Amalfi Coast: Sorrento, Capri, Positano and Pompeii

   The typical college student goes to Panama City Beach, Florida for spring break. Well I'm not the typical college student, I'll save that for my last spring break. Instead, four beautiful ladies and I went to the Amalfi coast for the last four days of this relaxing break. We went with Euroadventures (the same group we've been going with everywhere). Our guide's name was Bruno, the typical hot blooded italian that likes to go on extremmmeely long hikes. He is from a town near Verona, so he knows Italy pretty well.
   We boarded a charter bus Thursday night and set out for our home base for the weekend, Sorrento. I woke up on the bus that night (once again) looking straight down a cliff. I'm starting to get use to this. The Amalfi coast's roads twist and turn throughout the high cliffs. They are extremely dangerous and are not intended for the faint of heart drivers or for that case passengers. When I woke up all I could see was twinkling lights in the cliffs, they would diminsh by the ocean line. It was so breathtaking, along with me being scared to death of speedily turning around the cliff corners.
   Soon after we arrived to our Villagio Verde Bungalows. Sam and I got one all to ourselves. Euroadventures knew they owed us for canceling our Croatia trip. They definitely made up for it! All the bungalows were surrounded by orange trees, lemon trees and hammocks. The sounds of the birds woke us up in the morning. This place is beautiful.

I barely got any sleep the first night because I was so excited to get up the next morning to make pictures of the bungalows and orange trees. We arrived at around 1 am that night.
   The next morning Sam and I woke up and got our selves ready for our day to Capri. Since we like to think of ourselves as early birds on trips, we were ahead of everyone and went to get breakfast at the bungalow restaurant. The motherly italian women who worked everymorning we were there showed us where everything was. There were fresh creme filled croisants, freshly sliced bread with slices of turkey and cheese. Of course there were cappucinos. For those of you that dont know, Italian breakfasts usually consist of just fruit juice, some coffee product,  and some kind of sugary carb such as croisants or pastries. It was awesome to have some meat with my breakfast. Ask Sam, I definitely looked forward to our breakfasts. I like food.

   After break fast our group loaded up on beach necessities and started walking down the mountain to go buy our boat tickets to Capri. Once we bought our tickets we had about an hour to waste so we picked a spot near a dock and soaked in the Sorrentine sun. By the way, all the cats of the town were out basking on the rocks. In translation, I was occupied with staring at them and even trying to pet them. The other girls discouraged me not too though.

We eventually were herded onto a small cruise like ship and rushed to our seats. It took about 30 minutes to get to Capri. Of course the views were beautiful. Once we arrived we looked into boat tours that go around the island. We held off until we really knew what we wanted. Meanwhile we walked alittle bit along the shops and the docks. We found an atm there. As Sara, Sam and I stood in front of a typical little bar with an outdoor seating area, waiting for Teal and Veronica to take out money, a cute Italian approached us and asked if we knew what we were doing that day. We all knew it was sketchy, but told him anyways haha. He said if we wanted a private boat tour with just us girls he had a friend that would do it for cheap. We were a little held back (except for Teal) but eventually found out his family owned the little bar with the outdoor seating area. He let us sit down outside and convinced us he was a trusting guy. (I texted one of our friends back in Florence our whereabouts and the guy's name and bar name just incase we went missing haha). Dont worry Mom. He ended up selling us 2 bottles of white wine, 6 coronas and 2 pineapple and rum drinks for us. He is a pretty smart business man if I do say so myself! Soon after his friend (I think they were pretty close if you know what I mean) Rafaello arrived with a cute little boat. We all hopped in with our drinks and departed for our open sea adventure!

This is the trustworthy Carlo and his father. They own Bar il Gabbiano in Capri.

Our cruise ship/ferry from Sorrento to Capri

Capri!

Boat ride around the beautiful island of Capri.

One of the many grottos.

Me and the rooms, Sam. Photo Credit to Teal Johnson.

The water was incredibly blue and clear. Going back to the state beaches is going to be a huge change/ downgrade. Photo Credit to Teal Johnson.

Rafaello pointing out an arch.

The ladies. From Left to Right; Veronica, Teal, Sarah, Sam and I.

Clouds would hover over mountains like this, SO cool!

The boat was kind of tipping/ Rafaello was leaning over the edge.

This is the grotto near our spontaneous swimming spot.

Veronica and I jumping in first! It was SO cold. Luckily the wine kept us warm haha. Photo Credit to Teal Johnson.

Ice cold.

This was before or after (I cant remember) I hung on the side of the boat trying to pull myself up so the jellyfish didnt attach to my limbs. Unfortunately there was a boat behind us watching my bathingsuit ride farther and farther up as I hung helplessly on the side of the boat. Good news: Drinking kept me warm. Bad news? Drinking let me forget how to use my muscles to get on the boat.

Isn't it beautiful. When are we ever going to do that again?

Living the life :) I can now die and say I've seen the best.

                                                  Just chillaxing. Photo credit to Teal Johnson.

Testing out the hammock in front of bungalow #103.

The cliffs that shot up towards the sky, the unbelievably clear turquoise water and the good company definitely made this trip. Once we got back to the actual island we went and lyed down on some rocks and soaked up the sun. After that, we caught a boat back to Sorrento. From there we rested up and then went to dinner that night. We went to a little pizzeria with great seafood and lots of free food. I ordered fresh pasta with seafood. It arrived with fresh clams and mussels. Delicious of course. By the end of dinner we were exhausted and partly sunburnt. We went to bed expecting to get more of a tan in Positano the next day.

         The next day we woke up ready to go to Positano and lounge on the beach all day. We hopped on a bus that sped through the roads of the side of the mountains. Once we arrived we climbed down the ancient steps of the mountain to reach the beach. Unfortunately we didn't have the best luck with the weather in Positano. After sitting on the local beach for about 20 minutes it began to rain. We gathered our things and left to find somewhere to sit and get something to eat. We found a little hidden grocery store that made these huge sandwiches with mozarella, ham, tomatoes, lettuce and olives. They were delisioso. Once we finished we walk a little ways up the mountain and found a bus stop to catch our bus back to Sorrento. Once we got back to Sorrento we all rested up then walked to pick up some "fast" dinner. In Italy it is almost impossible to find fast food anywhere. They like to take it slow and enjoy things. We ended up sitting down at a local Sorrento restaurant for 3 hours just talking and enjoying the awesome food! I ordered gnocchi sorrentine style. Lets just say I need to find a gym pronto.

Positano, Italy. Photo Credit Teal Johnson.

Of course had to add the flowers.

Cute Siblings on the beach.

He was so excited when he found out I was taking his picture haha.

Lovely Positano.

The next day we packed up our bungalows, had some delicious breakfast and then boarded our charter bus to the long awaited Pompeii! Ever since my sister, Alex, did a project on Pompeii in elementary school I have always been so facinated with it. I never knew I would have the change to go! Our group hired a tour guide to showed us around the ancient city that was frozen in time. For those of you that dont know about Pompeii, I'll update you. Pompeii was an ancient day Las Vegas for the Romans. Romans would come and vacation in Pompeii in their free time. The men would work out then head to the roman bath houses to be pampered. After that they would head to the Brothel house to do the dirty. Anways, in 76 A.D. Mt. Vesuvius errupted and put everything to a halt. The volcanic gases killed everyone in hours. In the 1700's Archeolegists discovered this city. They preserved bodies they came across by injecting plaster into the body cavaties. This kinda stuff facinates me.

The columns were so detiorated. I loved it!

The concert amphitheater.

The volcanic rock.

The long awaited Brothel house! This is the world's oldest brothel. The Romans would come and spend their money here. The prostitutes didn't speak Latin so they couldn't talk to the Romans making everything easier. Each room had a sexual position frescoe painting above it. They used these positions in place of numbers, as well as giving each room a theme.

Here is one of the frescoes, unfortunately we weren't in there long. It was so facinating!

These were the beds, completely made of rock. Couldn't have been comfortable. Luckily they are sanitary now.

They had penis place markers throughout the city to show what direction the brothel was.

Columns with Mt.Vesuvius in the background. This was the town center.

One of the plaster cast bodies.

This was a young boy holding his nose to guard himself from the poisionous gases. Unfortunately it didn't help much.

Arch pose of course.

Rock shaped as a skull. Foreboding?

All five of us. Good thing we had self timer.

The famous frescoes. These were preserved perfectly. Pompeii was known for it's red frescoes. Before the eruption the town was in all different colors. The volcanic ash and gases melted the colored plasters on all the houses down to the brick. It was so facinating.

Photo credit to Teal Johnson.

Well that's all for now folks. Look forward to Cinque Terre pictures eventually. Rome is this weekend! Miss everyone. It's close to the month countdown now. Not that I'm counting ;)