Saturday, December 4, 2010

sorrento, almafi, positano, and capri. or my first trip to italy.

first, let me say, i know i am MONTHS behind. this particular post is in relation to a trip i took back in september. i'm going to try and do a few posts in rapid succession to catch up with my own travel self, but basically i've been spending all my weekends traveling which has eliminated a lot of travel blogging time.

back to the almafi coast. my friend diana had wanted to take a vacation over to europe and after much debate we settled on the almafi coast as the prime destination for this adventure. we had originally booked a package that would have us staying on the island of capri but after much back and forth with the travel company (luxurylink.com) we realized they couldn't accomodate any of the dates we could make work so ended up canceling the whole thing and starting from scratch. in the end we settled on a hotel in sorrento and decided to do day trips from there - we selected the hotel plaza for its modern decor and feel. so many places in italy offer you italian "charm" but what that usually seems to me is old, rustic, and in need of a refurb. fine if that's what floats your boat but that's not how diana and i roll.



diana spent the weekend in london prior to our trip visiting friends and hanging out. we had brunch at somerset house one day which was divine. a definite must if you are here when the weather is still nice.

we left for italy on a monday flying into naples, which for everything we read about it, seemed to be just as all the articles said - not a place you want to hang out for long. we booked a shuttle bus to get us down to sorrento. it's about an hour drive down the coast which once you are outside naples is really beautiful. you can see mount vesuvius on the drive too. we got into sorrento pretty late after our delayed flight and grabbed a meal at a restaurant a friend had recommended who had recently been to sorrento as well - it was great. amazing seafood pasta that tasted like the ocean, pizza with super fresh dough, and a tasty wine to wash it all down. (this is pretty much how every meal in italy went by the way.)

the next day, diana and i ventured to pompei. it was quite the site to see - amazing how much has been preserved and really cool to walk through the actual city streets. the rick steve's walking guide in our book was a great way to see the highlights of it as well and not feel overwhelmed because there is a lot to see. we actually ran into a couple people along the walk doing the exact same book tour we were doing. travel tip: DO NOT go here when it's hot outside. we were lucky in that it was somewhere in the 80's, but that's about the max. the whole thing is completely exposed to sun and it could easily be a scorcher especially as it gets later in the day.


pompei.

the following day we ventured to the little island of capri. it was about a 30 minute fairy ride and we made sure to go early in the morning to avoid the crowds at the blue grotto. what an experience that was. they load you up on little taxi boats and then send you out to the grotto where you get on even smaller boats and essentially lay down in these tiny row boats while these guys paddle you around in the cave. then getting out is even tougher as the waves crash in through the tiny opening. it was definitely a cool experience but i sure had a moment of 'oh crap what if we can't get out of this cave'. after the cave, we took a bus up to the small town of anacapri and took a chair lift up to the very top of the island and then hiked back down to anacapri to catch the bus to capri. there are only two towns on the island so a day is more than enough time. we spent the rest of the afternoon strolling through the streets of capri, enjoying italian pastries and gelato and pretending we could afford to be shopping in all the expensive botiques. by late afternoon we had seen everything we wanted and caught the ferry back to sorrento. for capri, i wouldn't book more than a day and i definitely wouldn't stay there if you plan on traveling around the almafi coast at all. it's pretty expensive to get back and forth on the ferry, not to mention pricey on the island to eat, etc. diana and i talked about afterwards how it was a blessing in disguise that we ended up in sorrento, and not on capri after the package fell through.


laying down in the boat to go to the blue grotto.


view from the chair lift going above anacapri.

our last day adventure was down the coast to the small towns of almafi and positano. we took a 2 hour winding bus ride along the coast to get there. while the views were amazing we both definitely decided taking the ferry back was the way to go. some of the twists and turns down that italian coast were a little too death defying for our taste. however, we made it in the end and started our day with a hike up into the coastal hills near almafi. diana had bought a small guide book that outlined some hikes and we selected the 'easy' one though i think easy is a little light of a term. after an initially of course start, we soon figured our way around and we wandering into the mountains of almafi. it was a beautiful hike with good paths laid out. you walk through lemon groves and then into the forest before ending up in a town high above almafi carved into the side of the mountains and then make your way back down into the city. there were a few times we questioned our sense of direction but in the end we made it with time to spare to catch our ferry to positano, the next coastal town over. the ferry was really the way to go because you arrive along the coast and can take pictures along the way. positano was a great little city - probably my favorite on the trip. again, not sure if i would want to base myself there because it was so small but the streets were quaint and lovely and i could imagine just doing nothing there for days. after exploring we caught the ferry back to sorrento from there.

positano.

on our last day we just spent the time wandering through the streets of sorrento shopping in small shops (i picked up some excellent spaghetti seasoning) and enjoying what was left of our delicious italian meals. literally every meal we had on the trip was amazing. the pasta was always fresh and handmade, there was seafood in nearly every dish, and when you just didn't know what to go get you couldn't go wrong with a pizza. not to mention we followed every meal with gelato from our favorite gelato place we found - primavera. they had this peach flavor the first day that i still drool over when i think about it.


picture perfect italy. fishing village part of sorrento.

the next day diana and i had early flights so we headed back to the airport and back to reality. for a first trip to italy, i couldn't have asked for anything more. the food, the company, the sites - it was all absolutely incredible and more than lived up to my expectations. if you haven't been to this area of italy before, go - now. don't even think about it. you'll never look back.

the full album can be found here: