cinque terre, sorrento, amalfi coast, capri, pompeii, napoli

I cant believe that Maddie has been here a little over a week already and our Italy traveling time is almost over! We have had the most perfect time together in two of the most beautiful parts of Italy I have seen yet. First we headed to Cinque Terre - a series of five small hilltop towns that run along the Ligurian Coast. We were able to hike through all five towns (7 miles of up and down in about 4 hours!) and felt like we were in paradise. Each town hugs the side of a cliff that overlooks the most beautiful turquoise-clear water with colorful wildflowers growing everywhere. Also all of the houses and buildings are painted in so many different colors that you feel like you are on a movie set - it's fun. The Cinque Terre is great because its not nearly as commercialized as other places and for some reason, everyone has decided to keep it clean and tourists manage to act rather respectful while they're there! We spent a day on the beach in Monterosso and swam in that same amazing water and couldnt get the smiles off of our faces. On of our favorite memories was on the start of our hike and we asked two older Italian men to take our photo. Ten minutes later (while we sat posed for our photo) the picture was taken after the men hemmed and hawed and discussed the best way to take the picture and how it should be framed. Welcome to Italy.

With sadness we left our favorite spot and headed down south to Sorrento where we stayed 5 nights at a great little hotel/hostel right outside of the coastal town. We thought that our time in Cinque Terre couldnt be topped but somehow we managed to have some of the best days of our lives (yes, I know thats a bold claim, but it's true!) We took bus rides (with no roof) all along the winding road of the Amalfi Coast and loved the wind blowing in our hair and seeing the coastline. We made visits to Positano, Amalfi town, Ravello (where we met up with Maddie's dad who also happened to be vacationing in Italy...so fun!), and Sorrento. Our favorite day by far however was our trip to Capri. Our hotel offered a private boat trip with a reasonable price so we jumped on to a boat with our rather Italian, rather flirtatious captain Agostino and ten other travelers. Ago took us all around the island where we stopped a bunch and went swimming and exploring in all the caves around capri in its magnificent blue water. Riding on the boat was fantastic with the wind in your hair and the island in your sight. We had a few hours to explore Capri and Maddie and I took a sort of ski lift to the very top where you had a view of the entire island below. Paradise, again. We kept saying that we couldnt believe we were here - who the heck gets to vacation on the Amalfi Coast?! Who gets to swim the Blue Grotto?! (yes, this was illegal but everyone does it and Ago made sure we didnt miss out on any adventures! The Blue Grotto by the way is the most famous site at Capri - a cave where inside the water reflects and the whole cave is filled with a blue glow. We also saw into the green grotto, and a few others. Caves are so cool, who knew?!)

Another day we took a trip to the ancient ruins of Pompeii, were amazed again, and took a million pictures of a bunch of stuff that we cant quite identify when we look at them again (a common occurence when photographing ruins...) We were so excited to be there and took a great self-guided tour provided by our excellent Rick Steves Guidebook. (Maddie and I are slowly developing crushes on Rick Steves - a really nerdy, middle aged travel guru whose guidebook we use like the bible while in Italy. We also met a couple who love him and whenever they go to a restaurant Steves suggests, they play 'spot the Rick Steves books.' funny.) Seeing Mt. Vesuvius looming in the background was also incredible.

Anyway, we left Sorrento, again sad, and headed to Naples yesterday. Everyone says Naples is crazy and they fear for their lives. It's the most densely populated city in Europe, famous for its con artists and pickpocks, and is also the birthplace of pizza. Maddie and I prepared ourselves for the worst, put on our sunglasses and poker faces, and walked through the train station and subway (supposedly the most dangerous) like we owned the place and had a good time. (It's really hard to see underground in the metro when you're wearing sunglasses...) While we expected something dangerous to happen, we ended up pleasantly surprised by the city. We love the fast pace, the people, the architecture, the 20 million vespas around. Our favorite thing to do is ask people for directions because they are SO helpful. Once we stopped to ask this guy how to get somewhere and he ended up rounding up 4 other guys from the neighborhood so they could look at our map together and tell us where to go. Hilarious. That's Naples though - if you want to see the real Italy, come here. We love it. We also visited the Archaeological Museum where all the artifacts from Pompeii are stored. It was very interesting, especially the 'Secret Room' where all the frescoes from Pompeiian brothels are stored. Racy.

So yes, it's been the perfect time in Italy and I'm really excited to have a friend from home who can really understand the culture now and won't look at me weirdly when I do Italian-esque things when I get home (like sitting around outside for hours just chatting with people -a common practice here. Doing nothing.) Oh and did I mention that we had sunny beautiful weather everyday? Well, we did. We are so blessed.

We leave Naples today to fly to Prague then are jumping on an overnight train (if we catch it!) to Poland so I can explore the other half of my heritage and experience some WWII history. Should be wonderful.

I'll have pictures up here at some point, although they dont do much justice to the beauty we've seen. I'll update soon!