T'was on the Isle of Capri that he found her...

We just had our last weekend in Italy. As I right this I am preparing for my flight home in less than 24 hours. Way too soon. Since it was our last weekend and we wanted to go out with a bang, my friends and I took a little trip down to the Amalfi Coast in the south of Italy to visit the beautiful towns of Sorrento, Capri, Positano and Pompeii. We went with a travel booking agency called Bus2Alps which was a very good decision because they showed us all the best things to do on each of these islands.

We started off on an eight hour bus ride that left from Florence at 7pm. It was this giant double decker bus which soon became terrifying as we were cruising along what looked like one way roads hugging the cliffs of Amalfi. We all had a rude awakening around 2am when the bus jerked us all awake. We later found out this was because we actually made contact with another car down this windy road. I felt really safe.

After settling into our gorgeous hostel that was more like a resort hotel, we got up early the next morning to head to the Isle of Capri. Laura, my friend from high school (and college) Danielle, and her friend Marie hopped on a boat with the rest of the group to tour the Blue Grotto which is a little cave on the water. We got in a tiny boat with our guide (who happened to be wearing a shirt from Illinois!) and paddled on over to the cave entrance. It was literally so tiny that we had to lie down in the boat to fit through it. Once we got in we turned around in the pitched black cave to see the water which was literally glowing bright blue. Check out the video below! Keep watching because even though it is black at parts that just means you are about to see something really cool.




After our Blue Grotto tour, we all hiked up to the Giardinia di Agosto to the top of Capri for an amazing view. We got our picture snapped at the top and will most likely be starring on the website soon so keep your eyes peeled for images of yours truly. After our hike to the top, we traveled back into the main area of town to do some shopping. Capri is known for its handcrafted, custom-made sandals, limoncello and coral jewelry. We got to sample the limoncello as well as the lemon flavored chocolates. They were delicious and were made from the lemons all over the island that were bigger than my head.


After a quick bite to eat, we headed down to the rocky beach. The day was gorgeous but the rocks were incredible painful to walk on especially after heating up in the sun. Marie and I went for a dip in the crystal clear water and decided to be adventurous and jump off the rocks about 20 yards out. Just a little warm up for the cliff jumping that was coming the next day.

After getting our fair share of sun, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. The bus2alps guides took us out to a local restaurant and I ordered the Frutti di Mare linguini or seafood pasta since it is known to be really fresh. They weren’t kidding. It tasted like I was eating a beach. After digesting my sand and salt water, the four of us dipped out a little early to check out the town nightlife. We stumbled upon this Karaoke bar that was empty except for the four of us, two Italian promoters, a couple sitting at a bar, and a lonely stripper pole in the middle of the dance floor. After showcasing my superb karaoke skills with a little Britney and Michael, the four of us just danced around to the funny American music the DJ was playing for us. Right as we were about to leave because we thought we had overstayed our welcome, a huge group of Italian families came in with their children ranging in age of 7 to 13. It reminded me of the Farmington Crew coming to crash the townie Wisconsin bars that we often do. These Italians were so much fun so we decided to stay a little longer and dance with them. They were begging us to dance with their children to get them out of their shell and dance on stage with the stripper pole. They also cheered on every adult who got up there to dance as well. See the video below of the 50 year old man who was extremely talented for some wild entertainment.


When we finally left to go be with the American students at the “English Bar” we didn’t have nearly as much fun. We started on the walk home because we didn’t want to pay for a cab which ended up being a pretty bad idea. Apparently southern Italian men are much more vocal about their feelings for women, especially American women. We had a running tally of the number of cat calls, car honks, and baci we received and I think the grand total was at 42 before we made it home an hour later. Time to go to bed for our big day at the beach tomorrow. As we like to say in Italy, “Basta, Basta, gross, gross, gross!”