This past weekend was possibly the most magical weekend of my life. I took a trip to the Amalfi Coast (about a 3 hour bus ride south of Rome) with 21 other Temple Rome students. You could definitely say that it was a Temple takeover on the Italian coast. This is the only trip I have taken this semester with such a large group, but this was definitely the place to do it. On Thursday night we left Rome for the charming town of Sorrento. We stayed in bugalows surrounded by beautiful lemon and orange trees. It felt like we were camping together in a tropical paradise and we nicknamed our little neighborhood of cabins “Bungalow City”. The next morning, we left bright and early for Positano. We took a bus that drove for about 30 minutes on a winding road on the side of a cliff. Even though I occasionally feared that our bus would topple off of the edge of the cliff into the Mediterranean, it was well worth the views. Once we arrived, we had a long trek down the side of the mountain to reach the beach. My legs were literally shaking from the long walk, but I forgot about it as soon as we stepped onto the beach. It was a black rocky beach with incredible views. You could see the stunning blue sea on the one side and the many houses built into the side of the cliff on the other. We spent the day relaxing on the beach and I bought possibly the best panino I have ever eaten for lunch. Then we took the bus back to Sorrento to shower and freshen up before dinner. For dinner, we all went out to a restaurant for a multi-course meal. The meal included bread, wine, two courses of pasta and two different types of pizza. Then we went out to experience the night life in Sorrento.
Beautiful Positano
The next day was my favorite part of the weekend. We took a ferry from Sorrento to the picturesque island of Capri, where we took a short hike to see some views of the island and the sea. Then we took a three hour cruise on a smaller boat around the entire island. It was just us on the boat and we were even able to bring along our own food and drinks. It was the boat ride of a life time. At one point, the boat driver stopped the boat for us to jump off and swim in the water for a little while. I gladly cannonballed into the sea and was quickly shocked by the cold water. It may have been very hot outside but the water itself was still pretty cold since it’s only the beginning of April. I didn’t mind the cold at all. The view of the crystal clear water and the beautiful island kept me distracted.
We got back on the larger boat and rode a bit further until we came to the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is one of the natural wonders of Italy. It is a small cave in the side of the island of Capri. The entrance to the cave is very small and you can only enter it by tiny rowboats, which only allows for four people on each boat. Once we got on the rowboat, we had to lay flat to avoid hitting our heads on the cave wall as we entered. Once inside the cave, we could sit up and it became clear why the Blue Grotto got its name. The sunlight shines in through the small entrance and makes the water in the cave glow a bright blue. It looked like something from a fantasy movie or like we entered the blue world of James Cameron’s Avatar. I dipped my hands in the water and watched in awe as they glowed blue. The man rowing the boat even sang and his voice echoed through the cave. We could only stay in the cave for a short time and then had to return to our boat and head back onto the island.
Inside the Blue Grotto
The last day we went to Pompeii and toured the famous city. We toured the theatre district of the ancient city and saw some bodies preserved by the ashes from Mt. Vesuvius. We had a great view of the infamous volcano and explored the ruins. Finally we had to return to Sorrento to catch our bus back to Rome.
I never wanted our magical weekend on the Amalfi Coast to end, but then again, it wasn’t too hard to leave knowing I got to return to my favorite Italian city: Roma.
