The trip began with a seven hour bus ride from Florence to Sorrento. It took us what felt like forever to get to Sorrento. Oh and in Sorrento we stayed in cabins at a campground. Almost like summer camp. It was really really cold, so I brought my sleeping bag with me. It was a good inagural use of my bag. We got to the campground late at night, so I just passed out in bed at soon as I could.
Friday morning we took a ferry to the town of Amalfi:
From Amalfi, I took a boat over to the Emerald Grotto. It was really awesome! My pictures didn't come out very well though. The best part was the guides who ran the boats sang for us. So we had such a fun time!
Here I am under a rock! in the grotto!
After the Emerald Grotto we got some lunch and went to the beach. Amalfi didn't have the best of beaches. They are very picturesque, but not that great to hang out at and swim on. There was a sandy beach on the other side of town but you have to pay to use it. Nothing is free in Italy.
The campground was very dark. Thank god I had my headlamp. Friday night we played Uno at the campground after a fun dinner with Father Paul. At dinner Father Paul paid for 2 bottles of wine for our table. Such a nice Jesuit.
Saturday morning we went to Capri! So famous! The ferry to Capri was shorter than the one to Amalfi, so I didnt get to have my ferry nap. From the port where the ferries drop everyone off, we took a bus over to Anacapri to hit up the blue grotto. Whether or not the blue grotto is one of the wonders of the world is still under debate with all 137 Gonzaga students. So the bus over to Anacapri dropped us off on a shopping street. From there you are supposed to take another bus down to the grotto. Not us. We WALKED. It was probably an hour or so from the town to the grotto. It was all downhill so it wasn't that bad, but it took forever. The road was just switchbacks down the hillside for the longest time. When we finally got down to where you get in the rowboats I saw a cat. I named her Misty D'Italia, because she looks almost exactly like the real Misty at home.
The rowboats waiting to get into the blue grotto. You have to lay down in the boat and they take you in. You can only go in on days when the sea is calm enough. Peter (one of the Gonzaga staffers, he's Austrain and I'm sure part mountain goat) told us the next day that they had to close the grotto, so we were lucky to have been there on Saturday.
Inside the grotto. In my opinion it's over rated. The rowboat guides are jerks to you and practically force you to tip them. You only get to be in the grotto for a few minutes and it's not that big. Yes it is GORGEOUS inside, but the total experience is not worth it. I liked the less famous Emerald Grotto much better.
My favorite part of Carpi was taking the chairlift to the top of Monte Solaro. It was the best 7€ I've ever spent. It was so spectatular up there. The lift is about 12 minutes up and you go by yourself in a little chair (sorry you can't see the actual chairs in this picture). People who have gardens under the chairlift build all these little gardens and the views are just too cool.
From the top of the mountain I took this picture looking down over the cliff. The water is perfectly clear, just look at that!!
From up on Monte Solaro you can't tell where the sky and sea meet, it all just blends together somewhere with the clouds.
Oh and there was a cactus.
Sorrento was having a fish festival while we were there. Basically everyone but me enjoyed it. I had to buy bread and cheese from a little store for dinner. But I did take a fun picture with a fish:
POMPEI!!! It was really cool. We all got an audiogiude to walk around the site with. It was cool to wander around and see the ancient city. We went into people's houses and tons of public buildings. We also got to see a lot of the molds made of people who were in town when Vesuvius blew. Like this guy.
The ruins of Pompei. This was baths back before the volcano blew.
Posing in what used to be someone's house in Pompei. Very eerie....
1 comment:
I miss Misty
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