Week 2: To the Coast

9/2/19 – Today’s Monday, and I had my first day of classes. I have three classes each Monday and then only one Tuesday through Thursday. All of my teachers seem great so far, super friendly and speak English well. For those of you wondering, I'm taking fashion classes here, like visual merchandising, consumer buying behaviors, the history of Italian fashion, and fashion entrepreneurship. I also have my intro to Italian language class, and the teacher spoke in Italian 90% of the class. I’m excited to learn a few key phrases, though, in Italian while I’m here (even though everyone pretty much speaks English). Not excited to start having homework in my life again, though. :/ At night we went on a free food tour, cause why not. They took us to some places around town and gave us discounts to use in the future. We had some pasta, panini, pizza, beer, wine, and gelato.

9/3/19 – Nothing too exciting happened on Tuesday. I went to class, got some pizza, and my friends and I went to get $2 tacos (because pasta can be a bit much every meal, every day of the week)(although I’m still not even close to being sick of it).

9/4/19 – On Wednesday I tried my first Italian cappuccino. If you know me, you know I’m not really a coffee person unless its more than half milk and chocolate flavored. I thought I had to try it though, because as my Italian teacher says “coffee is Italian religion”. So I ordered it, put some sugar in, and took a sip. Not gonna lie, I didn’t really love it (hopefully no Italians see this because I might be deported). I can say however, it was better than a cappuccino in America. Later that evening, my roommate and I went shopping to pick up a new piece for our trip to the Amalfi Coast this weekend. As we were about to head home we came across another street performance. It was a duo of two boys that were road tripping across Europe to play music. They were the cutest thing, with choreography and everything. Eventually the police told them they had to move, and everyone "boo"-ed. I love all the street performers here because they are everywhere and actually amazing. That night we went to check out a sushi place called Sushinami, because we were in need of a break from pasta again (even though I didn’t really need a break because, like I said, I could eat it every day forever and ever). The sushi was pretty good and they have an all you can eat deal at lunch for 12 euro, so definitely somewhere we will eat in the future when we need another break.

9/5/19 – Thursday was filled with last minute packing and prepping for our trip! We booked through Bus2Alps, and our bus left around 7pm. Our guides name was Cody on the bus and he was super cool. The bus ride took about 7 hours with stops, and we finally arrived in the Sorrento area at about 3am (~yikes~).

9/6/19 – The next day we were ready around 8am. We headed down to the harbor for our boat ride to Positano. The ride was about 2 hours, the views were amazing, and we got to stop along the way to jump off the boat into the ocean. The water was so refreshing and surprisingly warm. Also, I still can’t get over how blue it is. You could see right to the bottom, which is quite a change from the muddy lakes of the Midwest I’m used to. Also, the weather was just about perfect for the entire time we were on the coast. 80 degrees and sunny. After we got back on the boat we rounded to corner and arrived in Positano. I had only seen it in pictures before and it is even more gorgeous in person. When we got off the boat, Hannah and I went on a short climb along the side of the city to get a view from above. We got some really cute pictures on the walk and got a taste of what the town was like. We headed back down and to browse a few of the shops and got a delicious strawberry gelato bar. It was so good, Hannah ended up getting another later. To finish off our day we headed to the black sand beach. I wish I would have had flip flops or something, though because that black sand is toasty and painful. Around 3:30 we boarded the boat again to head back to our hostel. We got ready for dinner and walked to the cliff-side park to watch the sunset. Our hostel roommates invited us to eat dinner with them, so we headed to downtown Sorrento for dinner. I got my first plate of ravioli since I’ve been here, and it was amazing. I’m not usually a ravioli girl in the states, but the cheese and sauce here is so tasty, Italy Paige just might be.

9/7/19 – Saturday morning was an early one. We had to wake up at 6am to get ready (and if you know me, you know I’m not a morning person). Plus, when we started to head down to the boat, of course it started raining. Luckily it stopped after about an hour. Plus, the boat was covered, so we didn’t get too wet. We arrived in Capri about 45 minutes later, and the sun came out just as we got there. We then hopped on a few smaller boats to travel around the island of Capri. This boat ride was probably my favorite part of the trip. The island is simply stunning, and I strongly recommend it to every one reading this. Sadly, the tide was too high to go into the Blue Grotto, so I guess I will just have to come back to Capri another time! We then hiked up to a lookout point over the harbor of Carpi. I got my first orange granita at the top, and I’m in love. It’s like a frozen, freshly-squeezed orange. Pure and not too sweet. Then we hopped on a small bus and weaved along the cliff roads to Ana Capri. Once we got to the top we stopped to get lunch. I got a bruschetta as big as my head, which was of course amazing. After that we took the chair lift to the tippy top of Ana Capri to get a 360 degree view of the island. The pictures don’t even do it justice. It was so quiet and peaceful. Once we came down from the top on the chair lift, we headed to a coral jewelry shop. All of the jewelry was made of coral or pearls freshly harvested from the island. I got a cute pair of earrings. After that we stopped at Carlos shoe shop, where they custom make leather sandals for you that day. I got some because I thought it would be a fun memory, and its right up my ally. I got to choose the leather, colors, and how I wanted the straps to look. I chose two straps, since I wanted sandals like that anyway. One black and one snake print. It was so much fun, and the man making mine was the cutest. Shopping in Capri in general is so fun. There were so many little shops with cute and artistic pieces to buy. I could have spent a lotttt of money there. That night, we traveled to Sorrento again for dinner. I got shrimp with black noodles and a cream sauce, which was pretty good. Dinners here take soo long, though. Like 3 hours it’s crazy, but still it’s always good food. I wish I would have gotten some time in downtown Sorrento during the day, as well. We were only ever there are night and it seemed like there was a lot to do. Oh well, I guess just another place I will have to come back to.

9/8/19 – Sunday was our last day of the trip. We left the hostel at about 8am to drive to Pompeii. I had been to Pompeii one other time before, but it was cool to see it again when I’m older. After that we got some Neapolitan pizza and headed 7 hours home. So overall an incredible weekend, but now time to hopefully catch up on some sleep.