Amalfi Coast Trip: Sorrento, Capri, Positano, and Pompeii

WARNING: This blog is LOOOOONNNGGG. I was keeping it updated on my computer while at the Amalfi Coast because this trip has been too amazing for me to forget anything. Hopefully you find it all interesting. If not, feel free to skip through and just look at the pictures :)

This weekend, I went with an organized tour group to the Amalfi Coast (the southern coast of Italy). We stayed in Sorrento and took trips to Capri and Pompeii. It was a weekend full of hiking hiking hiking. Each town is built into sloping cliffs and hills, so to get from place to place one has to climb steep hills or thousands of tiny steps. Lets just say I’m going to have a very firm bum by the time I get back to the states thanks to all these Italian roads and steps. 

Amalfi Coast day 1:

We loaded our bus to the coast Thursday night around 7 (after a quick McDonald’s stop, of course). After a surprisingly quick 6 hour ride, we arrived to find this:

(Well, this picture depicts what our bungalows looked like in the daylight. We got in at almost 2 am.)

Yes. That’s a freaking hammock. And we were completely surrounded by lemon and orange trees. 

The next morning, we woke up early and, after I took the picture of our bungalow, headed over to Capri at around 9. The weather was sunny and surprisingly warm (I finally wore shorts in Europe). 

The island of Capri is known for it’s grottos, specifically the Blue Grotto, one of the world’s 7 wonders. You know, alongside the pyramids and all that jazz. However, after an entire day in Capri, even without seeing the Blue Grotto (because of the high cost to go inside and lack of time) I’ve decided the island as a whole should be one of the 7 wonders of the world. The water is bluer than anything besides the sky. I’ve never seen water that blue before besides the blue dyed water in front of one of those Southlake, Texas neighborhood fountains. The cliffs, caves, arches, basically every single natural landmark is mind blowing. The plants are so green. I sat with my mouth wide open most of the time, gawking at the beauty of it all. I don’t know who’s in charge of picking what counts as a wonder, but whoever is in charge should talk with me and I’ll let him know. 

After a lovely ferry ride from Sorrento to Capri, four of my TCU friends and I split from the group to search for an ATM. As we waited for our friends, Beth, Sarah and I were approached by a young Italian guy who asked us if we knew what we were doing that day. Obviously this seemed creepy, so we replied with a yes and tried to avoid him, but he kept talking to us and finally found out that we had no idea what to do there. 

He (Carlo) offered us a ride around the island by one of his friends (Raphael) with a boat. Turned out, Carlo worked at the restaurant we had been standing next to with his parents. So of course he hooked us up with some sandwiches and plenty of alcohol to take on this random boat ride with a stranger out into the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, I did think about the fact that we were about to get on a boat with some man who could take us out to God knows where and do God knows what to us. But apparently we were ok with that, especially since Carlo’s parents were involved and we had been told we had to pay (120 Euros - only 24 Euros a piece for a private boat tour). 

Well, we lived and had one of the most epic days ever. For two hours, Raphael drove the five of us girls all the way around the island, and he knew his stuff. He showed us all the different grottos, important points of the island, and even found a place for us to swim. Keep in mind, it’s still pretty much winter here - only 60ish degrees - and the water is FREEZING, plus its jellyfish season, so we had to find a nice place free of jellyfish. However, I can say I’ve swam in the Mediterranean! We got to lay out in the sun (I avoided any bad sunburns!) and relax with our Coronas and vino. This day was the most spontaneous day of my life (scaring the hell out of me), and something I’ll never forget (unless I get a concussion or something I suppose). 

My camera died at this point (way to go me) so the rest of my pictures have been “borrowed” from my lovely friends. 

Once we got back to the port, we laid around on the beach, drying out and relaxing. After some delicious gelato, we hopped a ferry back to Sorrento where we got nice hot showers and prepped for a delicious seafood dinner (pasta with clams and mussels). 

Day 2:

Less successful. We’d planned on taking a bus ride out to the beach town of Positano, laying out on the sand all day, and hopping a ride back to Sorrento for dinner. Unfortunately, despite the beautiful weather reports according to Yahoo! weather, the day was dismal. The clouds hardly let any sun through and it eventually started raining. This of course did not occur until we were already in Positano trying to make the best of the cold beach. So, we made our way back to the hotel quite early and took some long naps. We did stop for some lunch before we left, and got HUGE sandwiches made with fresh tomato, mozzarella, bread, and ham for only 5 Euro. 

Positano

We got a little exploratory around dinner time, and headed uphill to a surprisingly delicious and cheap restaurant. After more seafood (mine was a mixture of fried calamari, shrimp, and sardines = a specialty of Sorrento according to good ol’ Rick Steves), free wine, lemoncello, chocolate, bread and good conversation, we trudged back to the hotel for one more night. 

Day 3:

Woke up early for a delicious 3 Euro hotel breakfast, and hopped on the bus to Pompeii. Good ol’ Bruno bought us all caprese sandwiches and a guide to take us around the ruins. 

After walking on extremely cobbled streets (to the point where I couldn’t even look up at my surroundings to avoid tripping - although that’s not saying much I suppose), through great theaters, bakeries, houses, and brothels (with authentic paintings, might I add) alongside our tour guide, we went off to explore on our own. 

The coolest things about Pompeii were the lizards. They had shiny green backs and were so fast. I became a little preoccupied with catching them, and, in the process, stuck my hand in some plant. And it BURNED. Obviously, I made a scene, yelling for Beth and looking for water to pour on it. Thanks to a very sweet British couple witnessing my show, I found out that I’d stuck my hand in nettles. After I’d realized the old man had been joking about it leading to my hand falling off, I was able to relax and the stinging subsided and I walked on down to the House of Mysteries with some of the most epic frescos. 

Oh also there were water fountains everywhere, with fresh water good enough to drink which was super cool. They looked like this:

We took the long bus ride back to Florence and now I’m sitting in my room while it rains and thunders (yes, Florence does get thunderstorms) and listening to my roof leak. 

Thank God for Rick Steves

I figure I should type this one out before I leave for the Amalfi Coast tomorrow. Otherwise my next blog would end up being much too long for anyone to be interested in.

Forgive me for the recent slack in posts. My mom has been here in Florence, seeing what's been going on, rather than hounding me for more blog posts :) For those of you who didn't know, my family and Heather were visiting me in this foreign land last week. I've put up Pisa pictures on Facebook and creep on Heather Shoop to see more weird pictures of my family.

Today I went with my lovely roommate, Beth, to the delightful Cinque Terre. It is a strip of western Italian coast which includes 5 small towns (hence, the cinque - five in Italian). These towns are all connected by a long stretch of hiking trails. Some people actually try to make the 5 hour trek. Crazies. I know. Beth and I visited the town of Vernazza. It's usually the one you see all the pictures of: the colorful buildings perked up on a steep hill leading into the water. Here's a few I took:

After a three hour train ride into the beautiful beach town, we hiked up a steep hill (about a 20 minute walk) to the cemetery of the town. The hike was warm, beautiful, and completely isolated. Thanks to the influence of my father, I had been inclined to purchase Rick Steves' guide to Italy. In the very informative Cinque Terre section, he provides the most helpful walking tour guide for Vernazza. With his help, Beth and I got to see views of the town we never would have found on our own.

We spent about 5 hours, eating lunch, gelato, laying on giant rocks, writing/purchasing post cards, reading, and exploring. The weather was perfect so we rolled up our pants and sat ourselves down for a nice relaxing day.

Ending the day with a good book @ sunset.

Unfortunately, the day turned awry as we set out to leave. Rick Steves doesn't quite cover what to do if you miss your train. The train ride to Vernazza from Florence had been so easily because we were given three tickets: the exact number of trains we took. We only had one ticket for our ride back. So we were baffled. We decided to wait and ask someone until we left. Vernazza's train people like to leave work super early though, so there was no one to ask. I mistook an arrival time for a departure time, thus missing our train in the right direction. Luckily, by happenstance, after taking the train in the opposite direction necessary, we asked a nice train man what to do. After plenty of stress and fretting, we found ourselves on the smallest, darkest, most vacant creepy train back to Florence. We sat on it for about 2 and a half hours while passing through some definite ghost towns (keep in mind, we left Vernazza at sunset, so most of our ride was in the dark).

We finally made it back to our apartment and are happy to say that we've finally had one adventurous and productive day of Spring Break!! Off to the Amalfi Coast tomorrow night to see Pompeii, Capri, and Naples. Oh, and to get some beach action. I'm preparing myself for a sunburn. Be back Sunday night to update.

French Riviera

It's been a while since I last posted because I spent all last weekend in France and then got back to Florence and got sick. Oh and mid terms start next Monday. And I have three on Tuesday. And my whole family plus Heather get here tonight. Here's a quick run through of my French Riviera trip (March 3-6).

I was supposed to go with an organized tour group, but at the last minute the travel agency cancelled since not enough people signed up. We wanted to go anyway, so I got up early the next morning and bought my train ticket to Nice. I don't particularly do well with last minute arrangements and a lack of plans, so Wednesday night was spent in a stressful fret trying to pack and get everything ready to go.

Thursday immediately after class I headed to the train station. After picking up a delightful McDonald's lunch (a new train station tradition), I hopped on the first of four trains I'd have to take to Nice. The total travel time was about 8 hours. We arrived in Nice around 10 pm and went straight to our hostel to sleep.

I fell down the stairs on our way out of the hotel. 

The next morning a small group of us (I went with 6 other girls) took a train to Antibes, the old summer home of Pablo Picasso and the current summer getaway for lots of rich people with yachts. Picasso's old beach mansion has been turned into a museum dedicated to his work and others influenced by him. It was really interesting to see all of his stuff. He really was a weirdo. A genius nonetheless, but a weirdo.

We saw this on the train to Antibes. The guy told us to
take pictures. 

Yachts in Antibes

With our large group, we went out to a delightful dinner where I had gnocchi (look it up, it's delicious, and also quite Italian). Some of us decided to go out that night, which unfortunately led to a hungover and grumpy Sam the next morning.

The guy who was supposed to lead the organized group (but cancelled on us) took a bunch of us to Monaco. Fun fact: It's its own country and I had no idea. It's also home to the famous Monte Carlo casino (no I did't actually see it because I was preoccupied with the aquarium). Also Grace Kelly married the prince of Monaco and we saw the palace she lived in and the church she's buried in. Also, French aquarium ticket guys are rude. We tried to get the student discount (because, well, we're students) by showing several forms of student ID (LdM, TCU, even my student Visa). He was very offended that we attempted such a scandalous thing, threw our IDs back at us and made us pay the full price. I took lots of cool pictures though. Oh, and the aquarium was also a museum dedicated to Jacque Cousetau. I wish I could tell you more about him, but everything was in French.

A native pigeon of Monaco. 

Monaco

At the aquarium

That night was the big Nice carnival night parade. Silly string and confetti everywhere, we watched these massive (and quite creepy) floats pass by. We also made our way over to the huge ferris wheel and saw the city glow at night.

Most importantly, I have to commend the 24 hour kabob stand around the corner from our hostel. Two nights I ate the most delicious thing ever. It had the meat, french fries, lettuce, tomatoes and onions all wrapped up in a freshly warmed tortilla. They were addicting. It's a good thing there isn't anything like that around the corner from my apartment in Florence.

Three of us headed back to Florence Sunday morning on a more expensive, faster train. It was a unique experience finding relief in seeing Italian signs and hearing Italian after a weekend in France. I still speak very very little Italian, but at least I know which signs mean exit.

Me in Monaco