines. There were hundreds of bunches of grapes everywhere, which was kind of cool but the bugs were worse than in Florence. Also, the people who lived behind the “hotel” had a small farm with a bunch of dogs and of course, a rooster. Oh how nice it is to have a rooster alarm clock everyday at dawn…not. This thing crowed for hours. The first morning I woke up, I thought I was dreaming – I was not. Although it was particularly annoying, it was also humorous, so we got used to it.

Friday morning we met early to take the ferry over to Capri. It was one of my favorite spots we’ve been to. It was a day of luxury for sure. Once we got to Capri, we stopped for lunch and rented a private boat. The driver was really fun and let us out to swim a lot. We stopped at the “Green Grotto” which is not as famous as the blue one, but just as fantastic. It is a swim through type of area (boats definitely don’t fit) and the rocks under the water glow bright green. As I was swimming, I unfortunately don’t have any pictures of it, but it was amazing. Its something about the way the sun hits the rocks underneath, I am not sure, but it’s definitely green! The water was the deepest shade of blue and so beautiful. It was a little chilly, but it was very hot that day, so it felt amazing. If we weren’t swimming we were laying out on the boat deck (it was a small boat, but the entire front part was flat and cushioned…so nice) it was so awesome. Once we finally got to the Blue Grotto (its one of the 7 Wonders…google it.) we got into little rowboats and went in. It is a very small opening, so you have to sit on the floor of the rowboat and lay back as to not hit your head. Once in the cave it is pitch black, I could not even see my hand in front of my face, which is very strange. The “driver” of the row boat takes you to the back of the cave and turns around and that’s when you see it; the brilliant blue radiating out of the water. It’s so weird and cool at the same time! Again, it is something about the why the sun reflects, but regardless, it’s awesome. Afterwards we headed back to the island of Capri where we walked around for a bit and then headed back to Sorrento to get ready for the evening and go to dinner. Our tour guide had recommended this place by the ports called “Ristorante don Viceno” as having the best seafood, so that is where we went. It was a little more expensive, but it was definitely worth it. I obviously didn’t have any seafood, but the service was amazing (which is rare in Italy) and my food was pretty good. There were 12 of us, so they set us up in a private room. The waiter brought us 3 trays of antipasti (appetizers and on the house…) which consisted of bruschetta, and other things that I don’t have a clue as to what they were called, but were delicious nonetheless. Everyone ordered seafood except me and another girl, but I ordered asparagus and this pasta with zucchini, cream and provolone. It was almost like glorified mac and cheese…haha but good. The asparagus was over cooked, but it was still pretty good. We were having a great time and getting ready to get our check when here comes our waiter with more complimentary things only this time it was little dessert pastries and Limoncello. Limoncello is a dessert liquor that is made in Italy. Most regions have their own version, as lemons are grown everywhere. I had never actually had Limoncello, but I figured it would be light and lemony. Ha! This drink is served in little glasses (like shot glasses) and it is meant to be sipped. I took a sip and almost threw up all over the table. It was definitely not light, but definitely tasted like lemon. I suffered through it, as I thought it would be rude if I didn’t finish, and afterwards I am pretty sure I grew hair on my chest. Haha…I would compare it to sipping on bad tequila or any other really strong liquor. Anyways, it was a great dinner and followed into a great night on the town with our tour guides and the other students on the trip.

Saturday morning we had planned to get up and go to Positano, because they are supposed to have the best beach in Italy, but we thought it was going to be cloudy all day so we went to Pompeii and Naples instead. (sidenote, it was 90˚ and sunny with not a cloud in the sky…) We went to Pompeii first and had some of the best orange juice I have ever tasted. It was like someone squeezed an orange into my mouth…delicious! We entered the ruins immediately after and it was awe inspiring. I cannot describe the feeling of entering into this city that was frozen in time. A lot of the buildings are still intact and there were several “people” on display. It was very odd to see the people, because they were in mid-motion when they died and were basically fossilized immediately. I really enjoyed seeing Pompeii and if you are ever in Italy, I highly suggest going. We were only there for a couple of hours, but the ticket lady told me it would take 2-3 days to see everything. I wanted to stay longer, but the people I was with didn’t share my interest and fascination and were complaining the whole time, so we left. Please look at my pictures from Pompeii and hopefully you will see how interesting these ruins were as well.

After Pompeii, we headed to Naples (the birthplace of pizza) to eat authentic Pizza Margherita. Pizza Margherita is pizza crust (obviously), fresh tomatoes, salt, pepper, olive oil, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil. I don’t even really like pizza, but this was the best pizza I have ever had. Ever. It is indescribable and is probably the best thing I have eaten in Italy. If pizza was this good in the States, I would be a lot fatter…The pizzas were probably about the size of a large pizza, but the crust is very thin and light, so it is not as filling like all the pizza we have in the US. I actually ate the whole thing, as did everyone else with us! After having the best pizza on earth, we were exhausted and decided to head back to Sorrento. It was a pretty low-key evening that night as we planned to get up early the next day to go to the beach.

Sunday morning we woke up late (of course), but we woke up to rain. However, Italy’s weather is not unlike Ohio, so rain in the morning, doesn’t necessarily mean it will rain all day. Well, it did and it was cold, but we went to Positano anyways. We took the most horrific bus to the town. It was a charter bus, however they stuffed it full and we had to stand for 45 minutes driving through the mountains and trying not to fall or sit on any of the fortunate people who had seats. I had to keep my head down because I was getting really car sick, so by the time we got to Positano I was pretty green. Once we got there, we hiked down to the shore (I’m not sure how far, but by the time we got there, all of our legs were shaking…and that was going down !!) We decided to get lunch at this cute little place that also had very good seafood (I was told…haha) and I got eggplant lasagna, which was interesting and good. Instead of noodles, it was slices of eggplant….I’ve been eating enough carbs, I thought it was time to branch out. By the time we were finished eating, it was almost time to start heading back to Sorrento, so we walked through some shops and made our way to the bus. Fortunately we found a shuttle to take us to the top, as I am sure all of our hearts would have exploded walking up the amount of stairs that took you to the top. After we arrived back in Sorrento, it was time to load up and get back to Florence.

It was a great weekend exploring Italy. I am so grateful for the experiences I had there and on other trips. The things I have seen are so beautiful, I am in constant amazement. Actually on the walk home from the train station last night, Tracy and I were talking about how amazing the Duomo is. It is so strange to live next door to this massive, important historical monument. We were laughing about how it didn’t seem real and we thought it was a painting or I think the other thing we said was a hologram…haha… I hope that I continue to be in awe of my surroundings as this is a once in a lifetime experience that I will treasure forever, and I hope that you enjoy reading about it!!

Ciao for now-