Amalfi Coast: Pure Tourism at its Best

So as a previous post will tell you, the first weekend of the trip we students organized a group trip to Florence, and had some difficulties with the “organized” part. Immediately afterwards, concluding that group travel organization is best left to professionals, we found a company that specializes in student weekend trips, and booked a trip to the Amalfi coast, (if, like me, your Italian geography is rather shaky, Amalfi is in the south, near Naples) for the weekend of the 14th of July.

The bus picked us up on Thursday night, after a truly delightful program dinner (The director of IES was visiting from Seattle, and we had dinner with the faculty, who are amazing, fun people). The bus was mostly filled with students from Florence, so we dispersed ourselves through the empty seats. The students around me were quite drunk, and passing around a bottle of vodka, which led to the personal realization (probably long overdue) that I can be quite judgmental of people I don’t know (self discovery in Europe for the win?). I decided that, since we’d be arriving in Sorento very late, I should skip the party and get some sleep. I dozed on and off until about 3, when we finally reached Sorento and our hostels, for a real sleep.

Friday morning we rose horribly early and walked down to the docks, where a boat was waiting to take us to Capri. I fell asleep almost immediately, and awoke shortly before arrival, to discover that, due to slightly heavy seas, many of the other passengers were seasick. Ick.

Fortunately, a few minutes later we docked on Capri and got off the boat, immediately shepherded onto another boat for a visual tour of the island

Capri is gorgeous. GORGEOUS. There are no beaches to speak of. Instead, it is mountainous, with green slopes topping white cliffs dropping into the ocean, with natural grottoes and arches forming between sea stacks and lookout points. I took as many pictures as I could, while trying to avoid falling into the aforementioned heavy seas.

We landed, already in a much better mood, and climbed a very steep hill to the main town of Capri, where we toured a garden, mostly remarkable for its views of the ocean. We took many more pictures, before continuing by shuttle to the second town of Anacapri, where we tasted Limoncello (not my favorite), admired the custom shoe shop (where you could, for more than I was willing to pay, have custom sandals made before your eyes), and were set free for lunch (very satisfying pizza). My new European guidebook informs me that Capri is a tourist trap and a zoo in summer, but I had an amazing day. Though indisputably packed with tourists, the island was completely undemanding, and tourists or no tourists, the view was spectacular.

Capri is, as I mentioned, a very mountainous place. There is a chairlift to the top of the tallest mountain, which, now in a group of about 8 people (I’m not sure where the rest of everyone went), we decided to ride. This may have been my favorite thing of the weekend. Its one of my favorite things we did for the entire program. It was a tiny adorable single-seater (which was surprisingly difficult to get on without skis) that made its slow way up the mountain. The views were absolutely stunning, and the ride was so utterly relaxing. It was wonderful. Also wonderful was the fortress at the top, where there were more views, and a patio with chairs and umbrellas, where we hung out, and a bar, which we did not patronize, due to its near double prices on everything (perks of a captive market I suppose).

As the afternoon drew to a close, we made our way back down the mountain by chairlift (still awesome), and roofless cab (also awesome), with a bit of light shopping on the way. A boat took us back to Sorento, and we arrived back at our hostels with a few hours to spare before dinner.

After much needed showers and relaxation, the tour was gathered together (to provide scale, we were about 100 people) and was shepherded to a restaurant, which we promptly overwhelmed. Service was understandably struggling, but the food was good (I had mussels, which were simply, and very well done, with staggeringly huge lemons). Dinner was followed by a trip to a nearby English bar, which had a very cool outdoor garden and dance floor. Dancing was fun, and the music was good, but this was also a second education in the determination of the Italian creeper.

Italian men (or in this case boys) appear to be really bad at taking no for an answer. They swarmed around us like locusts, a constant, stubborn, eagerly waiting presence, although at 17 I doubt even they knew precisely what they were waiting for. European men and boys are highly romanticized, but I will say this for Americans: on the rare occasion that you actually have to shout “GO AWAY”, it is unlikely that they will be back five minutes later.
Despite the locusts, we had a fun evening of dancing, and collapsed home, after a slightly creepy walk, satisfyingly exhausted.

The next morning we boarded a shuttle to the nearby town of Positano, which is essentially tourist shops built into a hillside, with a beach. After a long walk down through town, with really lovely views, we spent the morning beaching, alternating between swimming and sunning, and trying to protect ourselves from the burning sand as much as possible. We got Paninis at a deli, where the cashier complimented my Italian (yay!).

In the afternoon, the trip had organized for a boat ride along the coast, with college student appealing activities. Firstly they took us to a small cove beach, where we went cliff jumping (so fun!). Next we found caves in the shore cliffs, and went swimming in them. I was less initially excited about this one, but it was really cool, especially since the tides rushing in and out would tangibly move us through the cave. Afterwards we climbed out and relaxed on the rocks at the base of the cliffs, before getting back on the boat for a sunny, beautiful ride back to the beach, where I fell asleep and got a sunburn (I can be really smart like that sometimes).
The evening was not particularly remarkable; we ate in the hostel restaurant and hung out at the hostel rooftop bar. I think I’d gotten too much sun, because I almost fell asleep on the bar couch. The view was nice though.

Sunday was the last day of our trip, and the only remotely educational event. We went to Pompeii.

I’d heard about Pompeii for years, so I was completely prepared for a day spent touring, and hearing about roman life from our tour guide. There was a great deal of that, but Pompeii, as it turns out, isn’t just educational: It’s beautiful. Built on a hilltop, the dilapidated ruins stand against a gorgeous blue sky, and architecture ranging from old to really old shows unexpectedly lovely columns and mosaics. Our guide took us through town, from markets to houses to bakeries to bars, and was wonderfully informative without being verbose. We spent several hours in the city before, now hungry and footsore, heading out of the ruin, in pursuit of Neapolitan pizza (Naples is the birthplace of Pizza, so in the eyes of Italians, the best). I’ve gotten conflicting responses as to whether Pompeii pizza is actual Neapolitan Pizza, but as I’ve been informed that mobsters would kill me if I actually went to Naples, I’m accepting it as my Pizza birthplace experience.

In the afternoon we returned home: sunburned, satisfied, slightly less judgmental (in my case), and very very glad to be back.