Italy! Italy! Italy!

Sorry this one has taken me so long to post. Ive been so busy with my last week of classes and trying to cram in as much Sevilla as possible before I leave in two weeks :( But anyways on to Italia! I was never the girl growing up who was like "Oh before I die, I need to visit Italy." It was never really high on my priority of places to visit but once I got here, I began to research different places to go for spring break and the Amalfi Coast instantly captured my attention. We figured we would need some relaxation after 7 days of sightseeing cities so beachy Italy proved to be the perfect solution for this.

We had an 11am flight from Budapest to Naples and after a quick 90 minute flight, we were in the land of pizza, pasta and fast mopeds. We hopped right on a bus and headed to Sorrento, a small city an hour south of Naples, where we would be spending the next three nights. It was an hour ride and we were absolutely exhausted but we couldnt fall asleep. We passed some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. Winding mountain roads leading down to the Mediterranean below was absolutely unreal. When we finally got to our hostel, which was this amazing little hostel next to a church, we dropped our bags and headed to grab a bus to head to Positano, a town 45 minutes away from us. Our ride on the bus was absolutely horrifying. Italian drivers are insane and the winding mountain roads which include vertical drops to the ocean bellow are frightening. After experiencing these roads, I am quite certain that these were the roads they filmed those tire commercials on. Once we made it to solid ground, we began to explore the picturesque landscape. This town was full of lemon trees, like orange trees are in Sevilla. The scent of lemons were in the air and the sun was just about to set over the mountains. It was one of those things that no amount of words can adequately describe. After that we ventured into downtown Sorrento and bought the biggest Italian pizzas we could find! I can now cross off eating pizza in Italy off of my life goals list! Gah it was so amazing and to top it off, the Red Sox were playing on NESN. It didnt get much better than that on our first day in Italy!

Day two in Italia bought out our historical side. Kel and I went to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius for the day. It so hard to grasp how old things like this are. The eruption of Vesuvius happened in 79 AD so yeah like 2000 years ago. It blows my mind and I still think I couldnt fully appreciate it. Just a helpful tip, if you are ever offered a audioguide, especially in a country where you dont speak the language, spring for the extra 6 euros and do it. We thought we could just teach ourselves about it. Yeah not so much but we had a ball trying to create our own stories of what buildings were back in their prime. After our self guided tour of UNESCO sites, we continued onto Mount Vesuvius. The bus ride there was utterly frightening. It was the same treacherous roads as the roads to Positaino but this time we were passing tour buses at the same time. I wouldnt even dare to take Tori down this roads let alone have two buses on them. When we had made it safely to the top, I was looking around for the crater. Yes, no one told us that we would have a 20 minutes walk up a volcanic sand dune to see it. Oh and we were both wearing flip flops. You know how much traction those old navy gems have. Lets just say that was a terrible hike. Im positive I breathed in a lifetimes worth of volcanic ash and soot. But at the top we could literally see all of Italy, I felt like. I stayed far away from the crater. I had no desire on falling down there! For dinne,we grabbed some typical Italy pasteries and ate it on the roof deck and watched the sunset. So romantic I know haha!

The final full day in Italy was the perfect way to end our European escapades. We made a little picnic lunch and just laid on the beach for hours. We spent so long playing in the black sand and collecting the most perfect seaglass I have ever seen. To end our trip, we went to this nice Italian restaurant and ordered the stereotypical pasta and we also learned that splitting a liter of wine between two people will lead to sloppy walks home. This walk home included a necessary stop for some gellato which oddly contained a squirrel cookie? I dont know but it kept me highly entertained. I am glad that we got to relax on Wednesday because Thursday proved to be on of the worst and most stressful days of my entire life. Ok here goes the sparknotes version of this. 

So to fly back to Sevilla our flight was out of Bari instead of Naples because it saved us 300 euros and was only a two and a half hour train ride away. Totally worth it. So we get to Naples at 845 am to catch the 910 train to Bari which would get us there in plenty of time for our 440 flight back home. We go to the counter oh and are talking in Spanish since A. no one speaks english and B. its very similar to Italian and they tell us that the train is sold out and to try the bus. The bus was a no go since it wouldnt get us there in time. So we thought about renting a car but nope still no luck. It was easter weekend in the most religious nation in Europe. FAIL. At this point we start to panic so we head to the airport to see if they can change our flight.Nope since Naples doesnt have ryainair they couldnt even look up other flights. I was beginning to think I was going to spend the next week in the Naples airport until we could manage to find a cheap flight. Our last ditch effort was to withdraw all the money from our account and convince a taxi driver to take us 3 hours to Bari. It worked and we got their in plenty of time for our flight. Moral of the story. Always book train tickets a head of time, especially in Italy, during Easter, unless you like spending 250 euros for a cab ride!

Sunset in Positano

Positano

and again!

 

 

rooftop of our hostel

 

 

 

Pompeii