Spring Break Part 2: Sorrento, Rome and Florence

After a quick flight from Athens to Naples, we finally arrived in Italy! Winding our way to the city center, we also found our way to a local pizzeria - being the birthplace of pizza, naturally we had to give it a go. After eating the entire thing, we caught a train to take us through the beautiful country side to Sorrento. This ended up looking somewhat like Santorini, just a lot greener. It had been a long day of travelling, so we wound our way through the city to our apartment for the next few days and settled in because the next day we were taking an all day boat tour to Capri.

At 9am sharp our boat captain picked us up from our doorstep and drove us to our waiting yacht, named Mamma Mia! II. They drove us past Old Sorrento (which was amazing from the water), Positano, and on to Capri - we circled the entire island, seeing all of the grottos and the faraglioni, which are the three massive rock formations in the water. We eventually got off at the port and had 3 hours to explore the island and indulge in some gelato. This is on my top list of gorgeous places I've been, and apparently Hollywood agrees - this is the go to destination for, supposedly, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mariah Carey, and once upon a time Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Onassis.

 


The next day we planned on visiting Pompeii. After several talks with different locals, they convinced us that Pompeii isn't the way to go, rather Ercolano. Much less visited, much smaller, but instead of being completely destroyed by Vesuvius, there is more to see here. So we hopped back on the train and wound up  exploring an ancient town for the rest of the afternoon. It was amazing how much was preserved, from art on the walls, to dishes and water fountains.

 

After making our own pasta dinner that night (and making good friends with a local market owner) the following day we caught a train to Rome. On a side note - this hostel was possibly the worst of the trip; they gave us a 6th roommate, a guy from London rooming with 5 girls, no towels, so we used tshirts instead, their wifi barely worked, and they promised us free pizza every night, which of course didn't end up happening.Anyways, we arrived in Rome pretty early in the day, so after finding our way to our hostel we continued on to the Colosseum - it really is huge! After this, we walked around a bit more, got dinner, and visited the Trevi Fountain at night. I figured by that hour the Trevi Fountain would be empty, but it was nuts. We wound our way to the front, threw in a few euros for good measure, then proceeded to get gelato.

 
Next day's agenda was the Vatican - instead of waiting in lines for several hours we bought a guided tour, and it was well worth it. We skipped the lines, and the guide was genuinely funny. Also, he resembled Joe from The Princess Diaries, only adding to the entertainment factor. There was a lot more to the Vatican than just The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica (apparently a lot of the marble used for the floors in the Vatican was taken/stolen from the colosseum because the Popes didn't want to wait and pay for new marble.) The rest of our time in Rome we spent visiting landmarks like the Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, and going to a Roma football match.

 

 




Next stop: Florence. Another train ride north brought us into Tuscany. At this point in the trip we are two weeks in, exhausted, and still have an entire other city to explore. We hobbled to our hostel, passing the amazing Duomo, a few leather markets, and struggling to roll our suitcases over the cobblestone. As luck would have it, while we were in Florence, so were the leaders of the EU. Although this may seem cool, it also meant that we never made it inside the Duomo or into the main museum in Florence, housing The David. There were police everywhere, along with huge crowds, and it was not what we needed at the tail end of our trip. So to fill our days instead we explored the Ponte Vecchio, bartered with anyone we could, and took a wine tasting class. We sampled three wines (one white, two red), paired with three cheeses, and two types of olive oil. Florence ended up being our relaxing time, just shopping, eating, and taking in the views. One day while exploring, and famished, we happened upon a pizzeria, ordered, sat down to wait and realized we had just stumbled into the place that Jersey Shore worked while they were in Italy - I am not an avid fan of this show, but it was entertaining to see all of the things they left behind to be remembered by.

 

 

In the end, Spring Break was surreal. I have never been on vacation that long or visited that many places at once. It still hasn't really processed that I have been to all of those places. The family arrived in Paris the day I got back from Spring Break, meaning I didn't really stop being a tourist, anywhere, for four weeks straight. Exhausting? Yes. Worth it? Definitely.