Amalfi Coast Weekend

"We just took our first trip to the Amalfi Coast
Couple days on the beach
Then its adiios
(Killa)"

Another amazing week has gone by! This weekend we traveled to the Amalfi Coast!

Our journey started Thursday after a visit to the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum. The Ferragamo Museum was awesome! The museum looked like something straight out of a fairytale or the entertaining line before a disney ride! It was filled with shoes and original prototypes made by Ferragamo. Along with the shoes was fairytale storybooks that were the inspiration for a lot of Ferragamo's designs. After the museum it was straight to the bus for a 7 hour ride to Capri. We didn't reach Capri till about 2am and had to get up at 7am the next morning.

With a 7am wake up call the girls and I were the first to the free breakfast...of course. We were served croissants, bread roll, jam, and butter...not typically what I would choose for breakfast but hey it worked! We got back on the bus for a trip to Sorrento Marina. We took a ferry ride over to the Marina. The ferry was huge! I have never felt sea sick before but I was so nauseous on this ferry it was the worst. Once we got off the ferry we were herded over to a smaller boat to take an island boat tour. The tour was beautiful! The water was so blue and the scenic views of the island were unreal. I had never seen such a beautiful place in my life. On the boat tour they showed us houses of rich people, like Dolce and Gabbana's summer chateau, restaurants where meals started at 100 Euros, and hotels that were thousands of dollars a night. So I guess I understand why JayZ and Beyonce had been there the weekend before. After the boat tour was over we headed up the steep mountains of the island to further explore. At the top of the mountain we were greeted by the famous island drink "Granizada de limone con spremuta di arancia." The drink was made from fresh oranges and lemons and was so refreshing! We continued on to the beach where we walked down 5 billion steps just to reach the water. We were starving at this point so we stopped to eat before laying out on the beach. Kyla and I took the cheap way out and got 4 Euro slices of pizza and by slice I mean they actually just gave me a full pie. Amanda, Taylor, and Olivia decided to get the 25 Euro meal on the fancy side of the restaurant. After lunch we jumped off rocks into the crystal blue water and laid on the beach until it was time to leave. Then we headed back up the 5 million sets of stairs only to find out we had to then walk down the other side of the mountain again another 5 billion step...definitely got in an intense workout. From there it was back on the ferry and back to the hotel. At the hotel we got served a dinner of spaghetti followed by the eggplant parm..and french fries..such a weird combo. We also then were given a dessert of watermelon which is a common dessert for italians. Although we were exhausted from the day we decided to check out Sorrento's night life and go out to an English Pub. The English Pub was more of a dance club but none the less it was fun. It was hilarious listening to all the foreigners belt the words of American songs and the way they dance is so funny! After a few hours out it was time to head out for the next day was another early wake up call. 

The next morning we woke up around 8..once again the first to breakfast and what a surprise it was the same exact breakfast only this time there was hard boiled eggs as well. We then got on the bus to head over to Positano for the fay. Positano was pretty much a free day where we were allowed to do as we please. It was a beautiful beach with plenty of boat renting options. We decided to get a private boat tour for 2 hours down the Almafi Coast. The boat tour was probably the greatest purchase we have made since we have been in Italy. Our captain was hilarious! It was also funny how to go on the private boat ride all we had to do was pay..there were no waivers, no life vest, no questions you just simply got on the boat! In America this would never be the case! I love the laid back italian lifestyle! Our captain took us around the coast where he let us off in various places to jump off the boat and swim in and through caves. There are no words and no amount of pictures that could even begin to describe the beauty of this island. Sadly our tour came to an end and we were left to spend the rest of the day relaxing on the beach. We also got the most amazing sandwiches! On our way back to the buses to go back to the hotel we got to see the beginning of a wedding (happened to be an irish couple) it was so cute! Over 600 couples get married a season in Positano our captain told us. We actually saw two weddings that day. Side note: future husband I wouldn't complain if you casually decided to get married there....When we got back to the hotel we had another weird dinner starting out with a vegetable pasta dish (which was actually delicious) followed by roasted potatoes and for the vegetarians instead of a piece of turkey a piece of cheese...that was a first! Instead of going out to a bar we decided to check out this cool gelato place we had passed the previous day. The gelato place had so many different flavors!! It was unreal! I got dark dark chocolate, hazelnut with nutella, and a chocolate with cookies in it...ahhh soo good!! We then head back and went to bed early since the last couple days had worn us out. 

Sunday morning was our last day in the beautiful island of Capri. The day would consist of a trip to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. It took us 45 min to get to Pompeii. In Pompeii we toured the ruins and then sat down for this ridiculously huge meal. The Florence for Fun group had gotten us a deal that for 12 Euros we would get salad, pizza, and ice cream. The pizza once again was an entire pizza for each of us!! and did we all eat the entire pizza..yes. Theres not much to do in Pompeii besides tour the ruins so we walked around looking at the touristy trinket stands and soon enough were back on the bus heading to Mount Vesuvius. When we reached Mount Vesuvius I realized that I had missed the "get your jackets from below the bus before we leave Pompeii" memo. So I was left to climb up the active volcano with my big axid blanket. It turned out to be perfect because it was pretty chilly! It was a steep hike up but the view was breath taking. We took tons of pictures and attempted to twerk on the volcano...We didn't get much time up on top of the volcano and were back on the bus by 4:30 to head back to Florence. They played awesome movies on the way back Taken, 21 Jumpstreet, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. We stopped at a rest stop on the way back where I finally got a meal that wasn't pasta, pizza or a panini. It was late when we got back so we pretty much went right to sleep. 

Today we had to wake up early for more information on our trip to Paris! Ahhh we leave tomorrow!! Taylor and I signed up for an Italian speaking exchange group so we met with them for the first time. The group is two italian speaking grad students that are working on their English so it is they teach us we teach them kind of thing. Taylor, myself and some other girl are the only people who signed up for this. One of the italian grad students knew english pretty well..the other barely did...Taylor and I know nothing but a handful of phrases in Italian..so it was interesting to say the least! But it did make us practice Italian and work to learn it better so we definitely will be going back next Monday! Now its time to start packing for PARIS!!! WOOO!! I'm excited to finally be in a place where I remotely know the language!  It will be fun to see how much I remember from my 7 years of French. 

Ciao!