Capri, Sorrento, Positano, and Pompeii.
I keep thinking one day soon I'm just going to wake up and be back in Saratoga, watching Law and Order reruns and that this whole experience was one long daydream.
The "Costiera Amalfitana" or Amalfi Coast was a trip that can only be described as what you think of when you think of vacation Italy. The views and scenery literally looked like you were floating on a movie set, and made at least me feel like I had no right to be disturbing this crazy natural beauty.
So to start off with a little drama for our movie scene vacation, our original trip was canceled two days before we supposed to leave. According to the student travel company we booked through "48 hours was more than enough time" to book our own transportation, hostel and tours. For 7 novice travelers, I assured them this was false. Luckily another company was running a trip that same weekend and we got our refund, hopped on the bus, and had a gorgeous weekend on the water.
Thursday night we arrived in Sorrento and moved into our 10-person co-ed hostel. It was my first experience in a room with that many people and also with 3 random boys sleeping straight across. Surprisingly it wasn't that weird, everyone was super friendly and we made some way too small world connections with our roommates.
Friday morning we took a bus to a campground. Sounds exciting right?...Well at this campground we caught a ferry that took us to The Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is a luminescent cave where the water literally lights up from below you. It has something to do with the chemicals or bacteria in the water. You have to lay down flat in a row boat just to get under the cave entrance and the rock literally comes within inches of your face. Our rowboat captain was screaming Italian profanities at another rower for stealing his oars. Everyone was staring at us and it was probably one of the single funniest moments to me so far. When I asked him what happened he said (in slightly broken English) "WHY DOES HE TOUCH MY OARS, HE SHOULD BE TOUCHING HIS WIFE!". The grotto itself was so amazing, but it was a bit of a downer because we weren't able to get out and swim.
We next took the ferry to the island of Capri and spent the day walking around. Between the limoncello and chocolate tasting, the homemade sandals, and the chairlift that took us to the top of the mountain it was such a memorable experience. The cliffs of Capri literally just fall right into the Ocean.
Saturday we spent the day in Positano. We got on a bus in the morning and were then driven about 20min toward our destination. At this point our driver pulled over to the side of the road and told us he didn't have "jurisdiction" to drive us all the way in. Oh those silly Italians. So we proceeded to walk 30min around a highway with about 3ft between us and the what seemed like 468364ft cliffs. But hey it was a great view. When we got to the beach with the rest of our group we rented a boat for 2hours and went cliff jumping, as well as cave swimming. I was the 3rd person, and first girl in our group to jump off the 35ft cliff. At first when I started climbing up it didn't seem bad at all, then looking over the edge...I thought I was going to have to rock climb all the way down. I decided I just had to run and jump. It was such a cool feeling, although I have to admit I'm still kind of surprised something bad didn't happen.
Sunday we went to Pompeii and saw the ancient ruins. Being the History nerd that I am I loved it...hearing about all aspects of their day to day life. We took a few group photos to try and get on the MyNEU homepage...so maybe you'll be seeing my face next week when you log on to check huskymail. I imagined being there when Mt. Vesuvius erupted and how it literally must have been the scariest thing to see the dust coming at you with no where to go.
So that was my beautiful weekend in the Amalfi area. Pictures can't do any justice to looking up from the water to the villas dotting the coastline. My grandfather was stationed in Capri during WWII, so as he reminds me I'm not the only one in my family to go to Italy. I consider myself lucky to be able to see what he saw 60 years ago, but be able to enjoy it fully. Hopefully 60 years from now I'll be able to say the same thing.
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