Days 11-18

Good day, all! Long time no speak. It’s been well over a week since my last post, and believe it or not, I’m going to blame a lack of inspiration. Something that has really been frustrating me about myself is that I can only write if I am absolutely bursting with joy. Only then do I feel that my thoughts and feelings are worth immortalizing by writing them down. This is a habit that I am really trying to break, because I know looking back on this years from now I’m going to want to remember every detail.

I’ve been procrastinating so much on writing that I haven’t even gotten the chance to tell you about my Amalfi Coast trip! This trip was quite a leap from our quick day trip to Viareggio the weekend before. We boarded the bus at 7:00 PM and after an unexpectedly long drive we arrived to Sorrento at 2:00 in the morning. A grabbed a top bunk in our room at the hostel and passed out asleep.

The next morning we woke up reluctantly to our alarms at 7:00, but quickly got a burst of energy when we remembered that we were going to Positano that day! We fought our way to the front of the line to get a seat on the side of the bus so we could look out over the cliffs as we were driving. Once you get over the impossible physics of a coach bus navigating around intensely sharp turns and the fear of impending doom the views are quite beautiful.

I think Nicki and I had an unusual Positano experience. We were on the beach for about 15 minutes before getting annoyed by the fact that it was absolutely overrun with American students, so we decided to make the day our own! We got a panini and a bottle of wine each and sat in the shade in front of a church and just talked for about 2 hours. Then we stumbled upon an art gallery before getting some amazing desserts. But don’t worry, we burned off all of the extra calories walking up 58 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS BACK TO THE  BUS!

Capri was next up on the itinerary and was by far my favorite part of the Amalfi trip. From the views, to the food, to the crystal clear waters it was the quintessential vacation town. Despite our sore legs from the Positano climb the day before, Nicki convinced me to go on the short hike to the top of Capri. Although I wanted to kill her while my legs were shaking and I was dripping sweat, there was no better reward than the view from the top of that climb.

The one disappointment about Capri was that we weren’t able to see the Blue Grotto. We made it all the way to the entrance only to find that there were about 15 other boats also waiting to go in, and it would take an hour and a half for us to get our turn. But no worries! That just meant we got more time to jump off the side of the boat into the refreshing crystal clear waters. By this point the exhaustion from lack of sleep and extreme exertion during the day was starting to set in, and I fell asleep on the boat ride back to the island.

Our third and final day included a quick stop to Pompeii before setting out on the long ride back to Florence. In my Italian Grand Tour class, we read an excerpt on Goethe’s Italian Journey where he describes his impressions of Rome. He talks about how his father loved Rome and Italian culture, and there were pictures of Rome’s most famous monuments hung up around his childhood home. He says, “Wherever I walk, I come upon familiar objects in an unfamiliar world; everything is just as I imagined it, yet everything is new.”

You can learn the history of a place, know everything about it, even see pictures. But I don’t think there’s a word in the English language to describe the feeling of walking the streets of a civilization that is almost 2,000 years. “Awestruck” couldn’t exactly cover it. This was a place where people lived their lives, just like you and me. They had homes and families and probably more in common with us than we can imagine. It was so grand and so basically human at the same time. It was sort of a nice reminder that we aren’t so different from one another, no matter what things may be separating us.

Hopefully I’ve gotten over this writer’s block I’ve been having. Until next time!