AMALFI COAST

Thursday, May 30th

For my 30th birthday my sweet husband surprised me with a trip to the Amalfi Coast! I would be happy traveling anywhere, but I have wanted to go to the Amalfi Coast for a long time. Good pick, husband! We left Thursday night on an overnight train in a sleeper car. 

We were both anxious about the sleeper car. There were two sets of bunk beds. I took the bottom bunk and Nick took the top. Our bunk mates were an Italian couple. They were very quiet and respectful! Phew! 

Friday, May 31st

After a 7 hour train ride to Rome from Sacile and then an hour ride from Rome, we arrived in Naples! (Napoli) Naples is the least scenic of the big cities in Italy. We walked down Spaccanapoli and Via Toledo in Naples; they were just a slight detour from the train station on our way to the ferry.

As men were coming out of this manhole, I heard the sound of a kitten crying. Nick and I both stopped to see the kitten pulled to safety. I immediately got my camera out to record the event.The Italian men standing around the manhole all started laughing. The men that were in the manhole emerged, but neither of them had a cat with them. One of them turned to me and said, "Italy -1, America- 0." Then he started making the cat noise again with his mouth. He had a toy in his mouth that made a very distinct kitten sound. Nick and I both started laughing and immediately walked away! I think the Italians were thoroughly amused.:)

There was graffiti everywhere in Naples. I took some pics of my favorites...

"Put a bird on it." If anyone reading this watches the TV show Portlandia, hopefully you'll get this reference. :)

Gesu Nuovo. This is a church! It looks so modern! 

This street is called Spaccanapoli, which means split Naples. It has divided Naples for centuries.

This is Cafe Mexico in Naples. This place was listed in my Rick Steve's book. They had delicious warm brioche, and piping hot coffee! You have to purchase your coffee at the register, then take your receipt and set it on the counter. Our receipt went unattended for several minutes before we realized that you have to tip them .10 cents before they will even look at your order! It was worth it! Also, their coffee almost always comes with sugar in it. I usually drink my coffee without sugar, but this was still good!

The Galleria Umberto is one of the oldest shopping centers. It was built in 1892. Nick did not appreciate this as much as I did. :)

Piazza del Plebiscito. Neither Nick or I were impressed. I guess we've seen too many Piazza's since being in Europe. We walked around the corner from there to catch our ferry to Sorrento.

Nick and I were amazed by how many cruise ships were in the harbor. We could only see 5 of them. I'm sure there were more...

We hopped on the ferry. We thought we'd sit inside, since everyone else went upstairs to sit on the deck. I quickly realized that it's not good sit inside near the front of the boat on a choppy boat ride and read a book. Bad idea.

 Our first glimpse at Mount Vesuvius

After 40 minutes on our ferry, we reached dry land in Sorrento! I already knew I wanted to come back!

 This was the view we had from our bedroom. :)

Heaven!

My view during our lunch. :)

We decided to just explore Sorrento the rest of the day.

I laughed when I saw this doorway. Southern Italians are just a little shorter than the Italians in the north. Nick's making a funny face because he didn't want his picture taken, but he was slightly smiling out of habit. :)

There were stray dogs and cats everywhere.

This man was sitting so still he looked like a statue. We walked around that area for a good 5 minutes, and he never moved.

 Nick standing on the dock in Sorrento with the ominous Vesuvius in the background.

We hiked up these stairs from the beach to the town. We decided we had to kiss on every step we walked up. We were laughing hysterically by the time we got to the last step. Luckily there weren't too many people there to witness our silliness. 

This harbor was probably my favorite place in Sorrento. I think I took about 1000 photos of it, so you'll likely see more. :)

You can find just about anything lemon flavored in this region of Italy. There are lemon groves everywhere!

"2 cats!" (That was Nick's initial call sign when he first arrived in Italy) 

There were massive doors with smaller doors cut out at the bottom. Apparently, this one was used as an entrance to a moped garage. 

This is an Italian men's club! I had to get a pic of Nick in front of it. :)

There's no shortage of winding, twisting roads on the Amalfi coast.

I'm not actually sure who this is a statue of but Nick's grumpy face looks pretty similar...so I got a picture of them together. :)

Mopeds everywhere!!

We headed back to the Grand Hotel Capodimonte for a delicious birthday dinner! They even brought out a cake for me at the end. 

Saturday, June 1st 

We started our day with Pompeii. For some reason, I don't ever remember ever learning or hearing about Pompeii until we moved to Italy. Nick says he remembers learning about it when he was younger. It seems odd to me that I have no memory of learning about it or I was never taught anything about it.

When we arrived there was no line! We were able to buy tickets and get a tour guide with a small group very quickly.

Our first sighting of the ruins.

 This was the entrance to Pompeii before it was covered in 79 AD with hot gas and ashes from Mount Vesuvius.

These little bits of white marble were used to help travelers see the road at night with the help of moonlight or lamps. They were the original botts dots. (If you don't know what that is you should google it)

The Basilica

The Forum

This person was trapped inside their house trying to cover their nose and mouth when the volcano erupted.

 These were the bathrooms in Pompeii. It's like a communal outhouse.

This was the "arrow" in the sidewalk pointing in the direction of a brothel. :) 

Don't look too closely. These frescos were basically menus in the brothel.

You will only find stone beds in the brothel.

 They actually had lead pipes in 79 AD!

There were several bath houses in Pompeii. The cubes on the walls were used as lockers. The ceilings were ribbed so that the hot condensation would run down to the the ceiling to the walls instead of dripping from above.

At the lower right corner of the building you'll see another "arrow."

Pensive Nick.

These counters were used as fast food stands.

These nails are almost 2000 years old!

The stones in the middle were used as a crosswalk. Every day they would flood the streets to keep them clean. You can also see grooves where the horse drawn carriages traveled regularly.

 The arena was Nick's favorite part of the tour. Unfortunately, we only spent a few minutes there because it started to rain.

After Pompeii we drove up to Vesuvius. Unfortunately, a storm blew in and we couldn't walk to the top because it started raining.

But we found some sweet stray dogs to keep us company. I wanted to take this dog home. He was so sweet!

We tried to warm up with a quick espresso.

After our short trip to Vesuvius we headed back to Sorrento.

Of course the sun came out an hour after we left Vesuvius. Doh!

But we were happy drinking our macchiato's on the shore.

Sunday, June 2

The next day was the only sunny day, so we got on a ferry to the Island of Capri. After a 30 minute ferry ride, we jumped in a line to buy a bus/funicular ticket. (One of many lines we would stand in that day. Apparently, everyone else wanted to go to Capri that day since we had nice weather.) 

Funicular ride!

Piazza Umberto

A view on the bus from a winding a twisting road to Anacapri.

We got all the way to the Blue Grotto before realizing that it was closed for the day. Booooo.

Nick tried getting a picture of the inside of the grotto. An Italian official told Nick to stop. Nick continued to take photos, and eventually the Italian left. Ha! 

This was the best picture he got. :)

Since the Blue grotto was a big fail, we decided to head to the chair lift to get a view from Monte Solaro.

We grabbed a quick pizza back in Anacapri, and then got a bus to Capri to see if we could get a boat ride around the island. Nick REALLy didn't want to get on a boat with 60+ other people, so we opted for a ride in a dinghy with just us and the captain.

Our boat

 White Grotto

Emerald Grotto

It was interesting watching the larger boats try to back into the grottos. It was amusing and scary. At one point we got very close to one of these larger boats. I motioned to the captain to honk his horn by bending my right arm to a 90 degree angle with my fist in the air, and then pumping it two times. Most Americans know to do this motion when trying to get a semi-truck to honk the horn. Apparently, Italians don't know this signal because the captain looked very confused and slowly waved back at me. Haha!

Green Grotto

Next we headed to the Faraglioni rocks. There were a few boats waiting to go through the arch in the rock. Our boat driver pulled up, passed the others and went right in! The waves were huge! I *might* have screamed the whole way through with a break for a kiss. Apparently, it's good luck to kiss under the arch.

 We made it out!

 The boat ride was probably my favorite activity of the day. It was definitely far from dull!

Next we had about 45 minutes before our ferry ride back to Sorrento, so we headed back up to Capri from the dock and walked around the city. There were hoards of people and really expensive boutiques. (Just what Nick loves! NOT!) We stopped to eat some gelato along the way. Nick got coffee flavor (which wasn't very good) and I got apricot flavor that was delicious! Our time was up, so we grabbed a convertible cab ride back down to the shore.

I loved Capri, but I think Nick and I would really enjoy Capri without the long lines. :)

After we grabbed our bags in Sorrento we had a few train rides to catch including: Sorrento to Naples, Naples to Rome, and Rome to Sacile. 

Unfortunately, we weren't as lucky with our bunk mates on the return trip. We had a man that snored REALLY loud. Nick couldn't even sleep through it. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep and Nick had to head straight to work after we got off the train. 

Overall, I had an amazing birthday weekend and I already can't wait to go back!

Bucket List for my next visit:

 Climb Mt. Vesuvius (hopefully it won't be raining again)

Visit Herculaneum (a town like Pompeii)

 Go into the Blue Grotto on Capri (hopefully the sea won't be too choppy again)

Travel to Positano and Amalfi via bus 

...just to name a few. :)

Who wants to join me?! :)