The one in Sorrento, Capri, and Pompeii

Thursday April 21^st
After a long night of travel, we woke up bright and early, 5:30, the next morning to go to the island of Capri just off the mainland. We made it to the ferry just in time to take it to the island. It was chilly when we took off but we could tell it was going to be another beautiful day!

We were one of the first ferries to the island and we went straight to the island’s main attraction, the blue grotto, Grotto Azzurra. We were the first boat to the cave and a handful of rowboats came straight up to our speedboat just as we got there. The 4 of us got out of the speedboat and stepped right into a rowboat with our guide. To get into the grotto, we had to lie down in the boat and then our guide had to perfectly time when we shot through the entrance just as the wave went out. Once inside, you could see the most brilliant blue created by sunlight reflecting off white sand at the bottom. Everything was dark except the glowing water; it was really incredible. We went around the inside of the grotto twice and the second time our guide sang to us in Italian. Pictures don’t do it justice, it’s really something you have to see for yourself. The way out of the grotto was even harder and it was very clear that if you didn’t get the timing perfect, your boat would be in pieces because the entrance is incredibly small.

After visiting the Grotto, we took a cable car up the hillside to explore the island a little more. Now Capri is a more mountainous island with incredibly steep cliffs that plunge hundreds of meters straight down into the water. There are only 2 beaches on the island and they are incredibly small and all pebbles. There are also lemon trees all over the island and tons of flowers that contribute to the island’s perfumery.

So we walked all over the island and I saw the flower “birds of paradise” for the first time. We walked all over just enjoying the picturesque views and different lookouts. We walked down the corkscrew roads and eventually made it to one of those beaches. We paid 5 euro each to rent lounge chairs and then took a nap and laud out on the beach for 2 ½ hours. We even went thigh deep into the Mediterranean and then saw jellyfish swimming around us! We got out of the water soon after, changed, and headed back to the main road.

Near the cable car, we went to a great restaurant and sat with an amazing view of the city below and sea beneath with the port full of boats. We split pizzas and I split a mixed veggie with Mrs. Wehling and it was incredibly refreshing with the best mozzarella I’ve ever tasted. After lunch we walked around a bit more and then took a ferry back to Sorrento. When we got back, we watched the sunset from a lookout and then went to change for dinner.

We had dinner at a really cute restaurant very close to our hotel. The service was amazing and the food delicious as always. We split a bottle of wine, got a pizza dough appetizer on the house, and then I ate a spinach nocci with a salmon cream sauce. For dessert we got eclaire puffs smothered in chocolate and whipped cream and our server also brought us 2 small puddings and a limoncello a piece on the house also. I was the only one who liked the puddings, one like tapioca and the other with a liqueur flavor, and none of us liked the limoncello. It’s a lemon-flavored alcohol, an Italian specialty, you are supposed to sip after dinner but it was so strong, none of us could drink it. Still, it was fun to try! Then we headed to the hotel for some sleep.

Friday April 22^nd
We got to sleep in just a little bit because we weren’t in such a rush. Still, we were all up and checked out of the hotel by 10:30. We went straight to the train station and bought tickets to Pompeii. It took awhile to get there but once in the city, we had locked up our luggage and were entering the city of mystery by noon.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when looking at this massive city preserved by ash. Here’s the background story if you are ignorant of the history of this city like I was: A violent earthquake struck the city in 62 AD with aftershocks that followed. Part of the city was then being renovated for a few years when all of a sudden, Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano above the town, erupted in 79 AD. When the volcano erupted, it sent tons of hot burning ash into the sky that was blown towards the city by strong winds. The ash fell on the city; 3 meters of this hot ash fell in 3 hours, suffocating, burning, killing, and also preserving the city and all its inhabitants.

After this first wave of ash, more followed days later with strong winds that tore off the tops of buildings and buried the entire city. Because the city was completely covered or blown away by this point, it was preserved for hundreds of years until it was rediscovered and excavated in the mid 1700s. Today, you can see and walk through the ruins of this ancient city. You can see paintings on the walls, mosaics on the floors, baths, restaurants, the market, administrative buildings, temples, amphitheatres, gladiator barracks, theatres, and much more. It seemed like there was lots of Greek and Roman influence in the architecture, which makes sense because it was part of the Roman empire at the time. It was certainly a prosperous city when it was buried and it’s hard to imagine what it really looked like while walking through the ruins of this preserved city.

The coolest but strangest and scariest part of walking through the city was the molded casks of bodies and the 2 real bodies preserved in the rock. The bodies are frozen in terrified positions, covering their faces and crouched into the fetal position. One mold even looks like the person was crying and sitting but then frozen in place. There were even molds of small children laying on the floor. After seeing the molds, the tragedy of the city finally became a reality. The scariest part was the 2 skeletons preserved in rock. They were in glass cases and you can see the skull and finger bones emerging from the rock. I couldn’t believe these skeletons didn’t decay like the rest of them. It really was an incredible yet eerie sight.

We spent over 4 ½ hours in the city and didn’t even see the whole thing. But it was time to go, take a train to Naples, and then we were off for our final 2 ½ day leg of the trip in Rome.