Just Another Day in Paradise

Our last day in Roma (Wednesday) was spent exploring the market of Campo di Fiori & the Pantheon area. Like every day, we enjoyed trying more gelato & caprese! The Pantheon was definitely a fun & impressive sight to see. And of course, had it's own McDonalds right across the square...go figure. We walked into the Trastevere area for dinner at Serena'a favorite restaraunt in Rome; it was quite an awkward experience at first! The language barrier was one thing but when we finally met Pina (the owner) we tried telling her why we travelled all the way to see her. Dinner was good (but...it's Italy!) and before we left, Pina gave us free shooters & Italian kisses.
Thursday: From Roma we took an early train to Napoli and then the metro (creatively called "circumvesuvia" because it runs around the infamous volcano) to a little town called Piano di Sorrento. We officially started our weekend of "luxury" in the beautiful southern coast of Italia! Our place was wonderful (our main man, Francesco was super helpful) and we were located right outside the touristy town of Sorrento, which was a great location. We quickly unpacked & headed right for the beach, which was a cove surrounded by cliffs with crystal clear water (I believe I was so happy I was skipping all the way there :) We spent the evening in Piano & were pretty much the only tourists there which was actually quite nice.
Being in a local town, almost alien to tourists you discover intersting things. For example, Francesco confirmed that the official Italian language is a fairly recent phenomenon. "Italy" was created in 1871 & its inhabitants spoke up to 600 languages & dialects; even today, there are several local dialects that still exist. When the nation chose the Florentine dialect as the official "Italian" language, only 2% of the population could speak it; even in 1960 there were still less than 50% "native Italian" speakers. (This particular dialect was chosen because it was the language of Dante) Fransesco, enthusiastically, considers his dialect (a mix of Spanish & French) to be the most beautiful; he is originally from Napoli.
Friday: Off to the Amalfi coast! From Sorrento, we took an insanely scary bus ride across the top of Sorrento to Positano. We saw the most beautiful views of the coast from the top of the mountain while saying our prayers that we would survive the ride! (Somehow I was able to sit in the front with Mitch there AND back to help with my motion sickness, which my youngest brother swears I have made up since being a small child. While the front seat may have helped, you also must watch how close you come to hitting cars while turning corners 5 feet wide and thousands of feet high) Once dropped off at the top of Positano, we made our way down the mountain, stopping at adorable beachy shops & eating delicious panini's. Once we reached the beach, we marvelled at how beautiful Positano really is. Imagine a city built into a mountainside right along the coast on a pretty summer's day; I definitely recommend visiting...it is worth the bus ride!

We swam & shopped & took a ferry from Positano to Amalfi (about a 30 minute ride) for the afternoon. Amalfi is a smaller version of Positano with a beautiful church in its town center. More gelato was to be tried & there were more small shops in the town square. For dinner, we took the ferry back to Positano, walked up the other side of the mountain, and ate the best pasta in the world (pasta primavera & pasta al pesto) while watching the sunset over the city. It was perfect outdoor weather & the view was magnificent (Fransesco told us it would feel likebeing in a postcard). Afterwards we took a late bus back to Sorrento (and managed to keep everything down!)

Saturday: A hot day for Pompei! A metro ride away, the ancient city of Pompei was a test of patience. A much larger excavation site than we expected, we endured the heat with tons of tourists while trying to figure out where we were actually at in the maze of bricks & stones. It was cool to see the real city after studying it as a child & fascinating to learn about how it operated when inhabited. It is worth a trip if you go to the Napoli area, but plan on going in cooler weather! After our self tour, we spent the evening in Sorrento but decided we didn't prefer it as much due to its exploitation of tourists.
Sunday: A day trip to the island of Capri! We took an early ferry from Sorrento to Capri & quickly signed up for a boat tour around the island. Boy was it a rocky start! The waves were pretty heavy at first until we started to reach the grottos. Capri is known for their blue & green grottos which have illuminated water from natural lighting. They also have bright orange coral and beautiful natural arches in the cliffs. Our goal was to go into the blue grotto, which requires you to go into a small rowboat and sqeeze through a little hole in the side of the cliff. (Tip: if you decide to visit you will pay for the boat tour AND will be informed AT the blue grotto to pay extra to go in. If it is a busy day, you will also wait in a line of boats. In general, Italians love exploiting tourists & the rowboats will try & have you tip before even going inside!) In the end, the trip inside was spectacular & it was the prettiest blue water you could imagine! You can't spend much time taking pictures because it is a quick trip & hard to capture...so you just lay back, enjoy the sight & the singing "rowboaters." Besides exploring the town shops & cafe's, the beaches are absolutely beautiful. There isn't sand but rather rocks or (if you are inland) black sand from Vesuvias' eruption. The water was even clearer than my experience in the Bahamas! It was nice to spend the afternoon on the beach & bask on the big white rocks along the shoreline. Before we took the ferry back to Sorrento, we walked partway up the cliff to overlook the port. Capri has some of the most beautiful sights :)
Before heading back to Piano, we found a decent outdoor restaraunt in Sorrento for our final Italian dinner (tear tear) which also had some of the best housewine we have tried yet on our trip. Overall, it was an absolutely beautiful weekend with a lot of great day trip spots & I definitely hope to visit again in the future :) Monday: Taking a bus ride from Sorrento to Napoli, we finished up our southern coast trip & flew in the afternoon back to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. We are staying again with our "Dutch family" and are happy to be back! The weather is much cooler (but nice!) and it even feels like we are breathing cleaner air. We already miss Italia but are excited to be back in Holland and explore more of the city. We both have to admit the Dutch have been the nicest and most accomdating people we have met on our trip thus far! Ciao!

-T