Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii

Last weekend (October 19-21) I had an excursion with my school. My program includes 3 optional excursions and a few required day trips. This weekend half of my class went to Southern Italy to the Almafi Coast. It was gorgeous, but unfortunately freezing cold. On Friday we left Siena at 6:30am, so I had to leave my house at 5 and walk since the buses don't start running until 7am. And to top things off, I had come down with a cold the day before so I was sick and had a fever. Poor Whitney right? =) But things got better once we left. After 6 and 1/2 hours on the bus, we arrived in Sorrento. We got lunch and then had a guided tour of the city. Sorrento is a small town on the coast. It is know for its Limoncello, which is a lemon after-dinner drink (it's delicious!) Sorrento was cold, but the view of the ocean was amazing.

On Saturday, we left early and took a boat to the island of Capri. Unfortunately it was really really windy and cold, but the island was incredible. There were views from all directions of the mountains, the ocean, and the villas. There were beaches with clear water, but it was way to cold to swim. It was so cold and the ocean was so rough that boats stopped running during the day. We had planned to take a private boat around the island to see all sorts of coves and caves, but we found other things to do. Like eat =) The first pizza ever made was in Napoli which is close to the Almafi coast, so the pizza all weekend was amazing. New York pizza couldn't even compete.

Then on Sunday we packed up, left the hotel, and drove to Pompei. We had the worst weather of all three days on Sunday, but Pompei was definitely my favorite place we saw. We had a guided tour of the Roman ruins and it was incredible. As I'm sure you all know, I'm not a history buff nor do I usually like the subject, but I have never been so enterested in history as I am here in Italy! I had no idea so much of Pompei was preserved. And there's much of Pompei still covered. Since it was raining in Pompei, we saw it snowing on Mount Vesuvius. Pretty awesome. After the tour and after we had eaten lunch, it was time to head back for Siena. While we all stood out in the rain waiting for the bus, we got some bad news. Of course no traveling can ever just go smoothly. Turns out the bus driver had parked our bus in a parking lot and the parking lot owner had locked the lot and was not going to open it until the next morning. Just our luck! We honestly thought they were kidding when they told us that. Long story short, the police were called, it took a few hours to figure everything out, and after we all had gotten hypothermia, the bus finally came. I have never been so excited so see a damn bus. So we got back to Siena a little late, but everything worked out. (And I got to add a story to my collection of travel mishaps =) Overall a cold, but great weekend!