Mac and I on Our Boat Tour to Capri
(Capri is in the background!)
Italiano: Buon Bagno
English: Good Swim
A couple of weekends ago (yes, this post is quite behind!) my wonderful roommate Mac and I traveled down to the Amalfi Coast. We stayed right outside of Sorrento in the quaint little town of Sant'Agnello. During our three day travels, we explored Sant'Agnello, Sorrento, Capri and Napoli! This trip really felt like a vacation, and was a great getaway from the hustle and bustle of Rome.
7 Hostel: Our Room, View from the Deck: Day and Night
We stayed at 7 Hostel in Sant'Agnello. This hostel had great reviews online, and definitely exceeded our expectations about where we would be staying. Also, 7 Hostel was one of the most affordable places to stay, considering the majority of hostels/B&B's/hotels in Sorrento were out of our price range. Thus, 7 Hostel is definitely where all the young-foreigners stay (ourselves included). This entails discounted lunch and dinner menus (which were actually pretty decent, even amongst my standards), complimentary breakfast, and a very large bar that plays (extremely) loud music in to the wee hours of the morning. This last note was the only downside. Lastly, since 7 Hostel is not located directly in Sorrento, we did have to make an effort to get to Sorrento which at times was a hassle. When in doubt, we hung out on the terrace, and were surrounded by some great views, as photographed above.
Marina Di Puolo Spiaggia Sorrento, Italia
On day one, Mac and I attempted to go to Positano. However, the bus we were instructed to take, never showed up. After asking about three different cafes, and a few strangers, no one had a straight answer for us. Slightly defeated, we went to plan B (or maybe plan Z, considering how many people we spoke to!), and went to Marina Di Puolo, a beach Mac had looked up prior to our travels.
"Buon Bagno!" our cab driver instructed us, as he dropped us off at Marina Di Puolo a secluded little beach located on the bottom of a hillside in Sorrento. The beach was covered in black-rocky sand, and was absolutely lovely. There were only locals on the beach. Which in turn meant, ample space for us to lounge, and lots of time for us to laugh about how pale we are in comparison to Italians. We stayed here for the remainder of the afternoon, taking in the sun, reading, swimming (in the Tyrrhenian Sea) and simply relaxing.
Ristorante La Marinella: Mac and Our House Raviolli; Seafood Platter; Steak Dish; Dolci: Almond-Chocolate Delight
We decided earlier in the day that we wanted to stick around Sant'Agnello and enjoy a nice dinner for two. I critiqued the tripadvisor and lonelyplanet reviews for a while, and chose Ristorante La Marinella. La Marinella has a gorgeous view by the water, and although not inexpensive, it still fit our budgets ("splurge budgets" that is).
Upon arrival you are taken in a lift down to the restaurant. Oddly enough, the man navigating our lift used to work for a cruise line that would dock in the Bay Area. His good friend owns an Italian restaurant in San Rafael, and he actually knew where my hometown Mill Valley was (what are the chances?!)! He was unbelievably nice, and before he left he gave us his card with a note to bring to the restaurant in San Rafael telling his friend to give Mac and I a bottle of champagne (now we know what we are doing over Winter Break back in the states!).
The restaurant was lovely, and after sharing a serving of their house ravioli, Mac and I realized we were the only ones in the restaurant. No one else came, so we were given spectacular service. Apparently, we traveled to the Amalfi Coast at the right time since tourist season had pretty much ended.
The food, in turn, was great. The ravioli was a classic, filled with ricotta and spinach. Our entrees were the standouts. Mac was right on about ordering a seafood platter, perfect for the region we were in. Where as I, opted for meat, and ended up with steak. I know, hopefully none of my readers judge me for choosing red-meat when I was down by the coast, but after questioning the waiter a few times he told me their steak was one of their best dishes, and I can attest and say it was quite good. Lastly, we shared an almond cake, that was accompanied by plenty of chocolate delights. We loved the presentation of all of these dishes. Overall, I definitely would recommend La Marinella to any person traveling to Sorrento, the service was great, food was well-prepared, and nothing can beat the scenery!
Capri Boat Tour: Mac and I Pre-Boarding; Skipper Navigating; On the Boat; View of the Island
On Day Two of our travels, Mac and I signed up for an organized boat tour with Capitanoago. While researching what to do in Sorrento, Mac and I knew we wanted to see Capri and check out the grottos. We were a tad overwhelmed with coordinating all of the boat travel, so we opted for a planned day trip. Needless to say, we were very pleased.
All of the people on our boat were extremely nice, ironically enough, all of them live in the same apartment building as Mac and I in Trastevere. They are all students as well, but from the University of Iowa, and are doing a school program that focuses on Graphic and Interior Design (they have on the top programs in the country!). We also met a very nice guy named Franco, who is from South America, and took many of the photos above for us.
Capri
Capri is a gorgeous island. However, it is also very touristy. The only things you really do while on the island is shop (at very expensive stores), drink Limoncello, eat and walk around. We were only given three hours on the Island, so we took the lift to the main area were we (window) shopped, and took in the breathtaking views.
Into the Blue Grotto; Blue Grotto
After our visit to Capri, it was time to vist all of the Grottos (sea caves) nearby the island. First was the "infamous," blue grotto. Unfortunately, Mac and I were unimpressed with the blue grotto. Not only do you have to squish into a tiny boat, you also have to pay an additional price to go inside. Although it was cool to go inside, it's actually not as big as tourist photos like to depict. Also, if you want to swim in the blue grotto you have to pay an additional 5 Euros, which we opted not to do. We agreed afterwards that we would have regretted not going, but we advise future travelers it's definitely a site you can miss.
Views from the Boat
Despite our disappointment from the Blue Grotto, the remainder of the boat travel was lovely. We got to swim through the Green Grotto (sorry no photographs), and see the White Grotto. We circled around a good portion of the island. Our skipper was very accomodating, and we were given refreshments and lunch as a part of our tour package.
None of my photos give justice to all of the amazing sights we saw this day. After swimming through the Green Grotto, I choose to put my camera away and simply take in the scenary, rather than trying to capture it all.
Overall, we enjoyed this boat tour the most out of our stay in the Amalfi Coast area. It's definitely a vacation spot, and I highly recommend it as a getaway from the big Italian cities.
Napoli: Mac and I -Photo Credit: Mac Witmer
Buffalino con Prosciutto Pizza
When in Naples: Mangiamo La Pizza. In order to get to Sorrento, the travel route requires you take a train to Naples, and then another train down to the coast. Our train back to Rome on Sunday wasn't until 5 p.m. Therefore, we decided to head back to Naples early Sunday, and explore the area, with the main goal to eat pizza.
We've been told that Naples is very dirty, but we were still shocked while walking the streets how dark and grungy it really is. Naples is a very diverse city, but it's definitely not taken care of, yet it was still interesting to walk past the street art and of course down Via Tribunali where all the major food shops and restaurants are located (particularlly ones specializing in Pizza).
Aside from sight seeing, our main reason for going to Naples was to eat Pizza. At this point in my stay in Italy, I have not been completely blown away by Pizza here (well, Pizzarium with my mom was pretty good). However, this Pizza from I Decumani was out of this world.
We were told it was a thirty minute wait, but instead, we ended up waiting for about an hour and a half. We had ample time to spare, and in the process of waiting for our table we met a lovely woman named Tiffany who was from the States. Ironically enough, she actually studied abroad in Rome, and took classes in the same exact building as Mac and I are now! She ended up having lunch with us, and we learned so much about her. She currently works for a non-profit that requires here to travel all over (Naples being her current stop at the time). We appreciated talking to her, seeing as how she is fresh out of graduate school, and she really gave us confidence about finding opportunities post-college. We exchanged emails and wished each other well.
Overall, I had a fantastic time with Mac. This was such a nice and relaxing vacation. Despite minor hiccups here and there, we were able to figure out great alternatives and have an amazing time, and not to mention meet tons of fun people along the way!
No comments:
Post a Comment