Capri Sun*

After a beautiful Shabbat in Fregene, which you surely just read about, we headed south towards Sorrento. Sorrento is in the province of Naples, and is quite beautiful, a little touristy, and fairly expensive. Funnily enough, we found out on the train ride over that the apartment we'd booked wasn't actually in Sorrento, but in Piano Di Sorrento, a small community about 5 minutes outside of Sorrento. Even funnierly enough, we found out that the apartment we'd booked was more of a B&B, and by that I mean we were sharing the apartment with an elderly Italian couple. Ugo and Maria were extremely nice, and even bought us a beautiful bottle of Chianti, which of course was COMPLETELY useless to us. THANKS GUYS.
After spending hours schlepping to (Piano Di) Sorrento, we threw down our bags, got back on the train and schlepped back to Mount Vesuvius. Climbing to the top of Mt. Vesuvius has been a pretty big dream of mine, ever since seeing Zoolander, and it did not disappoint.
First we took a bus halfway up the mountain, and then an intense 4x4 up the next quarter of the mountain, and then we hiked the last 500 meters or so to the top. (Hey, even those who summit Everest start from base camp.)
Mount Vesuvius is the only mainland, European volcano to have erupted in the last 100 years and is considered one of the most dangerous in the world. Also, it's around 70 years overdue for eruption.
While the top half of the mountain is brown and ashen, the bottom half is completely covered in trees and flowers, producing a really cool duality.
From on top of Vesuvius, you can see most of the region of Naples, from Sorrento all the way down towards to Amalfi Coast.

At first we thought the sky was hazy, but then we realized we were above some clouds

View of the outside of the mountain, from the top

Inside the crater

After exhausting ourselves with a full day of traveling and volcano exploring, we headed home to our elderly hosts.
Up until now, we'd only really been in Rome and Fregene, where every shopkeeper or bus driver spoke at least a little english, but not so in Piano Di Sorrento. Luckily for us, we picked up a little Italian from this extremely helpful video, and we've been getting by okay.

On Monday the plan was to wake up early, head to the real Sorrento, and take a boat to Capri. Capri is a beautiful island, with all types of stuff to do. (Boat tours, swimming, etc almost all of which cost money.)
After getting off the train, we got directions to the port which was a "10 minute walk" from the station. Of course, that's assuming that you don't walk in the entirely wrong direction, and wind up on the complete opposite end of Sorrento as we did. In that case, the 10 minute walk was closer to 2 hours.
But no worries, because Sorrento is quite beautiful, with some amazing views of its own.

And HUGE lemons

 When we got to the port, we found out that not only was the next ferry not for another 45 minutes, but it also would cost around 70 euro total (about $94), and once in Capri, almost everything else would only add to the bill for the day. So after much thought, we decided to take the much cheaper bus (about $15 round trip for 2) to Positano, a town on the beach that's a part of the famous Amalfi Coast.
The bus ride there was only 40 minutes or so, but nauseatingly winded up and around an entire mountain. When the bus stopped, we realized we'd been let off about halfway down the mountain, and needed to get down to the beach.
I should pause to mention it was swelteringly hot, somewhere around 95 degrees. Having said all that, by the end of the day, we could not have been happier that we decided to go to Positano.
The whole town is gorgeous, with canopied walkways and lots of cafes and art galleries, built into a cliff that overlooks the Sorrentine Peninsula.

Fun Fact: Mick and Keith wrote "Midnight Rambler" in a cafe in Positano

View of Positano, from the bottom

...ereh ffo s'gnihtemoS

 

 

 

The water itself is amazing, covered on the bottom with the smoothest of rocks, and clear all the way to the bottom. And of course, while on the beach, we overheard a girl near us say "Oh My God, Talia and Sam are so cute together! At their l'chaim, I was so happy for them!"
Fairly tired after the transportation, hiking, swimming and more hiking, we headed home to pack up and get ready for our trip to Florence.
Even though we thought we'd be staying in Sorrento and swimming in Capri, the 2 days in the South were nonetheless, unforgettable.

*Didn't actually see any "Capri Sun" or fruit filled tornadoes