But pictures or no pictures, the Amalfi Coast was one of the best weekends I have had here, even though I am fairly positive that I was running a fever for most of the time. We started the weekend with a firve hour train ride to Naples, which because of the time (Easter weekend) and the earthquake in Abruzzo was EXTREMELY crowded and I slept literally on the floor of said train for an hour until I got a real seat. We finally made it to Napoli, which is a pretty gross city, but is famous because it is where pizza was invented. I had read about a really amazing pizza place in the book Eat, Pray, Love, so Stacey and I went there and each ate our own Double Margherita pizza, which was delicious and prepared right in front of our faces! Then we hopped on the Circumvesuviana railroad to get to Sorrento, which was our home base for the weekend. We didn't get to Sorrento until late that night, so we went to sleep right away because we had a pretty full weekend.
Early the next morning it looked like we were going to be disappointed because it was cold and rainy, obviously not the kind of weather you want to enjoy beautiful places like Capri and Positano, which were our destinations for the day. Luckily, on the boat ride over to Capri, it started clearing up and turned into one of the most gorgeous days I had seen in awhile. Immediately after docking in Capri, a bunch of us purchased tickets to take another boat to see the Blue Grotto, which is this amazing cave that juts out of Capri. The entrance is so small that you have to lie down in your boat to get inside of it, but its well worth it because the water in the cave is BRIGHT neon blue... it's just this indescribable experience because it's so bright and cool and peaceful inside. After the grotto, we took a bus up to Anacapri, which provided us with some amazing views of the island. Unfortunately, the chair lift that we wanted to ride was closed, but we did take a nice walk. After that, we relaxed on a tiny, rocky beach for a little while and then Stacey and I took the ferry to Positano.
Capri is pretty, but Positano is GORGEOUS. It's hard to explain how pretty everything there is and I will have to let the pictures do the talking for the most part. There was this small beach right when we got off of the boat that we sat on and ate some delicious gelato (I got this flavor that had POP ROCKS in it, as well as a delicious pear flavor), and there were also all of these adorable stores (I purchased an Easter dress!), including the kind that the Amalfi Coast is famous for, sandal stores where the employees make the sandals right in front of you and fit them perfectly to your feet. I got two pairs of those! On our way up to the town area, we ran into a Good Friday procession which was a little bit bizarre but also beautifully surreal, as it took place on a covered street whose awning was draped with purple flowers. After the bus back to Sorrento, we ran into yet another procession, one that was a little bit more creepy because it was in the dark and there were hooded men and chanting involved, but there was also incense which I LOVE. That night at dinner, I got made fun of by an Italian man for how often I say "like." I know, you are all shocked. Whatever, at least I can turn it off when I need to.
The next day we went to Pompei, which was probably one of the best experiences of my LIFE. I don't even know where to start- but in case you are wondering exactly what Pompei is, it is this ancient city that was eventually a part of the Roman Empire that was inundated by a volcano- I can't say destroyed, because it was actually extremely well-preserved! So being there is like literally being in a huge city- meaning there is so much to see and it's impossible to actually do EVERYTHING in less than like, an entire day, maybe more. But I did get to see a ton of stuff, such as a few ancient temples; many houses (including the largest one in the city, which had some BEAUTIFUL gardens -obviously, those are reproduced, but still- and mosaics); the brothel, which has pictures above the little bedroom cells of the .. services.. that were available; the theater, one of the 38 bakeries, political graffiti, etc. etc. My favorite thing were these snack bars that they had where you could still see the counters/places for eating where people had lunch daily (according to my little guide, it wasn't customary to eat lunch at home). ANCIENT SNACK BARS?! I mean the idea really blows my mind. Anyway, after a half day at Pompei, we took a taxi up to Mt. Vesuvius, and proceeded to do something I bet no one reading this has ever done- hike up an active volcano! The actual mountain itself is not very scenic, because obviously there is no vegetation, etc at the top of a volcano, but we got some great views of the Bay of Naples and also got to look down into the crater. So cool! After this, we went back to Sorrento for dinner- and I did a little more shopping, of course.
Easter Sunday we travelled back to Florence and I spent the day wishing I was at home with y'all going to church and eating crawfish (Okay, I know that if I was with people in North Carolina I would have not so much been eating crawfish). I missed the servies at the Episcopal church and I just didn't really feel like I would get much out of a Catholic service that was in Italian, but I did read the liturgy online. Just in case anyone was worried! I also spent a good portion of the day/the next week sleeping, because as you may remember from the beginning of this lengthy entry, I am pretty sure I was running a fever for a good portion of my weekend. But as I said, it was all in all fantastic, and I am really glad Nene told me that the one thing I HAD to do while I was here was go to Pompei- so true!
Coming up next, my entry about a bike tour/Rimini/life in Florence that will FINALLY catch me up. I have less than four weeks left in Europe! Yikes!!!
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