Day 4 - Capri

We woke up really early to catch the first ferry from Sorrento across the bay to Capri.  When we arrived at the Marina Grande we went up the funicular into the town of Capri.  We walked through the town on their version of "Rodeo Drive" to the town's public garden.  It was so beautiful with such amazing views.

J enjoying the beautiful early morning view.

Capri and it's neighboring town, Anacapri, were both located on the top of the cliff.  

Me in the public garden.  The flowers were so beautiful.

We thought this was a pretty good backdrop for a few pictures!

After strolling around Capri we took the funicular back down the hill to the Marina where we caught a boat and set out for a ride around the island.  We were blown away by the beauty of this island.  

This is the view of the Marina Grande as we sailed away.

Our boat took us into several grottos (caves).  They were all different and so beautiful.  Nothing really beats natural beauty.

These little jellyfish were all over.  It really made me question whether I would swim in this water.

A natural arch.  Our boat captain was so excited about this, he made sure we all saw it and took pictures.

It's just so beautiful.  Bella.  Molto bella.

Our boat made a stop at the famous Blue Grotto.  It was certainly not what I was expecting.  Here is a video of one of the many rowboats taking passengers into the grotto.  Keep your eyes on the boat going into the teeny tiny opening in the rock.  That is what we were about to do...

This was quite the experience!

We got into a rowboat with 2 other people.  We all sat on the floor of the tiny boat.  Once we were close to the entrance, we all had to lay down and keep our hands and heads inside.  The rowboat driver also had to lay down and pulled us into the grotto.

Here I am in the rowboat.

Inside the Blue Grotto.  It really was beautiful.  Our rowboat driver had a beautiful voice and sang Italian opera arias for us!

A few more pictures from the boat ride.

Our captain took us through the little arch in the middle rock and then on the space just to the right of the middle rock.  Our captain had really good control of the boat, thank goodness!

After our fun boat ride, we took a mini-bus up the cliff to Anacapri.  There we took a chairlift even further up the cliff.  The chairlift ride gave us a birds eye perspective of the island.  It was nice to see the views and also see all the different kinds of vegetation growing below us.

The views going up the cliff were great,  but the views at the top were spectacular!  Wow!!

After a fun filled day in Capri, we caught the ferry to Naples and then took the train back to Florence, sunburns and all.  We had a wonderful weekend getaway!

Day 3 - Herculaneum and Pompeii

J and I spent the day learning about the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii.  Both towns were destroyed when Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D.  Herculaneum was covered with lava from the volcano while Pompeii was covered under 30 feet of hot volcanic ash.  It is for this reason that Herculaneum is better preserved then Pompeii.  Because of the hot lava, everything was almost instantly carbonized.  It was amazing to walk around the ruins and see how civilized and progressive these towns were, thousands of years ago!

Here is a picture of Vesuvius.

J outside of Herculaneum.  Herculaneum was the rich, resort town.  Therefore it was much smaller then Pompeii.  

Here is a view of Herculaneum.  You can see that it is quite a bit lower then the modern city.  This is where the old coast of the Mediterranean Sea was before the volcano erupted.  

Here is a picture of some mosaics.  It just blows my mind that these have survived for so long, and they survived through a volcano!!

Inside the women's bath house - I loved that we were able to walk around and actually be right inside the ruins!  This civilization was so evolved and smart that they had in their bath house complex, a large changing room, a cold swimming pool and a hot sauna room - all right next to each other, just designed differently from the other!

This is inside the sauna room.  You can see (thanks to the fallen ground) that they had an underground heating system.  Also in the corner of this picture you can see the tiled decorations in the floor.  This was a fancy place!

We were told that people were shorter then, but really could they possibly have been this short?!

This is one of the court yards in Herculaneum.  The interesting thing about this is that these are the original trees that were planted here when the volcano erupted.  Archeologists uncovered the original seeds (which had been carbonized under the lava) and discovered that the trees were crabapple trees, which is what is planted here.  

This is a view of Herculaneum and you can see that above the ruins is the modern day city.  They believe that Herculaneum is bigger then this excavated part, but since the modern city is built on top, they will never be able to uncover the rest of the ancient city.

Ancient fast food restaurant.  Seriously, that's what it is.  The shop owner would pre-make meat, soup, or some other food and put them in these large insulated jugs to keep until they could be sold to the men during the day.  

A town on the market street.  They say that the shop owners had their shop downstairs and lived upstairs.

Us on the main market street in Herculaneum.

After lunch, we then went to Pompeii to see the bigger city.  It was also very interesting.

This is the smaller theater in Pompeii.  We weren't able to make it to the big one, but we were still quite impressed by this one.  The engineers knew enough about acoustics and had this designed specifically for musicians. 

This is part of the city center.  Surrounding the main open area were these huge pillars which held two floors.  Most of them tipped over when the volcano erupted. 

This is a view of the central market place.  Vesuvius in in the background.  This square was a solid marble floor, but it was taken away to build a castle.  

The crosswalk (or zebra stripes as the English and our guide say).  These streets were often flooded with water, so the towns people used these crosswalks to get from one side of the street to the other side.  There is also the theory that these streets were also used as a sewage system for the town.  Herculaneum was one step ahead of Pompeii in that respect.  Herculaneum had an underground sewage system.

Another picture in the ancient city. 

After this long and HOT day visiting the ancient ruins, we went back to the pool (of course).  We had a wonderful dinner in Sorrento by the water.  It was so lovely, and we sadly forgot the camera!

Day 2 - Amalfi Coast Drive

We spent this day on the Amalfi Coast.  The Amalfi Coast is famous for the breathtaking views of the Mediterranean.  We took a bus tour of the coast starting from Sorrento.  It was really beautiful, but really scary.  The roads were SO narrow and there were times looking out the window we were staring down the cliff wall into the sea.

Here is a picture of the road.  So narrow and curvy.  

This, we were told, is the only fjord in Italy.  Now it is where all the fishermen have their homes and dock their boats.

Molto bellissimo.  

It is still misty since were started the drive in the morning.  It stays foggy like this until 

midday.  

Here we are in Postitano, the first little town we stopped in.  

J in the town of Amalfi.

In Amalfi, our bus tour took to the sea.  This way were were able to have a different perspective of the Amalfi coast towns and scenery.  We were also able to see the towns that were weren't able to see from our bus.  It was a beautiful day for a boat ride!

After the boat ride, we had some free time in Amalfi.  Here is J in front of the Cathedral.  

This is at the harbor in Alamfi.  I love seeing how the buildings are built right into the cliffs.

After Amalfi, our tour lead us the the town of Ravello.  Ravello is much higher up in the cliffs.  We ate "typical" lunch here. 

After lunch, we had time to walk around the town.  What a view.  Almost everywhere we looked was a Kodak moment.

This is a view from the bus of Sorrento.

Upon arrival in Sorrento, we saw this sign - it really makes getting around Sorrento simple, huh?  Glad we were on a bus.

After our long (and beautiful) day at the Amalfi Coast, we headed straight to the pool.