Sorry it has taken me so long to make a new post, we've been really busy finishing up finals the past few days!
Ok so the title sounds dramatic (and it is definitely exaggerated), but let's just say our trip to the Coast this weekend went a little less planned than some of other weekend trips...
Amanda, Emily, Eric and I headed for the train station around 7:45 last Friday morning to catch an 8:25 train to Naples, and it just so happened that we got a completely un-airconditioned section of the train, so that was annoying but definitely not unbearable, the unbearable part comes later...
(I promise there are pictures past this huge chunk of writing!!)
We arrived to Naples around 10:30, found the local train, the Circumvesuviana, that could take us down the coast to the town in which we were staying, and found out that there was a 4 hour strike occuring that day from 9-1pm. So we bought our tickets, had two hours to kill before we made it down to the train tracks and entered into probably the worst few hours of our entire five weeks in Rome.
Since there had been a strike for the past four hours, and local trains usually run ever 15 minutes, there were SO many people needing to get on that 1pm train down the coast. So we posted up close to the track hoping to be able to get on the train first and get a seat. The thought is laughable in hindsight, considering for the next two hours we stood packed closer than sardines on the train with no air conditioning. See, we expected the train to be empty, since we thought the first stop was the train station, but I guess it comes from somewhere else, so the train cars were already crowded to begin with and as they pulled up, the frantic energy of the crowd waiting on the tracks was contagious and terrifying as everyone started pushing before the train even came to a complete stop. We had Eric lead the way, and I brought up the rear and we literally shoved people to get on that train, and we barely did, no exaggeration. There were still hundreds of people on the tracks that couldn't get on because it was so packed, so I am glad we were able to get on it.
As we were shoved into a corner of the standing area next to the seats when more and more people tried to squeeze in, all I could think about was the fact I learned in one of my classes last fall that all it takes is the force from 5 people pushing into you at the right angle to suffocate you and kill you. (super optimistic right??) The train finally started rolling, and I'm not kidding when I say we were touching someone else with every inch of our bodies, including our heads. We looked up at the map of stops, and our spirits sank when we realized we had THIRTY TWO stops before our stop in Sorrento. I won't bore you with the details, but the next two hours were literally hell, only easing up a bit after the stop by Pompeii when a good amount of people got off.
Our bed and breakfast was actually located right outside Sorrento in a tiny area called Piano di Sorrento and we saw that the train stopped there two stops before Sorrento. We were getting closer to the Piano stop when we noticed the train wasn't stopping at every stop now, it was instead sporadically stopping at some and not others, and we were concerned that it wouldn't make a stop at Piano, so we decided to get off right before Piano at Meta di Sorrento, since the train pulled to a stop there and we assumed we could take a taxi from there.
Long story short, taxis don't exist in Meta di Sorrento, so we had to walk with all of our luggage along the main road between towns to get to Piano (with our luggage!) which was about a 30 or 40 minute walk. We finally arrived in Piano, but to no relief when we realized that the roads were barely marked so we had no idea how to find our bed and breakfast. Also, no one spoke English in this town, not even simple phrases. Our bed and breakfast was called "The Secret Garden Relais" and man, was it secret. It was nestled down in this back alley with a wall surrounding it and only a tiny little sign next to the street number alerting us that we had arrived. We knocked on the big gate knowing it would be sort of hopeless since the building was clearly a hundred feet from the gate, and suddently a man that had just walked up the street turns and looks at us and walks back towards us and the gate. Turns out it was the hotel manager, so thank god we walked up right when he was leaving, since we would have had to sit out there for probably a few hours until he came back! (I know that sounds so strange that he would just leave, but that's Italy for you, and especially small-town coastal Italy.) He let us in and it turns out our bed and breakfast was so adorable and in a renovated old mansion decorated like a beach house. Amanda and I reached our room on the top floor and absolutely loved it. We quickly changed into our bathings suits and rushed out the door to try and get at least a few hours on the local beach since most of our day had been wasted traveling.
Our first view of the water as we hit the coast a short walk from our B&B.
As you can see, we were really high up from the water so we had to find the "beach elevator" that takes you straight down the cliffs down to water level. We laid on the Piano di Sorrento beach for the remainder of the day and it was really beautiful and worth the hellish day of traveling.
Gorgeous beach club at the end of the dock next to where we were sitting.
This is taken standing on the dock looking back at the beach where we were sitting. Now you can see why we had to take an elevator to get down to it, such high cliffs! This beach was cool because it was attended entirely by locals, since Piano di Sorrento isn't a typical tourist town because it's smaller than some of the other Amalfi Coast towns.
Pretty boats docked in the cove.
Walking off the beach back to the elevator, feeling relaxed and ready to shower and go out to eat.
Now enters the next phase of the 'disaster' namesake of this post....
As I've already mentioned, our bed and breakfast was really cute and beachy, yet also located inside of an old house, which explains the infestation of ants in our room/bathroom we discovered coming back from the beach. I'll share more on the ants later when they really got ridiculous, but anyway we showered and decided to go to Sorrento for dinner, since it's really close and the lady working the main desk of the bed and breakfast said its a very easy, short 20 minute walk. NOT THE CASE! We must have taken the windiest, most roundabout route possible, and I kid you not it took us an hour and 15 minutes to reach the town center of Sorrento, not to mention we were walking on actual roads not meant for pedestrians and it was getting dark out, not ideal.
Yet again, though, the hellish experience was very worth it when we reached Sorrento, saw a beautiful sunset over the water and happened to find a restaurant called Basilica, recommended to me by Liza Blue who was in Sorrento a few weeks ago. The food was unbelievable; I should mention that mozzarella is made in this region, and that is probably my favorite food in Italy, so I was in heaven, getting a caprese salad, caprese pizza and trying Amanda's caprese ravioli.
Amanda, Emily and I almost to the Sorrento town center, with the beautiful sunset in the back.
After our delicious dinner, we unanimously agreed not to attempt to find the shorter walking route back to Piano, so we took a taxi, and the drive took about 2 minutes, so clearly we were horribly wrong in terms of directions when we were walking there.
We originally planned to take a day trip to the nearby island of Capri for Saturday, but after having such a hellish travel day on Friday, we did not feel up to battling the crowds on Capri, so we did some research Friday night and decided to instead take a ferry to the gorgeous town of Positano, on the other side of the 'boot' that is the bottom of Italy.
Saturday morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of homemade croissants and headed off to Sorrento bright and early to catch our ferry to Positano. We managed to find the station for the local train right next to our hotel, so we took a 5 minute train to Sorrento, MUCH easier than walking, too bad we didn't figure it out the prior night... We made it on to our ferry and the trip was amazing. The entire day was exactly why I had to name the post 'beautiful disaster' instead of just 'disaster', since Positano was such an amazing experience, and so beautiful so it made the disaster part of the weekend well worth it.
Here are some pictures from the ferry ride over...
Pulling out of the Sorrento port.
The mountainous coast we passed was stunning, especially in how most of it was still entirely undeveloped.
Little rocky islands in the middle of the Mediterranean.
About 40 beautiful, relaxing minutes later, we approached Positano!
First glimpse of the town standing on the dock!
After a few minutes, we got our bearings and found out that there are two main beaches of the town, on either side of the main cliff that we approached when pulling up to the dock. The first one seemed super crowded since it is the one you see when you get off the ferry, so we decided to explore the possibility of the second beach. You have to hike around the cliff about 10 minutes to get to the other beach, it reminded us of Cinque Terre!
The pretty trail along the cliff.
Emily and I on the walk to the beach!
Pretty boats anchored in the water in the cove of the second beach.
We reached the start of the second main beach and looked down into this tiny cove cut out of the cliff, a perfect little beach separated from the crowds of the main beach. I don't know how we got this lucky to find such a secluded spot.
Emily and I in the amazingly clear water in our little cove!
From the spot where we laid our towels, to our left we saw this:
And to the right/straight ahead we saw this:
Solo shot in the water :)
Emily and I on the beach, notice the old chunky Italian in the speedo in the background...unfortunately a very frequent sight.
Walking back to the port to catch our ferry after such a perfect beach day getting roasted under the blazing Mediterranean sun.
Such a cute port town.
One last view of the main beach.
Gorgeous view of Positano on the ferry ride back to Sorrento.
Love these little deserted mountains in the middle of the sea.
Amazing sailboat flying by us, ah what I'd do for this boat...
Pulling back into the Sorrento port:
We made it back to our hotel in Piano relatively easily and showered to get ready for dinner. We found a really beautiful restaurant on top of the cliff bordering the coast, and made it to dinner well in time for the sunset.
Before dinner we took some coast pictures!
The travelin' trio!
Emily and I at dinner waiting for our delicious meals to arrive!
Amanda and I after eating during the sunset (I had to change the colors because we were in shadows...)
Sunset over the pretty restaurant
There was some sort of local holiday happening, so we were lucky enough to have a firework show at the end of our dinner!
Little Italian boys watching the fireworks!
So after our beautiful day and dinner we returned to our hotel, only to be reminded yet again of the disgusting ants crawling all over our pretty room...I'll spare you the details but let's just say I didn't sleep that much either night. Since I had my final presentation for my culture class Monday and all of us had our art history final on Tuesday, we decided to head back to Rome pretty early on Sunday morning and the journey was thankfully pretty uneventful! The only hiccup was upon arriving to our apartment, finding out that the other two boys in our apartment had gone out for the day without leaving a key for us so we had a pretty exasperating afternoon sitting on the curb outside our apartment (it was only fitting for the weekend to end that way I guess since it was a weekend of unfortunate traveling!!)
I can't believe this is my last night in Rome (sort of), since I am going to Switzerland tomorrow evening for 3 days! I'm coming back to Rome on Sunday to stay with Amanda and her parents before I fly back to America on Monday, but it still feels like my last real night here, which is really sad. I'm sure I won't have time to post again before I'm back in America, but I'll be sure to post a few posts from my last week and obviously from my skydiving experience (AH!!) in Switzerland this coming weekend after I am back home and have time!! So wait until next week for the rest of my posts! Ciao!!
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