Southern Italy

Last week our group sponsored a trip for us to Southern Italy. We left Monday and headed to Napoli. Napoli is probably my least favorite part of Italy so far. It was not what I was expecting it to be, it is a very large city, it reminded me of New York City, but way dirtier. I was only there for half a day but that was ok with me, I am sure there are nice areas, however it is not somewhere I would recommend to visit in Italy. After we left Napoli we headed to Sorrento where we stayed for the week. On Tuesday we went to Pompei, Wednesday we had a free day and a group of us went to Capri for the day, it was my favorite part of the week!! Thursday we went to the Amalfi Coast and Ravello, then Friday we headed back to Viterbo, but made a stop in Caserta first to see the Palace and garden!! It was a fun week off with everyone, I am glad I got to see so much. I feel like I have pretty much conquered Italy I have seen so much of the North and now the South and I have been living in central Italy!! It has been such an amazing experience and I have loved every minute of it!!!

More Pictures:

Margarita pizza from Napoli, where is was created, unfortunately not that good

Castle in Napoli

Table in the Archeological museum in Napoli, I remember learning about this in my historic furniture class

Piazza in Napoli

Sorrento, the town we stayed in during our South of Italy tour, I am glad we stayed here rather than Napoli, becasue I didn't like Napoli at all and Sorrento was very nice!

Sorrento

Walking to the Pier in Sorrento

Orange/Lemon tree... Crazy!

Mt. Vesuvius, I never got to walk up in becasue the day we were supposed to go the weather was bad so they moved it to the next morning, but I went to Capri that day instead, becasue it was the only time I would be able to go

Capri!

Capri

Me, Rachal and Amy on a boat tour around Capri!

I am glad I went to Capri instead of hiking up the volcano! This was the best part of the trip :)

Jenny and I

The Green Grotto

Under the arch!

The whole gang who went to Capri instead!
we pretty much had the whole boat to ourselves it was awesome!

Jenny and I on the Beach!

Beautiful crystal clear water!

View from the top of capri

Amalfi Coast

Fog on top of the mountains

The tiny streets our mini bus barely fit down! Our group had to split into to different mini vans to get to Amalfi because the roads are so narrow and curvy right on the edge of cliffs that our big bus would have never fit!

BEAUTIFUL!

Inside the Crypt of the Amalfi Duomo

The Duomo of Amalfi

Villa Rufolo Gardens in Ravello

The travel crew: Me, Beth, Jenny, Mike, Amy, Bethay and Rachal

The Garden on Caserta, it is 3 miles long

We made it to the top of the garden!

Cinque Terre

This weekend I went to Cinque Terre (5 Villages), it is 5 small towns that are all very close together right on the Mediterranean Sea (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso). There is a hiking trail that leads you through all the towns, as well as a train, in total it takes about 4-5 hours to hike the entire trail one way. The whole trail is along the coast line, it is the most beautiful place I have been. My absolute favorite of my entire trip so far!! Unfortunately while I was there the last trail from Vernazza to Monterosso was closed becasue of mud so we were only able to hike 3 of the 4 trails, but it was still beautiful. We stayed in the first town Riomaggiore and took the train from there to Vernazza (the 4th town) and hiked back to Riomaggiore. We knew the trail was going to be closed to get to Monterosso so we took a train there the first night and walked around the town. If you are ever in Italy this is a place you must go I loved everything about it!

The Cliffs in Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore

The town of Riomaggiore where we stayed. Our Hostel is the yellow building at the top, when the owner of the hostel was showing us where it was, because the office is on the main street but the actual rooms are at the top, he led us to a staircase and said "it is just up the stairs I will meet you up there" so we start walking up these steps, which end up being about 200 steep steps, while the guy drove up! From then on we made sure once we went down we didn't go back up until it was bed time!

Climbing Rocks!

The Beach at Monterosso

Monterosso

We climbed some rocks and watched the sun set for about 2 hours!

I got every stage!

The Beginning of the hike, starting in Vernazza

The whole gang: Beth, Amy, Me, Jenny and Rachal

The water was so clear and teal

Beth and I

Along the trail between Vernazza and Corniglia

On the trail

Waterfall!

My favorite tree in Corniglia, done with the first hike

Manarola