My Big Italian Adventure, T-Minus 26 Days

Ciao!

Happy Monday! As you silly Americans sleep in your tidy little beds, I’m awake, alert, and ready to blog.

Let’s start with last Thursday…

I’m in a class called Ancient Monuments of Rome, which means I do a lot of walking around Rome and essentially, my legs get very tired for hours and I take notes in 100 degree heat. Thursday was no exception to this, as our class went to Pope Julius III former summer residence, which has now been transformed into a museum of the Trescans, a group of people from Tuscany who ruled Rome from 700 to 509 BC. The meeting place for class was an hour walk from my apartment and we then walked an additional four hours, plus an hour back to school. It was exhausting. I would say though, that if you go to Rome, to go ahead and skip the Trescan museum. While I’m pretty sure it has the world’s first Keg on display, I don’t think it’s really something to add to your top ten list of things to add.

However, the fun stuff started Thursday night, when a group of seven us girls took a bus to the Amalfi Coast of Italy. It’s about a four hour drive from Italy and even Rick Steves recommends you check it out. We checked into my very first hostel, a newly built place called Seven Hostel in Sorrento, Italy. We didn’t get in until pretty late, so alas, we didn’t do much Thursday but sleep. The rooms in hostels, for those of you like me who usually don’t do hostel traveling, are just like at summer camps: you have a room full of bunk beds (generally sleep anywhere from 2 to 12–ours held 10) and then a community bathroom. You can, if you want, get rooms with private bathrooms and that only hold two people, but they’re more expensive. The hostel also has a bar and restaurant downstairs.

Anyways, Friday morning we woke up and had a complimentary breakfast–I was thrilled to have cereal for the first time since I left home! Although, like all liquids in Italy, the milk was warm. This grossed out everyone but me–I love cereal enough to overlook its faults. 

After breakfast, we took a bus to a marina, and then boarded a bus to take us to Capri, Italy, which is an island famous for its blue grotto. We saw the green grotto, the white grotto, and some other grotto, but unfortunately, the blue grotto could be seen but not swam in, as the tide was too high and it was dangerous. We took a walk through some very winding trails and eventually made it to the top of Capri, which had a gorgeous, gorgeous view of the Mediterranean sea. Lemoncello, a type of alcohol, is very famous on Capri, so we went to a tasting of that–but I skipped out. Alcohol and sun are lethal for a fair skinned partially swedish girl like me.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach. Beaches on the Amalfi coast are not made of sand, but of large, smooth pebbles. So, it’s kind of like laying on a sauna. Again, the fair skinned thing kicked in, so I laid in the shade–much to the laughter of my friends. We did the beach thing for a while, then got on a boat and then a bus back to Sorrento and headed out for dinner. I was starving at this point, so luckily, we went to a great Restaurant and then out to the bars and Sorrento nightlife. The nightlife there is fun, but a little overwhelming with aggressive Italian men. If you ever go, I recommend ladies having a gentleman with them. 

Saturday was just as fun. We went to Positano, which is a town right on the Coast. Again, we did some beach stuff at first and then ate at a fabulous sandwich place called Vino & Panino. Finally my body had meat in its system! Yay for protein! (David C. Flood, do not even add a “That’s what she said”).

After lunch, we went on a boat and went Cliff diving. It wasn’t too high, maybe 30 feet, but it was super, super fun. I would LOVE to do that again and I don’t even like swimming. We also went and swam through a grotto (a little scary, but still fun). Back on land, we shopped and then took a nap on a bench like homeless bums before getting back to Sorrento and taking it easy for the rest of the night.

Around 11 on Sunday we left for Pompeii, Italy, where Mount Vesuvius erupted some 2,000 years ago. It is very, very hot there, which made the experience less enjoyable, but it was still really cool. The town is almost too big, it’s a little overwhelming. We saw where the people ate, where they had their spa, a theatre, houses, and of course, frozen in time people and animals. If I had been in the States and seen only this in Italy, it would have been eery. But, as I’ve seen so many monuments and stuff at this point, to be quite honest, it’s almost like, “eh, more ruins. I’m hot.”

It was at three hour bus ride back to Rome, but totally worth it. We got ourselves home and then I started homework and uploading pictures, which of course, I would be happy to email to anyone :)

xoxox