Katie and I flew back into Rome after class on Wednesday evening to meet the bus we were taking with the rest of the group to Amalfi. Traffic outside of the city was so bad that night, and we were very afraid that we were going to miss the bus, but luckily for us they waited, and we made it! It was a long three hour trip on a mini bus, after our two hour flight, but it could have been worse, because there were a lot more students coming from Florence which is a 6-7 hour trip on a bus! When we finally got to our hotel in Sorrento that night, it was almost midnight, so we showered and went straight to bed.
The next morning, we saw that we had two other roommates that had come in during the middle of the night, because both of them had come with the Florence group. Just before our meeting time at noon, Katie and I went out to meet the bus to go into Naples, but there was no one to be found... the bus had left without us. I went into the reception area, and the clerk at the desk had confirmed that the bus had indeed left about 15 minutes prior. Katie and I looked at each other and had no idea what to do; the last thing we wanted to do was stay at the hotel all day. At that point the clerk offered to call our group leader, Monika, and see if they could possibly turn around. He handed me the phone, and it was actually her that apologized, because they had decided to leave 15 minutes early. Apparently they didn’t have a chance to tell everyone (Katie and myself), but she was very sweet and told me that it wasn’t our fault at all and that they weren’t very far away, so they would turn around to come get us. I quickly agreed, but we still felt bad because this is the second time in less than 24 hours that we had delayed the bus; in reality though, neither time was our fault... surprisingly. The bus showed up within 10 minutes, and we quickly got on and took our walk of shame to the back of the bus, as everyone stared at us. However, in no time at all, we were back on the road and almost to Naples. Once we arrived, we first went to get something to eat at a restaurant recommended by one of our leaders. I ordered the traditional margarita pizza, which was SO delicious, considering that we were in the birthplace where the first margarita pizza was invented. :) After lunch, we walked around to see some of the sights and met the group to head back into Sorrento later that afternoon.
That night, there was a barbecue and pool party at our hotel. It was nice to sit outside, enjoy some food from the grill, and sip some piña coladas by the pool. We hung out some of our new friends and got to know everyone a little better. After a couple hours, we called it a night and went to bed since we had to get up decently early the next day... and because we were determined not to make the bus wait again.
6:30am came pretty early, so we quickly got ready, ate some breakfast, and headed to meet the bus, which I’m proud to say that we were actually early. We had to be up so early, because our ferry to Capri was leaving at 8:30am, and it would definitely not be waiting around for anyone. We made it to the ferry with no problems, and I was getting so excited to see what the rest of the day had in store for us. Katie and I quickly found seats on the ferry, and as I was looking around, I thought I saw two familiar faces; and it turned out that our friends Shelby and Chelsea that we had met in Paris were on this trip too! I was even more excited for the rest of the weekend at that point. :) We talked the entire way over to the island and caught up about the rest of our travels since February. It was a pretty quick trip to the island, and in no time at all, we were boarding another boat to go on a cruise around the island. I absolutely loved every second of it! The scenery was so beautiful, the water, the landscape; it truly was paradise. We reached a certain point in the boat tour where we all boarded into other really tiny boats so we could go into the blue grotto. The four of us girls all fit into one boat perfectly, along with our guide for the grotto. He started rowing toward the smallest little hole in the cliffs; it was seriously the size of a basketball backboard. He made us all duck down, and he himself hunched down just enough to pull us into the grotto. I’m not kidding when I say that it was probably the extraordinary sight I have ever seen in my whole entire life. The water inside the dark cave was glowing the most beautiful color of blue that I’ve ever seen. The reason that it glows so well inside the grotto is because the sun from the outside reflects down to the bottom of the ocean, and as a result, it has a “glowing” effect. I could have stayed in there for hours, and I would have loved to have swam inside, but unfortunately we only had about 5-7 minutes to enjoy it. Once we were back outside, we loaded back onto our bigger boat to continue our tour. We viewed some other smaller grottos, the three most famous rocks in Capri used in the Dolce & Gabbana commercials, the mansion on top of the cliffs that the president of Gerber baby products owns, looked for Mariah Carey’s vacation home, and eventually finished our tour. It was such a beautiful day for a boat ride; I didn’t want it to end!
After we were back on dry land, we took a cable car up to another part of Capri. I drank one of the most refreshing drinks of my life; it was called a granita, and it was like a lemon slushy, but so much better! I’m still dreaming about how good it was. Anyway, we walked around that part of the island for a little while, took some pictures, and later, we rode up to a different little town. While we were there, we grabbed lunch, sampled some limoncello, and I even bought some customized sandals made just for me! The older man that was making them was so sweet, not to mention he had a booming business. He even made sandals for Jackie Kennedy! After we visited the sandal shop, we bought tickets for the chair lift to go to the highest point of the island to enjoy some of the best views. Although our friend Chelsea was too scared to go up, Shelby, Katie, and I had the best time. It was basically like a 45 minute photo-shoot for the three of us once we reached the top, but we couldn’t help but take so many pictures because the views were astounding! It was totally worth it to go to the top (even though I was a little scared myself when going up the chairlift). We had perfect timing too because on the way back down, it was just starting to sprinkle and later turned into a heavy rain.
Once we rode back down to the port, we did a little souvenir shopping and boarded the ferry once more to head back to the mainland. It had been a fantastic day! Once we got back to the hotel, we got ready and headed into Sorrento to eat dinner and enjoy the night life. We went to a bar with all of the other students on our trip called the English Tavern and danced the night away. After several hours, a large group of us walked back to the hotel, in order to get some rest for the next day!
Luckily we didn’t have to get up quite as early on Saturday as we did the day before. We quickly got ready and met the bus headed toward Positano for the day. I was pretty bummed out because it was supposed to be our beach day, and the weather wasn’t cooperating at all. It was pretty chilly and drizzling on and off all day, but we were determined to make the most of our last full day in Italy. It was around a 45 minute bus ride there and another 45 minute trek down all the steps on the cliff to reach the city; I only fell about three times walking down all the wet steps in flip flops. When we finally got to the bottom, we walked out onto the black sand beach and took some great pictures of the town. Even in the rain, it was still so beautiful. We decided that our next move would be to get some lunch, because we were all cold, tired, and hungry. I have to say that I ordered one of the best meals I’ve had during my whole time in Europe for lunch that day. The homemade gnocchi was heavenly; I probably could have eaten three more plates.
After lunch, we wandered in and out of some of the little shops for a little while, and our group ended up leaving a few hours sooner than we had expected since the weather was so bad. On our way out, Katie and I stopped at a little sandwich shop that our leaders recommended called Vini and Panini. I bought some ruby red fresh picked strawberries, and we decided to split a panini since we’ve heard everyone rave about how good they were. We ordered ours with chicken, tomatoes, mozzarella, pesto, and a little basil... absolutely scrumptious! I wasn’t even hungry, but I ate every last bite; it put Panera Bread to shame. If it wasn’t for the food in Positano, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the dreary day near as much, but I was so happy we went. I do really want to go back someday though, so I can enjoy the beach with some better weather!
Later that night, we had basically the same game plan as the night before. Katie and I enjoyed another wonderful Italian dinner; I couldn’t help but order the gnocchi again, but it was still so good the second time around, especially when complemented by some tasty red wine. After dinner we went to the same bar and hung out with all of our new friends for the rest of the night.
Unfortunately, the next day was Sunday, which meant that it was our last day. We checked out of our hotel and stopped at our final destination of the trip before heading back to Rome. We spent the afternoon at Pompeii, the ancient city that was covered by an explosion of Mt. Vesuvius in the year 79 A.D. and wasn’t uncovered until the 1700s. There have been intensive excavations since the 18th century, and now it’s one of the biggest tourist attractions in all of Italy. It was incredible to see the remains of the ancient city and to see how advanced this society really was, even in the 1st century. They had irrigation systems, running water, and the fundamental means for plumbing; it was amazing. We walked throughout all of the grounds and saw just how these people lived in the year 79, but one of the most astounding things for me was to see the people who had literally been mummified in the volcanic ash. We saw the body casts of how many people looked in their last moments before they were petrified... so crazy!
After our tour of the ancient city, I enjoyed some delicious margarita pizza for lunch and one last round of gelato before heading back to Rome to catch our flight back to Spain. What an unforgettable weekend it was! I will absolutely visit the Amalfi Coast again someday; it’s too beautiful not to go back!
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