See, I promised I'd continue my epic story of my trip to Italy.
Friday Aug 28th - "Best Day Ever" Sorrento/Capri
We awoke to a note saying that we'd been able to get space on the boat going to Capri! We met the group in the lobby of the hostel and got in a shuttle to go to the marina. Once at the marina we hovered around and let half of the people get on the "fast" boat while we waited around for the sailboat. We piled on and made ourselves comfy. Theres not many words that can describe the beauty of the cliffs and water around the coast. The water was this amazing blue colour, bluer than the skies and SOO clear. The skipper, Sebastian, took us to a few different swimming spots, in grottos and stuff like that. He also had goggles and flippers so we were able to check out the fishes and other random underwater things. I had my underwater housing for my camera with me so I was able to take a million pictures.The entire day's theme was "I'm On A Boat!" and it was decided that we'd have to make a video at the end of it all. They gave us lunch on the boat as well, these fabulous sandwiches with smoked mozzarella and basil, tomatoes and olive oil. SOO good. We stopped at a little restuarant and had icecream over looking the bay. We eventually got back to shore around 7pm as the sun was starting to set. We got back in the shuttle busses after a huge hike up the hill and went back to the hostel. We were going to go find some pizza in town but decided the walk was too much and opted to stay at the hostel for dinner.
Saturday Aug 29th - Sorrento to Rome
Sadly we had to leave Sorrento on Sat to go meet our Contiki group in Rome. Natalie and Daniel, our new friends from Perth, came with us to the train station and lucky for me Daniel offered to carry my backpack. Which made me extremely happy since I'd managed to get a bit of a sunburn on the boat the day before and my shoulders were a little bit tender. It just so happened that 2 other girls from the hostel were also going back to Naples (and then onto Rome) on the same train as us so we decided that our best course of action would be to operate as a group. When we got to Naples we found out the train was late (surprise surprise) and had to wait around.
Eventually we got to Rome and found a transit map. I'd written down the instructions on how to get to the hotel which required us to take the metro and then an overland train. However, once we got to Termini we found out that the train station that we were supposed to get off at was closed. We thought about it and decided that we'd just go to the closest metro station and walk from there. Not one of our best plans, I have to say. We walked and walked and walked, back and forth down via Bruno something. We'd taken a picture of the transit map and knew we were close. Eventually we stopped to ask someone for directions which was something of a gamble since all of our other encounters with asking people ended in flailing hands and pantomimes. Amazingly this guy we stopped was young, attractive (oh boy was he attractive!) and spoke english... and he happened to have a blackberry with GPS! Turns out that the street we wanted had a different name at our end (something we'd learn was pretty common as our time in Rome went on) and we'd been walking past it for over an hour. He went on his way after chatting with us for a bit (and giving us his contact details incase we got lost again) and we set off again. Still couldn't find it and eventually conceded and got a cab... which drove us about a block and dropped us off in front of the hotel. ARGH! Costs us 6 euros for that!
We ran into the hotel thinking that we'd missed the start of the contiki meeting. That would have made the 2nd time on a Contiki trip and I was late for the meeting. However, we were lucky and it didnt' start til 6pm and it was only 5. We went up to our room and put on dry clothes (mine were completely sweat drenched) and went down to meet the group. Our tour leader, Katia, went over all the optional things that we could do and then we went out for dinner. The dinner was awesome - fresh pasta that was thrown from the pasta maker into the pot (or at least thats what it tasted like!) and then covered in a creamy tomato sauce. And then we had veal and potatoes! Yum! We were pretty exhausted and had an early day planned so we went to bed pretty early.
Sunday - Aug 30th - Vatican/Rome
We got up early to get in line at the Vatican, as the last sunday of every month is free admission. However, the line was enormous and we left after waiting about 45 min. Instead of doing the Vatican we decided to do our walking tour around Rome. We saw the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps. While at the Trevi fountain Ange and I went in to get icecream and ended up losing the group. Thankfully I had a trusty map that led us to the Spanish Steps, which was as stop on the tour I'd heard her mention. Thankfully the group was there and we were able to catch up with them. After the tour we went for lunch at a little place right beside the Colosseum. Ange and I both had our first taste of traditional italian pizza - which was awesome and just how I like it! Thin thin crust mmmmm. We did a guided tour of the Roman Forum and then of the Colosseum. We made plans with the people that weren't doing the optional pizza party to go out for dinner somewhere around 8pm. We got back on the bus and went back to the hotel. When it came time to go out for dinner we took the bus - illegally while the rest of the group spent money on a cab. We'd had enough of cabs after our 6 euros to go one block adventure! We met the group in Piazza Navona and joined them for dinner. Afterwards we boasted our amazing bus skills and said that the last bus was leaving at midnight and that you didn't *really* have to pay! So we went to the bus stop and waited... eventually the bus driver showed up (we were waiting beside an empty bus with no sign hoping that it was the right one and that we didn't have to cab it back). I asked him if it was the 926, which it was. We all got on the train, didn't validate our cards (cuz we didnt' HAVE any) and then I proceeded to attempt to communicate with the bus driver who didn't speak any english to get him to tell us when to get off. Even though it was as clear as mud what was going on, we still managed to get off the bus a stop too soon. The bus driver stopped the bus and looked at us like we were morons and told us to get back on. haha. ooops! Finally made it back to the hotel and crashed, ready for another big day - Vatican and then off to Florence!
Monday Aug 31st - Vatican (again) and Florence!
Up early again to go to the Vatican. However, this time we got advance tickets and didn't have to wait in the long line. We toured around the Vatican museums and saw the Sistene Chapel. We opted out of the guided tour of the museums/chapel and thus didn't really quite know what we were looking at when we got there. However, I happened to have an app on my iPod about Rome that came in super handy. So there Ange and I sat, reading info about the Sistene Chapel while the guards kept yelling "NO FOTO!" and "SHHHH!!!" I think thats all they do all day. I managed to sneak a few pictures of the ceiling before the guy went totally crazy on us. Aftewards we went and grabbed a bite to eat and then met the rest of the group and got on the bus to go to Florence! While on the bus we played a few "get to know you" games. Eventually we arrived in Florence and even though Katia had said that the hotel wasn't super wonderful, Ange and I were ecstatic to find out that our room had the only balcony! We'd been warned not to have any room parties but we figured we could have a balcony party! We went out for dinner at this (literally) hole in the wall place and had a great dinner of spaghetti and soup and salad and stuff. Then we went to a pub not too far away that had karaoke. We left fairly early and invited anyone arriving after us up to our room to join us on the balcony.
(more soon...still 6 days to go!)
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alanna foell : professional photographer : www.afphotography.cjb.net
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alanna foell : professional photographer : www.afphotography.cjb.net
