In the Shadow of Vesuvius

So much happened this weekend I am not even sure where to start. I guess the beginning is the best place.


(I had a few issues with formatting, sorry if it gets a little funky)



Day 1: Mt. Vesuvius & Sorrento


Well first we had to meet at 9 AM by school to get on the bus. I left early with my roommate Catherine and we got there in good time. However since the bus by our house isn't super regular our other roommates took forever. They got there at 9, I was afraid they would miss the bus. The bus ride was long, about 4 hours, but beautiful. Driving through/by the Appenine Mountains is so amazing. The drive up the mountain was the scariest drive ever. So steep and the tightest turns ever, I can't even describe how scared I was. But it was all worth it, the view and the mountain was amazing.

It was so cold, and API had told us to wear shorts and stuff so we were freezing. It was really cloudy and windy, not to mention how high up we were, so a lot of people bought 'Italia' sweaters from the souvenir stalls. 

It was so beautiful from the top though.

The roommates at the top of the mountain

We were tired though so we all slept on the bus. It wasn't a grueling walk, but it was long.

But then we arrived in Sorrento, which is the cutest little town. We wandered a bit and then got dinner. The "Gnocchi alla Sorrentina" was mind blowing. It has a tomato/mozzarella sauce. SO good, the sauce is full of melted mozzarella and gooey and amazing. It got the constancy of the cheese, so it was stringy and my favorite dish so far.

Sorrento is known for its 

lemoncello, had to order some

 Day 2: Capri & Sorrento

So then we took a ferry to Capri, which was awesome. (I have some videos I will post tomorrow along with a description of my souvenirs, exciting no?) This was such a beautiful island. Kate and I decided to skip out on the boat tour (we didn't quite have our sea legs) and wandered around a bit and took the most amazing cable car ride. We aren't sure which town it took us too, but we don't care. Capri is full of ceramic shops. I seriously fell in love with so many mugs and bowls, but they aren't cheap.

There were also a bunch of really nice jewelery stores. But more about that in my next post.

A Caprese pizza in Capri

We were only in Capri for like 5 hours, which definitely didn't seem like enough. We all wanted to see a few more of the towns and spend a little more time on the beach. The beach was beautiful, is was a pebble beach like Brighton Beach in England. The water was the most beautiful clear blue though.

I think some of these photos of ceramics were actually from Sorrento, but whatever. When we got back we crashed in the hotel for an hour or so (such an exhausting weekend) then we explored some more, had another amazing dinner (I had gnocchi again...) and went to a wonderful gelato place.
 Kate and Catherine got these beautiful leather bags there, and I was really tempted to get one too. I am holding out for the Florence trip though.


Day 3: Pompeii and back to Roma

 After our exhausting few days we went on a 2 hour walking tour of Pompeii. It was so incredible. It is really easy to picture life there, what with all of the little details. Our tour guide was hilarious too. He kept referring to us as his mafia family. I don't even know how to describe Pompeii.

Ancient brick oven. Wonder what the pizza was like

The original McDonalds

As we were walking around I just kept thinking about all of the things I learned about in Latin class about Roman society and life. You really can imagine people just going around and living there. Much more so than at some of the other ruins I have been too. The infamous brothels there were also really fun.
  After this we all got back on the bus for the umpteenth time that weekend to end our sojourn to the Napoli region. (Their pizza is really different from Roman pizza - funny how different things can be that are so close together.) We were so tired that literally everyone slept on the way back. I once stood up to stretch a bit and turned around, everyone was slumped over. To be fair most of them did everything I did plus stayed out till 3-4am partying. As soon as we got back to the apartment we all just collapsed and went to bed.
It was an amazing trip, albeit expensive. Eating out for every meal plus souveniers really wiped me out. I am eating at home this whole week. I also might try to go to one of the towns near Rome sometime this weekend.

Well I am probably forgetting a ton of things, but that is it for now. Stay tuned for videos and my list of souvenirs that I bought/found.

Buonasera!