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| Pretty much the view from Hotel Spicy |
Italian class was normal... except for the part where this fifty-six year-old guy named Bobby (already can see the problem... right?) did his oral presentation and told us that he has two kids and a girlfriend. Wait... then why was the University of Central Florida professor out last night taking pictures with college aged students and taking shots? WEIRD! So creepy, and just no.
After Italian class we had an exciting day in Wine! We went on a tour of all the places in Firenze that Livia likes to buy a good bottle or just have a glass. Why didn't we do this weeks ago instead of the last week of our time here? Oh well... we walked all around and took our pause at Livia's favorite gelato place called Vivoli, which is also apparently one of the oldest in Firenze. I can't see all 100 pounds of Livia eating gelato let alone anything... We ended our tour right next to my apartment in this little family owned wine shop where we had a wine and balsamic tasting. The wines were all so good and I especially liked a dessert wine called Moscato D'Asti with only 5.5% alcohol. My type of wine!!! The cover was so cute because the daughter designed it herself. The balsamic was amazing too! There was one super sweet one that had been aged for forty years! That is nuts!
After I bought the bottle of dessert wine, I returned to my apartment to pack up the last few things before heading to the train station at six-thirty to go to the AmAlFi CoAsT! A million hours later (aka 2 am) we tiredly rolled up to Hotel Spicy in Sorrento.
GIORNO TRENTADUE
Today we woke up pretty early in order to get all our tours in order! We ate breakfast, stole some items off the buffet, and took a forty minute trek down to the Sorrento port. We walked down the steep stairs and waited by the water until our giant carrier approached, unloaded 468737835 cars, and let us board. It took about thirty minutes until we arrived at Marina Grande in Capri. Once we landed, we immediately boarded the smaller ferry that took us on a tour around the island. We quickly arrived at this tiny cave opening in the side of a rock face with several other boats, waiting our turn to enter. We got into these tiny row boats with a guide and he paddled us over to the tiny little hole in the rock of an entrance into the Blue Grotto. The waves would move up and down and we timed our entrance when the waves were low enough. We still had to lay completely down so we would not hit our heads on the roof of the cave opening. Once inside the cave was completely black except for the illuminated water in the color of sea glass blue. It was so beautiful. We only had a few minutes in there, so we jumped in and took a few pictures in the freezing water before returning to our boat. Legit.
Once we returned to the ferry, we continued on the tour around the island. Along the way we saw the Green Cave, which has rocks that appear green from the reflection of the water. Everyone on the lower level reached out to touch it. We continued on to what is known as the "lover's arch," where loved ones are supposed to kiss in order to get eternal love. Some day... right? So... we kept going, seeing the beautiful completely clear blue water, the "baby factory" beach, the single lady statue sitting on the rock waving, and the bright orange coral on the rocks. Everything was perfect!
When we arrived back at Marina Grande, we followed the Florence for Fun tour guides to this hidden beach on Marina Piccola, where we ate a quick lunch and laid out on the beach *ahem* I mean rocks by the beautiful, cold water. On the way there we walked down this steep path along the rock face that is known as "The Wall of Capri," a play on China's Great Wall. They were basically the same thing except this wall was intact, along the water, and probably about 3465646 times smaller. But other than that... pretty much the same. We swam over to this little area on the other side of the restaurant and collected sea glass. I love sea glass; it is so pretty... I really don't understand why we don't have as much in the US, but they have loads of it here! There was a nice rock in the middle of the water that kids were jumping off of, so we grabbed Cole's GoPro and took jumping photos. It was awesome. Allora, one of my main goals of this summer was to get a great Chaco tan for camp. I left my shoes on pretty much the entire weekend attempting to get some good tan lines going. So far so good... you can definitely see where my shoes were!
We stayed at the beach until about four-thirty when we rode a bus up to the city center for our limoncello tasting. All I have to say is ew. I didn't like it at all. It is so strong, and so unsatisfying, and so gross. No... not for me. We walked around a little longer, until we reached this fruit stand where we bought these amazing drinks called granitas. They were basically lemon slush with freshly squeezed orange juice mixed together. I have never drank something so refreshing in my life. I was a happy camper, especially because I was outside in the hot sun, looking at a ridiculous view, drinking a citrus drink. Nothing could have been better!
After the granitas, we caught the cable car back down to the port, where we headed back to Sorrento for dinner, which was average, but eatable. We were so exhausted from our day in the sun for pretty much the first time in the last six weeks, that we fell asleep immediately after dinner; all five of us in the one small room, with one bathroom, and five little single beds. It was a tight squeeze.
GIORNO TRENTATRE: "The Naked Truth"
Today we woke up a little later and stole a little bit more from the buffet for our lunches and beautiful day in Positano. We took the bus forty minutes to Positano, where we entered the city and walked around until we arrived at the beach. Along the way we passed all these shops that started to look very familiar to me. It all started with this stairwell with these giant lemons hanging from the railings, a restaurant above that said, "Delikatessen," and the bougainvillea hanging from the roof. I had this gut feeling that there would be a store around the corner with my name on it and guess what? I was right! My name was everywhere! I thought my name was French, but I have seen it twice now in Italy, so I am starting to think that it is Italian. They call me "Rah-kelle." It has a nice ring to it. 
When we reached the beach, we walked to this cover-up store, where I found the most beautiful homemade white lace vest ever! It was so perfect and Ihad to get it. Everyone else bought super cute cover-ups and it was already a good day!
Allora... we REALLY wanted to go cliff jumping because we heard that the best place to do it was in Positano, so we rented a boat for an hour and drove on over to a thirty(ish) foot cliff to jump into the water. It was so awesome! The water felt perfect and we met up with some other Florence for Fun people along the way who told us about this cave where you could swim. We followed them and wound up at this awesome cave that you could enter on one side and exit on the other. We found some fun nooks and crannies, and afterward left for the beach feeling refeshed and satisfied that the day was already perfect.
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| Positano... you can see the 1999 hotel in the background |
At the meeting time, we all walked back to the bus and returned to Hotel Spicy for showers and dinner. Dinner was way better tonight! We decided after that we would walk over to Sorrento "beach," which was just a short walk down to this cliffside to watch the sunset. IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL! I practically, meaning I totally sprinted, to the cliffside to make the sunset in time. It turned out I didn't need to run, but I got a few solo sunset shots in the mean time and stared at how wonderful this weekend already was. I was in a state of pure perfection. So happy.As we were walking back down to leave the cliffside, we noticed this small cover of turquoise water below. In the corner we saw the sketchy staircase leading to the small beach, so we went down there and there was a tiny cave opening at the other end. It was sompletely surrounded by cliffs with teh small beach and crystal clear water. It wasn't real. It felt like a mirage. But it didn't feel like one... we decided to jump in. And yes, we were wearing clothes, so of course, the "Naked Truth..." we went skinny dipping. We only had one scare when we heard a man's voice yell something. We all literally freezed and just stood there for a few moments unable to do anything. The coast was clear. It was so worth it! It was so much fun, and it was too funny. This had to be one of the most fun days of the trip so far... I just didn't know how it could get much better. We thought about how it would be funny if we heard that there is some ridiculous fine for skinny dipping. Leave it to Italy to have the strangest fines... we haven't heard anything yet.
So... it was now time for shower number two since I got wet at the cove. Per usual, the second we hit the pillows we fell asleep since we were outside in the sun all day. Another perfect ending for the day. It marked the "one week left" of our trip... it is a scary thing, but hey, it will be nice to be home and see my family, have a dryer for my crunchy clothes, and go hiking in Colorado. Summer isn't over yet! GIORNO TRENTAQUATRO
Today we visited Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. We woke up and checked out of the hotel to drive the forty-five minutes north to Pompeii. It was a sweltering kind of day in the ruins of Pompeii, but it is definitely a really cool place because this town, which is about ten miles from the volcano, was competely destroyed by the explosion. There were places in the rocky streets where you could still see the remnants of where hot objects left impressions in the rock. There were human bodies still twisted as if writhing in pain from the heat of the lava displayed in glass cases. You could even see the bone fibers in teh foot. It is crazy how quickly these people lost everything, but it is equally amazing how they were able to create this town in such an ancient town. It never ceases to amaze me how much humans can do...
We walked along with the tour group... unfortunately. I would rather walk around myself because I just fail to listen. I just want to explore, not stand around. I mean I love history, but when I'm in it... all I want to do is see it for myself. 
After the tour, we had about an hour to hang out and get lunch before we left for Vesuvius. I bought another delicious granita and ate my stolen breakfast sandwiches again until we walked around at all the crappy souvenirs in the desert-like heat.
We then drove about thirty minutes almost to the top of Mt. Vesuvius, where we exited the bus, got our tickets, and started hiking up the trail to the top of the active volcano. It only took about fifteen minutes to get to the top, but once there the views were absolutely gorgeous. You could look down into the deep crater and out into the distance across Pompeii and the ocean.
After the climb, we headed back down to the bus for our six hour adventure back to Firenze (home) with the dirtiest feet ever. The ash from the volcano was caked onto my feet because I was only wearing my Chacos and it was so hot, so I was covered in sweat (yay). Not my preferred choice of travel conditions... We were about halfway there when the bus stopped and we coasted to the edge of the highway. Dead. The bus ran out of gas... what? That doesn't just happen. In fact that isn't even allowed to happen. But it did. And we sat there for (luckily) only an hour before one of the other buses came to our rescue with gallons of gas for us to make it to the next rest stop. We were only five kilometers away... -___- *sigh*
Anyway... at least it was only the gas and not anything else. After stopping at the MOST EXPENSIVE EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENTIRE WORLD rest stop for a quick dinner, we continued on and arrived in Firenze before midnight.
I was never so excited to shower off my ashy Mt. Vesuvius feet and go to sleep!
Ciao-Ciao!
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