A Weekend in Italy's Amalfi Coast

This weekend began very early.  We had to be up and over in Piazza Trilussa by 6:45 AM.  Six of us from the apartment were going on the Amalfi Coast trip, and the other two roommates were traveling elsewhere, so everyone was up early.  I left that apartment to meet Casey, Bliss, Breonna, and Kristen at 6:15.  I got a cappuccino and a donut before we hopped on the tram to get to the Piazza for the bus.  It was still dark out, and pretty cold for a September morning in Rome.  Needless to say, the tram was empty, so we made it to the bus in plenty of time.  The bus left the piazza at 6:50 AM and before the tour guide had even gotten through the itinerary for the trip, Bliss was already getting car sick in the seat in front of me.  Bliss went up and sat by the driver at that point because as long as she can see out the window, she is fine.  The bus ride to Naples took about 2 hours and went pretty smoothly.  We were warned that the port of Naples is not the safest place in the world and that there are a lot of gypsies around so we needed to watch our luggage carefully.  We stood around for about half an hour in the port waiting for the ferry, and then took a 40 minute ferry ride to the island of Capri.  Bliss and Tynisha sat on the open air top of the ferry while Casey and I opted to sit below in the enclosed space.

The ferry ride was not bad and went smoothly.  Bliss does just fine on water, but doesn't do too well in cars.  As we were pulling up to Capri, we could tell that there were storms rolling in.  The rain started coming as we got to Capri around 12 noon.  We were supposed to go directly onto a boat tour of the island and then take a boat into the Blue Grotto, but because of the bad weather, our plans changed.  Instead, we waited for the public buses to take us up to our hotel.  There was a problem here.  With about 55 people needing to get to a hotel, and public buses that are as small as cereal boxes that run every 45 minutes, there was a lot of standing around at the bus stop.  Finally after waiting for about one hour, we all decided just to take cabs to our hotel.  Our hotel was in Anacapri - the more neighborhood area of the town.  The cab drivers are CRAZY and fly down very narrow streets at ridiculous speeds.  The roads are just on the hillside, and give you the feeling like you are going to plunge to your death at any moment.  The streets are just wide enough to fit two cars, and when two cars need to pass one another, the drivers slow down only a tiny bit.  Basically, I could never drive in Capri and had to check my pants after riding in that cab.  We got to the hotel and waited to get checked in.  I was sent along with 10 other students to a villa hotel down the street because the other hotel was full.  Our villa was run by a sweet couple who spoke broken English.  Their villa was very nice and we could see the Mediterranean Sea from our back door.  It was amazing!  After we all got checked in, we went and got lunch.  We got a choice of pizza or pasta, so I of course chose pizza.  We had some amazing ice cream for dessert too.  Casey complained a lot about being tired and gave me her ice cream to eat.  I didn't object!  After lunch we were taken to this shop in town that makes sandals for women.  The girls in the group got to get custom made sandals for only 50 Euro a pair, so the shop was packed.  It was neat to watch how the sandals were made and see the nice work of the craftswoman.  After that we all got to try some Limoncello, a type of "digestivo" served in Italy.  Limoncello is a very strong lemon flavored liqueur served in restaurants and sold in stores that people drink after a meal to help with digestion.  I bought a little bottle of it for Mom, Dad, and Lauren to try when I come home!  Wooo hoo!!!!  Capri and Sorento, Italy are known for their Limoncello, so it was sold everywhere we went this past weekend!  When we got free time to walk around the city, Casey, Bliss, and I walked around to see what the town was like.  We saw a lot of neat shops and stores and bought some interesting gifts.  We were all pretty tired, so before dinner we went back and took a little nap in the hotel.  At 7:30 PM, the whole group met for dinner at the hotel.  We walked to this restaurant down the street and were served a multi-course Italian meal.  We were served Bruschetta, Calamari, Seafood Risotto and Pasta, Beef with Potatoes, and Creampuff desert with red and white wines.  It was an amazing dinner, and took a long time to eat.  We left the restaurant around 11:00 PM to find it pouring rain outside.  Since it was raining, most of us just decided to go to bed.  A couple brave souls ventured into town to check it out, but returned home cold and wet early in the morning while I was warm and comfortable in my bed.

Saturday, I woke up to rain.  I walked over to the main hotel to get some breakfast with Casey and Bliss.  The manager told me that I needed to eat at my villa, which is opposite of what I was told.  So, I went back to my villa to see the sweet Italian couple bringing out breakfast cakes, scones, coffee, juices, and bread for us to eat.  It was such a nice breakfast right on the edge of the sea.  What a way to start the day!

After breakfast, we were told that our plans changed again.  We were originally supposed to do the Blue Grotto tour from the day before, but the water was too rough, so that got scrapped.  Instead, we walked up to the main center of Anacapri - a ten minute walk UPHILL from the hotels - to catch the bus into Capri.  We walked around Capri in the pouring rain huddled under umbrellas and saw some of the shops.  We also went to this lookout to see rocks sticking out of the water from the cliffs.  It was amazing to see, and I took tons of pictures.  We then got some free time to walk around the shops of Capri and explore the town.  It was hard to do in the pouring rain, but I managed to buy some gifts while Casey, Bliss, and Tynisha walked with me.  The rain got kind of bad and we decided to take cover in a cafe.  We ordered some pastries, and I got a cappuccino.  A cappuccino and pastry in Rome would cost me under 2 Euro.  These cost me 7 Euro because we sat in the cafe (which threw in a "sitting fee") and since Capri is filled with tourists, EVERYTHING is overpriced right off the bat.  Around noon, we took the tram down the hill to the port of Capri and took this massive ferry over to the mainland to Sorento.  Once we got to Sorento, we walked up the hill and saw the sights of the town.  We got the afternoon to ourselves to walk around the town and go to lunch.  We had lunch at a restaurant that looked cheap, but ended up costing us alot of money.  We forgot to look at the service charge before we sat down, so we each got charged 4 Euro to sit at the restaurant.  The wait staff also was very rude to us because we were Americans.  We noticed that they were being snooty to all of the American tables and spending all of their time at the locals tables.  It was kind of annoying, but we got over it.  After lunch Casey, Bliss, Tynisha, and I walked around town to explore.  We saw a bunch of shops and I saw a really neat church dedicated to the Blessed Mother.  I took a bunch of pictures inside the church too.  A did a little bit of damage to my credit card with my purchases is Sorento, but I figured it was fine since I was in Italy....Haha!

Around 5:00 PM we waited for our ferry back to Capri.  This time it was a smaller boat, and it ended up being only half full.  Bliss and Tynisha sat up top while Casey and I sat down below.  We had a really rough ride going back.  Our ferry was going against the waves and it was really really rough on the water.  It felt like we were in a toy boat just being thrown around.  The crew was handing out "sicka bags" to people who looked nauseous and just told us to hang on.  It was rough, but I took some neat videos on my camera of me and Casey freaking out on the boat!  When we got back from Sorento, everyone was exhausted.  A bunch of us tried waiting in line to get the buss, but the bus never came after being in line for 45 minutes, so we caved and took a taxi.  Another horrible taxi ride under my belt, I really didn't need another.  Once we got back to the hotel, Bliss, Tynisha, and I hiked up to town to get some wine for the evening while Casey slept off a migraine.  We got lost in the tiny residential roads of Anacapri, and were starving by the time we got back.  So, we got Casey up and hiked back up the hill into town to get some dinner.  We ate at this amazing restaurant, and I got the best tomato and mozzarella salad I have ever tasted!  It was a great way to end my day!  After we left the restaurant around 11:00, we all decided to go to bed because we had a big day a head of us and were all wiped.

Sunday, I woke up to find that our bathroom door had been jammed shut, so I couldn't use the bathroom.  One of my dumb roommates at the hotel slammed the door in the middle of the night and ended up jamming it.  The old Italian man thought it was funny, and didn't really mind.  He just kept saying "I fix. No problem!"  Haha!  After another amazing breakfast, I said a nice "Grazie mile!  Ciao!"  To the old couple and left the villa to go to the place where our shuttle was going to pick us up.  We got down to the port of Capri around 11:00 AM and we informed that our 11:35 ferry to Naples had been cancelled due to high waves.  So, our plans changed again, and we had to take the 12:20 PM ferry to Sorento and have our coach bus meet us there.  We got time to eat a snack in Capri and walk around one last time.  We got on the massive ferry to Sorento and waited for our bus.  There is a family who runs the bus company in Sorento, and since the bus company we were using wasn't theirs, they wouldn't allow our bus to come to the port to pick us up.  So, we had to hike uphill with our luggage for about 30 minutes to get to our bus.  Our tour guide was not pleased, but it was quite the adventure.  We had to go up these steep steps on the side of the hill and it definitely gave us all a workout!  Once on the bus, we drove to Pompeii and had some lunch at a local restaurant.  The wine they served us was amazing and a had a healthy serving of that after the long day we had had so far!  Pompeii was amazing, and we got to see really neat stuff.  Since the city was basically preserved by the volcanic ash, there was a lot of frescos on the wall and casts of people who died from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  I took a ton of pictures and loved ever minute of it!  We even got to see the brothels from the old time of Pompeii and got to walk inside!  All of us ended up walking through Pompeii because the workers who lead hiking tours up Mount Vesuvius were on strike yesterday, so that was no longer an option.  We left Pompeii at 6:00 PM and headed north to the mozzarella factory.  Once we got there, we got to see how mozzarella cheese was made and got to try some fresh mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, and some other cheeses.  It was really nice, but we only stayed for about 45 minutes since we were behind schedule from earlier in the day.  The drive back to Rome was nice, but long.  We finally got back around 10:30 PM and ran to the tram stop.  We waited for about 10 minutes for the tram and then took a bus.  The bus stop was past our apartment, but we didn't care.  We just didn't want to walk the whole way back with our luggage.  We also realized that the reason why the trams weren't running was because a taxi hit someone outside our apartment, so it was blocking the tram tracks.  Welcome back to Roma!  I Skyped with Mom, Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa Fischer when I got back and then went to bed.  I was so wiped from the weekend.  Although we had a lot of bad luck this weekend, and out itinerary was completely useless, I saw a lot of neat stuff and took tons of pictures!  It was nice to see another piece of Italy!