Well I have a lot to talk about and I have been so busy I can't even begin to express how crazy life has been here. This is going to be a long post with pictures included (hopefully) so please just stick with it and you will be rewarded with amazingness!!
Thursday June 10:
After my classes I did some shopping and then took a bus to Sorrento with 7 other girls from my trip. It was about an 8 hour bus ride and we got into Sorrento at about 3am. Since I had to be up early on friday I went immediately to bed so not a whole lot to talk about today.
Friday June 11:
I took a ferry with the group to the island of Capri. Once we got to the island we took a boat tour around the island and saw such pretty views. A few minutes into the tour we stopped at a place along the coast called the blue grotto. It was so awesome, we got into groups of 4, laid down flat into a row boat, the guy got us to the opening of the grotto grabbed a chain and yanked us through into it. Inside the grotto the water is like glowing blue, it was so cool and some of the guys starting singing in Italian! It was an unbelievable experience. Here is a picture of the amazing water!
So after we got back into the big boat we continued on our tour of the island and saw the emerald grotto and this famous rock formation below that has a specific name that is escaping me at the moment. The tour of the island was amazing and I have so many more pictures from it.
We did have some free time once we got off the boat tour, so I took a tram thing up to the city center of Capri. I got a lemon grenita which is like a lemon slushie made with fresh lemons. Oh and Capri (along with all of the Amalfi coast area) is famous for their lemons. With grenitas in hand we walked down a huge slope of the mountains to get to the beach to do some swimming and have some food. Below is a picture part way down to the beach, the ramp thing is what I was walking down and the white blobs in the water are boats to give an idea of how much walking I did.
Once we were down at the beach we got food, which was super yummy and had a great view. Then we all went to the beach which wasn't a sand beach but rather a smooth stone beach. The water was a little cold but it was so clear and blue and refreshing it was totally worth being cold for a bit. In the late afternoon we all took a bus back to the city center and went to a Lemonchello tasting, and then took a ferry back to Sorrento.Saturday June 12:
On saturday I took a bus to Positano which is one of my favorite places I have gone to so far on my trip. As soon as we got there we had to walk down 800 stairs to get to the beach but once again it was totally worth the long walk. The beach in Positano is actually a black sand beach, but it turns into a rocky beach when you reach the water. The biggest problem I found with the black sand was the whole it being black means it is like 10 times hotter than regular sand. It literally burned my feet when I stood on it before going in the water. Below is a picture of the black sand beach.
We spent a lot of time in Positano at the beach and the 10 of us (we found the 2 guys that came down on their own from our group) rented a boat to go out around the area. After we all got on our private boat we went to this slightly secluded beach and the captain (who spoke very very little english) motions for us to jump out of the boat and go swimming and cliff jumping if we wanted to. So we went swimming and I jumped off the 10ft cliff into the water twice. I was terrified before doing it but it was so fun!!! After that we climbed back on the boat and then he moved around a bit to a cave and once again told us to jump out and go swimming through the cave. The water by the cave was so cold and the current was pretty strong but we all swam through the cave and then met him in the boat on the other side of it. Once the boat ride thing was done we had a little bit of time left and we got some grenitas to pass the time before heading back to the hotel in Sorrento. Once back in Sorrento we had dinner at the hotel and then went to a bar called the English Inn to watch the England vs. USA world cup game!!Sunday June 13:
We checked out of the hotel pretty early and then took a bus to Pompeii. If you don't know the story of Pompeii, I will give you the most basic run down of it. Pompeii was a very rich roman port town in Southern Italy area in the ancient times and then suddenly without warning Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the entire town in ash and lava. The eruption killed everyone in the city because even if the lava and ash were survivable the toxic gas that came out wiped out anyone that was left. The picture below is a picture of what used to be the main forum in the town with a picture of Mount Vesuvius in the background. We only had about an hour and a half in the actual city of Pompeii which was not enough time to see everything. Oh well, that just means I need to go back. :)
After Pompeii we all got back into the buses that took us to Mt. Vesuvius to climb up the volcano. It was an interesting experience climbing up the volcano because its really steep and rocky, which for me does not seem to make sense with it being a volcano, but it was cool anyhow. The picture below is a view partially up the volcano, the post is the guard preventing someone from falling. The view from the volcano were amazing!!
This last picture is a group picture of all of us that climbed the volcano. It was our victory picture!! After Mt. Vesuvius we started the 8 hour trip back the Florence, all in all it was an amazing weekend!
Monday June 14:
Not a whole lot happened today other than classes and then a few things in the afternoon. I went to the Palazzo Vecchio and saw some pretty cool frescoes that are in there. After that I wandered around for a bit and Sarah and I tried to find a place to watch the Italy vs. Paraguay world cup game outside. Finally we found a piazza that had three screens up, so we watched with probably about 300 Italians. Such a great experience!
Tuesday June 15:
My last day of classes and day one of finals. I had my history final which I think went well so that was good and then a large group of us went to the market for some last minute shopping before we all head home. After shopping I went back and studied for my poly sci final which was on wednesday. Not a whole lot else happened, though I did go to a fabulous place for dinner!
Wednesday June 16:
I am officially on my *spring* break in the summer since I finished my poly sci exam. Since this is one of our last days together we had a large group of us go to dinner at a really nice family restaurant. If I am ever back in Florence I am so going there!!!! Everyone in the group ended up going out since it was almost the end of the trip and there is nothing on thursday that we had to do.
Thursday June 17:
I still didn't do a whole lot today in terms of sightseeing since I did a lot of that early on in my trip. I was doing laundry (which in and of itself is not fun) but when we were there it started pouring down rain and then the quarter size hail started!!! HAIL, in Italy!! I was so confused! Since tonight was the last night with the whole group we had a really big dinner at the hotel that was amazing, and we celebrated with the professors.
Friday June 18:
Everyone pretty much left today to go back to the states which was really sad, especially because Jenny was supposed to get here today but her flight was canceled so no Jenny today. I wandered around the city by myself and just kinda said goodbye to the city that I have come to love over the past month or so.
Saturday June 19:
I woke up really early today to meet Jenny at the train station at 7:13am this morning since that is when her train was supposed to get in. Sadly the train was like 70 minutes delayed so I just people watched for a while in the train station. It is raining today and Jenny isn't feeling the greatest so we are just chilling in the hotel trying to let her rest before we go to Munich tomorrow. Since Jenny has already been to Florence we are both ok with not doing a lot today. Tomorrow will be an adventure because we are going to Germany, yet another country that I don't speak the language!! :)
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