Destination VII: Naples, Italy

Kenneth and I after our scooter ride ♥

The Scooter!!!

The Blue Grotto

Faglioni

The view from where we stopped the scooter...

Capri and the Mediterranean!!!

Kenny and I on our way to the Blue Grotto...

Sorrento, Italy

Pompeii, Italy

Pompeii, Italy

The first ever snack bar!!! There have been 89 discovered in the remains of Pompeii so far!

Pompeii's Colosseum

My new B.F.F.

Don't let the title deceive you, we weren't actually in Naples a.k.a. the scariest place in the world. In our travel book it warned us that there had been 100 street-side mafia murders in 2007. Not exactly what you would call safe. The only time we actually spent in Naples was inside the central train station, and that was perfectly fine with me. As soon as we arrived in Naples we got on another train that took us to Portici, where our hostel was. Portici is supposed to be much safer than Naples, and for the most part I felt safe. We found the hostel and dropped off our things, and right away we headed to Pompeii.

Pompeii was incredible. Basically Pompeii was a thriving ancient city until Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. and buried it under 20 meters of ash. It was nearly 1,600 years before Pompeii was rediscovered. That is when excavations began, and they are still going strong. I expected just a small ruins sight... I was completely blown away by the size of the ancient city. We got audio guides and listened as we learned about the churches, market places, original snack bars, people's homes, and their cobble stone streets. Since there were no street lights in those ancient times, the people put down white shells when they were making their roads so the light of the moon would reflect off them and they could see where they were going. Smart cookies! My favorite part about Pompeii was meeting my new B.F.F. Apparently Pompeii is connected to a dog adoption agency, so there are dogs roaming the roads (I didn't know this until after we left.) Taking a nap on one of the roads was the sweetest little puppy, so I knelt down to pet him... The rest is history. He got up and started following me around. It was the cutest thing ever! After exploring Pompeii we headed back to the train station. We ended up getting on the wrong train and went all the way back to Naples, instead of Portici. Then we had to wait for 25 minutes for the next train to leave Naples that stopped in Portici. Then, we missed our stop. So, we got off at the next one. Somehow we got lost trying to walk in the direction of our train stop. I didn't feel that safe, especially when Kenny was asking if I was making eye contact with people. Finally I gave up and asked someone if they spoke English. We were in luck. They pointed us in the right direction, so we walked some more. By the time we reached the station I realized we went back one too far and passed our station yet again. It had now been nearly three hours since leaving Pompeii... What a day! When we finally found the street our hostel was on, which by the way we had to cross to get to the stop before ours, we ate at the first place we stumbled upon. A delicious pizzeria; did I mention pizza was invented in Naples??? I ordered a lasagna pizza which came complete with scoops of ricotta cheese on top. It was AMAZING! After dinner I was so exhausted I barely even remember the walk home.

The next morning, we got up and got ready for our adventure to the island of Capri. We got on a train to Sorrento, and from there took a ferry to Capri. Sorrento was beautiful; it almost seemed tropical. There were huge lemon and orange trees lining the streets, and everything was green. We had a couple of hours to kill before the ferry left, so we enjoyed the shoreline and took lots of pictures. We even bought a bottle of Limoncello and some chips to enjoy once we got to Capri. After our ferry docked in Capri, we hopped off and headed towards our first order of business: The Blue Grotto. We knew we really wanted to see it, so we bought our tickets and hopped on another boat. The small boat took us to this tiny little cave. Once we were outside the cave we got into a row boat. We were instructed to lie down as we entered the grotto. Once inside it was absolutely beautiful. The water is illuminated bright blue naturally because the rocks inside don't touch the ground, so the sun shines through. It was incredible. After we got back to the main part of the island, we walked around and explored a little before finding a nice spot on the beach to enjoy our chips and Limoncello. After hanging out on the beach for a while we decided to play over or under for renting a motor scooter... I said €35 for an hour because I thought it sounded like so much fun. We were in luck because it ended up costing only €15 for an hour. What a deal. We got to cruise around Capri on a scooter!!! How amazing! I could tell it definitely made Kenny giddy to be riding something with two wheels again. The views we got from the scooter were incredible... It was probably the best spent €15 of the entire trip! As our hour concluded it was time to head back to Sorrento so we got on the ferry and set sail. Since it was Easter Sunday the public transport system was a little out of whack. We were going to have to take a bus back to Naples and then another from Naples to Portici. Ugh. The train ride from Portici to Sorrento was 45 minutes... This was going to take forever! After waiting around for a half hour or so we pushed our way to the front of the line to ensure we had seats on this treacherous ride back to the hostel. Unfortunately, Kenny and I got separated, but we were only a row apart so it wasn't that big of deal. About an hour into the ride the girl sitting next to me got violently ill and threw up all over the window. I hadn't had anything to eat in a while, and I almost got sick from the smell. So I moved to the floor next to Kenny. After another hour or so we were wondering where exactly we were, so I went to the front of the bus and five different people were all trying to explain to me what I needed to do to get back to Portici. Then the bus driver offered to make an extra stop for Kenny and I so we didn't have to go all the way to Naples. They were all so friendly, and the gesture helped out so much! We finally made it back to Portici and decided to eat dinner in our hostel since everywhere else was closed.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the train station. I had a 16:00 flight to catch back to Prague from Rome. The budget train ride was sold out, so we had to spend more money to take another. The train station was a mad house; who would have known Easter Monday was so intense. We made it to Rome and wanted to grab something for lunch. Every single place in the entire city of Rome was closed. Except for the kebab place across the street from the train station. Kebabs it was. They were actually pretty good but nothing in comparison to the delicious food we enjoyed the entire previous week. After lunch we headed towards the airport (which was also a madhouse.) As usual it sucked saying goodbye to Kenny, but this time, it wasn't too bad because I knew I'd be seeing him in Morocco in only a week and a half! We said our goodbyes and I headed for my gate. I was super surprised to see that my friends Morgan, Nick, and Drew were all on my same flight home; what a coincidence! And then my spring break was over. It will go down in the history books as the best spring break EVER. I pretty much had the time of my life ♥