We stayed in "bungalow style" hotel rooms that kind of felt like summer camp cabins, 5 people to a room with all the beds lined up next to each other. Friday, we got up and caught the 9:25 ferry to the island of Capri with our entire travel group and two guides. The weather wasn't especially nice, as it was cloudy and started to rain a little bit, but it was actually a good thing since we followed our guides on an intense two hour hike to the very top of Capri! The hike was really cool and actually pretty strenuous, and when we made it to the top it was so worth it. We could see the entire island and all the surrounding water. Our guides even surprised us with a bottle of champagne that we popped off the top of the mountain! So fun. And even the way back down was tough - my calves are still sore from walking down steep stairs for like an hour straight. When we got back to the bottom, we grabbed the BEST caprese sandwiches in all of italy and some italian beer and took a private boat ride around the island. We swam and jumped off some rocks, and even though it wasn't hot the water felt amazing. I was so amazed at how blue the Mediterranean ocean really is.. and how refreshing it felt! We tried to go to the Blue Grotto, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, but the weather caused the tide to be too high so we couldn't enter by boat. But it was still an awesome day and we had the best time! That night we took the ferry back to Sorrento and had dinner at a little rooftop restaurant by the main square of the town and went out dancing at a cool rooftop bar.
The next day we visited the town of Positano, and the bus ride there and back was the scariest thing of my life. We were literally on cliffs next to the ocean almost the entire time, and Italian drivers are so crazy! It was insane. It kind reminded me of driving down highway 1 in California with my mom this summer.. minus all the crazy Italians. We eventually made it to Positano and had a great time strolling around the city, and had lunch at a cute hotel on the beach. Positano is known for their seafood so we had pasta with clams and shrimp and I tried my first octopus! It was cold and slimy but somehow really good. We spend the day lounging around the town and relaxing. Tourist season there just ended so the town wasn't super busy, which was really nice. We couldn't take any boat rides because of the weather but the sun came out in the late afternoon and we hung out on the beach until heading back to Sorrento for the night. When we got back to the hotel we stopped at a market on the way and bought awesome Italian cheese, pesto, salami and baguettes and some wine and sat on our room's patio and had dinner. The rain had stopped and the weather was pretty nice that night so we sat and ate and laughed for a long time, until we went into town and went dancing! It was such a fun weekend, I still can't stop thinking about it.
On our last day four of us took the train to Pompeii and walked around the ancient city for a few hours. It was extremely cool, I had no idea how huge the city actually is! And it is so well preserved, I felt like I went back in time 2,000 years. We spent the day there and headed back to Sorrento to get on the bus and head back to Florence.
My weekend at the coast was SO much fun, and I'm going with the same girls to the French Riviera this weekend. Hopefully the weather is a little warmer than this weekend was, but either way I'm really excited. After this trip, I don't have anything else planned for a mont or so, and I'm really excited to spend more time in Florence. I do as much as I can around the city during the week, like visit the San Lorenzo open air market or walk to the Duomo or the Ponte Vecchio, but I am really looking forward to having a ton of time getting to know my new home.
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