This weekend was amazing, and I wanted it to never end. It started on Thursday night, going out with some friends for drinks and dancing. It was a lot of fun. We learned that there are a lot of Italian men at all the younger clubs ... and they are quite handsy. I had to physically move their hands off of me ... and my friend Lunar, went so far as to telling men that we were a couple and they needed to back off. It was entertaining. I was ready to be done with that spot though way before anyone else, so I got back into bed at about 3:30 and at 4. The next day, Lunar (my roomie), Bryan and Lucy (friends from New York) took the train to Pisa and spent most of the day there. We took our typical tourist pictures holding up the tour, and walked around quite a bit. We all made sure to get a postcard. After eating and riding back to Florence, I spent the evening in and went to dinner in the hostel with Lunar and packed for my school trip. At 4:30 am. On Saturday morning, I woke up and walked to the train station. I wont lie ... it was a scary walk in the dark, by myself. There were lots of odd people out at that hour! We got on the bus and rode for 4 1/2 hours to the city of Pompeii. Once the bus stopped, Luca (our hilarious tour guide) advised us on places to eat and a set of bathrooms that we should NOT go into. He really emphasized how serious he was on all this. Haha...he said, "if you go....it will be the worst experience of your life. like nothing you've ever seen before. just don't. walk away. run, even!" we were cracking up. We then proceeded to go on a 3 1/2 hour walking tour of the ruins of Pompeii. I thought it was amazing. I can't imagine what those people went through being buried by molten ash, debris, and poisonous gases. I wrote a lot of the history on the posted pictures. It hit me really hard when we got to see actual bodies that had mummified b/c the ash was so hot and they all laid curled around together with their family, trying to cover their faces. It was sooo sad.
After Pompeii, we loaded up and went to Sorrento. Upon arrival, we checked into the hotel and had very little time before dinner. I took a swim in our non-heated pool...froze my tushee off and got ready for dinner. We were served a 3 course dinner. (however..the staff was very rude and rushed our meal and made us leave the moment we were through b/c they had another group coming in. EVEN THOUGH there were plenty of other open tables...it was a HUGE dining room...and we only had 4 tables...gah....not very hospitable or Italian like!) But, dinner was very good. We had wine, house red and white. To start, I had a sausage and mushroom pasta. The main dish was scorpion fish and grilled eggplant and potatoes. Dessert was peach shortbread and tiramisu. After dinner, we walked to the local Lemoncello factory and had unlimited tastings. We tried regular, creme, chocolate, mango, pineapple, oragne and an assortment of candies. I LOVED the chocolate the most, of course. Afterwards, my friend and I walked around with the tour guide and his brother and some other students. We ended up at an Irish pub and hung out there for awhile. We then went to a small shop and played foozeball. It was a fun evening of just roaming around the streets of Sorrento. It's a pretty small place really! I liked it though. In the morning, we met at 8 and headed to the ferry....
Here's where things got interesting...as we headed to the ferry, it was slick cobblestone sets of steps..and I had on cheap, old-navy worn out flip-flops...and so I fell...in my dress...down a few, fell HARD (and almost took out Luca who was standing in front of me). It hurt, I was shaky...but I shook it off. We rode the ferry to Capri. The island was gorgeous as we approached! :) We started to notice how cloudy it was getting, but blew it off in our excitement. We boarded our private boat for our tour and started out. We were all blown away by the view and completely giddy. We saw the green and white grotto, the purple and orange coral, and a lot of famous ridges and arches in the cliffs. AND THEN...came the DOWNPOUR! It was the most rain I have seen in a VERY long time; huge drops, fast and hard. The captain let us ride it out for awhile, all of us trying to get our umbrellas to protect us, but it was coming from all angles. So, we got under a huge tarp. We were laughing our heads off....b/c really, what else can you do. We were going along the Almafi coast, covered by a tarp, still holding up umbrellas because the tarp wasn't very efficient. Water was pouring in from all sides. It was a pretty rough 30 minutes or so. We were waiting with tons of other boats so that we would could go into the Blue Grotto, but it was going to be another 45 minutes, and we couldn't wait it out. We headed back and it started to clear up. But, just a few football field lengths away, there was a tornado on the water, it was amazing. I guess they are called waterspouts. It came down sooo slowly, touched the ocean and went right back up! The trip to Capri and AnaCapri were amazing. We had awesome pizza...I had a slice of my friends seafood: shrimp, squid, and octopus....SO GOOD! I couldn't believe it. Afterwards, we got gelato and the toasted almond and chocolate were to DIE for....soooooo delicious! We took the bus from Capri to Anacapri....and it was the scariest thing ever, winding really quickly around the roads and the buses barely scraped by. INSANE. Then we took the cable car to the top of the mountain on AnaCapri and the view at the top, literally brought tears to my eyes. It was such a moving experience...amazingly gorgeous! :) After that, headed to the beach. The water was soooo clear and sooo blue. This place was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. AMAZING! After that, we took a ferry to naples and headed home. We got in about 12:30 am and then walked home to fall in bed for school! It was an amazing trip. If you haven't seen pictures yet, do it soon!
After Pompeii, we loaded up and went to Sorrento. Upon arrival, we checked into the hotel and had very little time before dinner. I took a swim in our non-heated pool...froze my tushee off and got ready for dinner. We were served a 3 course dinner. (however..the staff was very rude and rushed our meal and made us leave the moment we were through b/c they had another group coming in. EVEN THOUGH there were plenty of other open tables...it was a HUGE dining room...and we only had 4 tables...gah....not very hospitable or Italian like!) But, dinner was very good. We had wine, house red and white. To start, I had a sausage and mushroom pasta. The main dish was scorpion fish and grilled eggplant and potatoes. Dessert was peach shortbread and tiramisu. After dinner, we walked to the local Lemoncello factory and had unlimited tastings. We tried regular, creme, chocolate, mango, pineapple, oragne and an assortment of candies. I LOVED the chocolate the most, of course. Afterwards, my friend and I walked around with the tour guide and his brother and some other students. We ended up at an Irish pub and hung out there for awhile. We then went to a small shop and played foozeball. It was a fun evening of just roaming around the streets of Sorrento. It's a pretty small place really! I liked it though. In the morning, we met at 8 and headed to the ferry....
Here's where things got interesting...as we headed to the ferry, it was slick cobblestone sets of steps..and I had on cheap, old-navy worn out flip-flops...and so I fell...in my dress...down a few, fell HARD (and almost took out Luca who was standing in front of me). It hurt, I was shaky...but I shook it off. We rode the ferry to Capri. The island was gorgeous as we approached! :) We started to notice how cloudy it was getting, but blew it off in our excitement. We boarded our private boat for our tour and started out. We were all blown away by the view and completely giddy. We saw the green and white grotto, the purple and orange coral, and a lot of famous ridges and arches in the cliffs. AND THEN...came the DOWNPOUR! It was the most rain I have seen in a VERY long time; huge drops, fast and hard. The captain let us ride it out for awhile, all of us trying to get our umbrellas to protect us, but it was coming from all angles. So, we got under a huge tarp. We were laughing our heads off....b/c really, what else can you do. We were going along the Almafi coast, covered by a tarp, still holding up umbrellas because the tarp wasn't very efficient. Water was pouring in from all sides. It was a pretty rough 30 minutes or so. We were waiting with tons of other boats so that we would could go into the Blue Grotto, but it was going to be another 45 minutes, and we couldn't wait it out. We headed back and it started to clear up. But, just a few football field lengths away, there was a tornado on the water, it was amazing. I guess they are called waterspouts. It came down sooo slowly, touched the ocean and went right back up! The trip to Capri and AnaCapri were amazing. We had awesome pizza...I had a slice of my friends seafood: shrimp, squid, and octopus....SO GOOD! I couldn't believe it. Afterwards, we got gelato and the toasted almond and chocolate were to DIE for....soooooo delicious! We took the bus from Capri to Anacapri....and it was the scariest thing ever, winding really quickly around the roads and the buses barely scraped by. INSANE. Then we took the cable car to the top of the mountain on AnaCapri and the view at the top, literally brought tears to my eyes. It was such a moving experience...amazingly gorgeous! :) After that, headed to the beach. The water was soooo clear and sooo blue. This place was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. AMAZING! After that, we took a ferry to naples and headed home. We got in about 12:30 am and then walked home to fall in bed for school! It was an amazing trip. If you haven't seen pictures yet, do it soon!
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