Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri

I went to bed Friday night after packing and getting ready for my early morning departure on Saturday. The people on the floor above us were very loud, so loud that when I woke up at 2am I heard someone yelling at them in Italian. Needless to say they were pretty quiet after that. So 2 am I get to sleep only to wake up at like 5am. We had to meet the bus at 6, good thing it is just around the corner I guess.
We met the bus, got our seats and settled in for a 4-hour bus ride. The view was pretty amazing for a majority of the trip, mountains, vineyards, various other stuff, specifically lots and lots of solar panels. We stopped about half way along the road at a rest stop for some food and a stretch. After we get back on the road, we get stopped in traffic, I mean literally stopped, people were out of their cars, walking up and down the street. We were stopped for at least half an hour, when we finally got moving again it was pretty stop and go.

Pompeii

Another 2 and a half to 3 hours later and we reached Naples/Pompeii. The bus dropped us off and we were given about 45 minutes to grab lunch and what ever else we needed. Then we met our tour guide Luca at the gate and entered Pompeii. I took a lot of pictures and those should be below this. We walked around Pompeii for about 3 hours, it was interesting but not exactly what I was expecting. Honestly, I saw a whole lot of broken down stone buildings and not a whole lot else, a couple of dead bodies, a brothel or two, and a few paintings but I didn’t really see much more than buildings. It was still pretty beautiful though as you can see from my photos.



Sorrento

After the 3 or so hour walk around Pompeii, we boarded the bus again and rode for about an hour or so headed to Sorrento. The road there was very narrow and serpentine, and extremely high up. It reminded me of some of the mountain roads we took on our trip to California. Back then; it was hard enough to get the suburban around those roads, this time I was on a charter bus. The driver meandered his way around the curves with expert skill and never ceased to amaze me.

Not only was the driving and the road an experience, but also the scenery was an experience on it’s own. Nothing but the sea and the gorgeous shore line that combined with the setting sun really made the shore breathtaking. Once we arrived to Sorrento the town seemed really beautiful. The bus dropped us off at the hotel where we got our bags and checked into our rooms. The hotel was really nice, it’s a four star hotel and looked very sophisticated.

Catherine and I were signed up as roommates and we had another girl named Samantha room with us as well. We arrived in our room at about 7:15pm and were given 45 minutes to get ready and meet for dinner. The three of us went trough introductions, taking pictures of the room and then we all cleaned up and changed. We met for dinner on the second floor of the hotel where the restaurant was. Like the hotel, this restaurant was very fancy. We sat at a table for six, Catherine, and I sat with a couple of our roommates, Jessi and Brianne as well as with a couple of other (non ISU) students. We were given a menu and were allowed to choose for a couple of courses. For the first course, I ordered pasta served in a crab sauce, for the second I ordered rolled swordfish with clams, served with potatoes. You should see pictures of my meal below; it was all very delicious and looked just as great. I must have had 2 and a half small glasses of wine with it.

After dinner, we met in the lobby at about 9pm and walked down to the Lemoncello shop. Here we were given samples of three different types of lemoncello (35% alcohol) needless to say it was pretty strong. We were also given samples of some chocolate that is made at the same shop.

We left the shop at about 9:30 or 10pm and decided to walk around for a little bit. It was pretty late so several things were closed or in the process of closing. Since it had been a long day, I went back to the hotel around 11pm and got ready for bed. All in all, Sorrento looked like a beautiful city but I wish that I had more time to visit it in the daylight.



Capri

After breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we met in the lobby and were allowed time to drop off our luggage before we walked down to the ferry dock. We took the ferry, about a 30-minute ride, to Capri. On the boat I met a few people from America, one couple was from New York and the other was from one of the Carolinas, (I cant remember which one). They were on an eleven-day tour all around Italy and were spending their last day in Capri.

When we landed and picked up our tickets for the cable car, we took the car up the hill to the second village called Anna Capri. There we met up with our tour guide, Luca and followed him to the “best pizza place” to grab some lunch. When we got to the pizza place it was amazing how many famous people have eaten at that same restaurant, there were pictures of the staff with celebrities such as Anne Hathaway, Samuel L Jackson, Mariah Carrey, and many more. The restaurant was really fancy and rather delicious. I split a pizza with Sam (another girl in the group from ISU) and I ordered a beer to wash it down. (see Pictures below). During lunch we had a nice talk with Luca and found out a little about the Italian drivers license, he said he was scared to check how many points were against him.

After lunch we headed up the hill to get “the best gelato”, I got mint chocolate chip and chocolate chip. It was pretty delicious, this shop even made sandwiches out of ice cream, they literally put ice cream in between 2 pieces of bread.

After Gelato we walked around for a bit then headed back down to the beach. We changed into our swimsuits and struggled to walk into the water. I say struggled because the beach was made of rocks so it was not only hard on the bottom of my feet, but also they were slippery and moved under my feet. Once in, the water was pretty chilly but I got used to it eventually. It was not only cool but it was rather salty as well. After the warm, long day of walking, it actually felt really nice.