Amalfi and Naples

Early on the Tuesday after Easter, Josh and I took a train from Rome to Naples.  We bought business class tickets because they were the same price as economy.  Holy cow, I didn't want to leave those seats, they were sweet!  Remind me to travel business class again in the future...it was quiet, comfortable and we had tons of space.  Loved it.  It took a little over an hour for us to reach Naples.  We then had to catch another commuter train to Sorrento, on the Circumvesuviana line.  This was not as nice as our first train ride, it was basically like a subway/tube car but above ground.  This ride also took us about an hour...mostly because there we about 30 stops between Naples and Sorrento!  Once at Sorrento we had one more leg of our trip to complete before we made it to Amalfi.  This time, we grabbed a SITA bus and settled in for a hair-raising ride along the coast.

The SITA bus drivers have got to be the best drivers I've ever seen in action.  I thought that London bus drivers were amazing, but the SITA drivers have them beat in talent.  The drivers are contending with sheer cliff drop offs, blind and hairpin turns all while narrowly avoiding other drivers and pedestrians.  We had quite a few 'Whoa' moments on our ride!

The Amalfi Coast, between Sorrento and Amalfi.

One of the cities along the Amalfi coast...I think this is Positano.  

Two large SITA buses, expertly passing each other along the coastal highway.

Our hotel was down a narrow walkway in Amalfi.  We settled in our room and then headed out to walk around the town.  Amalfi is set into the cliffs above the sea, the streets are steep and there are steps everywhere!  

One of the main streets in Amalfi

Small town traffic jam :)

Amalfi

The Mediterranean coast of Amalfi

The following day, Josh and I decided to hike to Ravello, a city set higher up along the cliffs.  The paths up consisted mainly of stairs that meandered through the hills and brought us by the front doors and back yards of residents.  I was surprised at how many buildings were abandoned   But considering how difficult it would be to get supplies to some of these areas I can see why people have left for an easier life.  We did notice that everyone seemed to have a garden.  They used every available growing space for orchards or orange and lemon trees and  vegetables.  We even saw goats and chickens.  

Josh before the start of our hike.

Self portrait in Amalfi...not too shabby!

The starting point of our hike...Atrani

Abandoned buildings and terraced gardens. 

Heading up through some beautiful stonework.  

Our lunchtime pit stop...doesn't get much better than this!

I love this picture!  I laughed when we first saw this little dog...how did he get up there?
He obviously wanted a better view!

More terraced gardens...I'd love to have a view like that every day!

A view from the city of Ravello

Josh looking like a homeless bum in the center of Ravello...I actually got money out and tossed it at him!

Josh in Ravello

We found this nifty cave on the way back down.  

Isn't it just wonderful!  So glad that we got the chance to visit!

Josh and shopped and tasted Limoncello before heading back down to Amalfi.  The next day the weather was perfect for our planned hike of the "Sentiero degli Dei" or Path of the Gods.  We made a plan and headed out to catch our bus...only to find out we were on the wrong one and the next bus wouldn't be around for another 2 1/2 hours!  We didn't let that minor detail stop us though.  After a quick game plan change, we caught another bus and got as close as we could to where we needed to be.  It still took us another 1 1/2 of hiking to finally make it to the beginning of the trail!  It was not an easy ascent to Bomerano either...at one point we were pretty much rock climbing and fence jumping to get to the road we needed!  It was all worth it in the end, our hike along the Path of the Gods was amazing!

The beginning of our hike along the Path of the Gods

Being silly :)

The coastline all the way to Capri

Josh taking his Snickers break

Love this picture!  What a great hike!

The end of our hike in Nocelle, the city in the picture is Positano

After our hike we headed down the mountain by way of stairs.  1,500 to be exact!  No, I didn't count...I looked it up afterwards.  Out of the 12 hours of hiking we did between our two days in Amalfi, going down that many stairs in one go was the hardest on our bodies!  I felt it in my knees and calves for the next couple of days!  After our hike, Josh and I headed back to Amalfi by bus to pick up our bags from the hotel.  It was nearly 6pm before we caught another SITA bus to take us back to Sorrento.  From Sorrento we got the train to Naples.  We were tired and sore from our hike and were happy to make it to our hotel in Naples.  The next day we headed out to visit the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum.  They were amazing!  We had hoped to also travel to the top of Mount Vesuvius, but the volcano constantly had clouds around it and we didn't feel it was worth the trip up if we wouldn't be able to see anything once we got to the top!

Josh in the ruins at Pompeii

Pompeii

Enjoying the lovely weather!

Josh being a bum...again...but this time in the ancient streets of Pompeii!

Ruins of Pompeii

An amphitheater in Pompeii

Self portrait attempt in Pompeii

Beautiful ceiling work in Pompeii

Pompeii was huge!

A fresco that survived.  

A mosaic...I think this was in Herculaneum.  

An ancient kitchen.

Herculaneum.  

Herculaneum

Josh and I spent all day observing the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum   We were exhausted at the end of the day.  Thankfully, our hotel was a quiet, clean oasis in an otherwise not so nice city.  I had read online reviews of people over and over saying Naples was a dump.  I gave it the benefit of the doubt though and chose to stay there for our visits to Pompeii and Herculaneum and for the close proximity to the airport.  If I had to do it over again though, I would stay in Sorrento, it is about the same distance away from the ruin sites and it is about a million times nicer that Naples.  Naples was dirty...I thought London could be dirty, but holy cow, Naples was just gross.  It seemed as if no one cared or even made an effort to keep the area we were in a reasonable condition.  There were tiny pieces of glass everywhere, condoms (ick), trash, shoes, cigarettes, graffiti (which I don't mind in London because most of it is artistic, but in Naples it was sprayed everywhere...church walls, city parks, monuments...not artistic at all).  And the worst part...on our last day we had about two hours to kill before needing to leave for the airport so Josh and I decided to walk around. We headed towards the port and were walking along a busy road when we turned a corner and saw a guy bent over with his butt hanging out taking a dump on the sidewalk!  Gross, gross, gross!  At that point, Josh and I decided to retreat to the safety and comfort of our hotel lobby.  Hands down, the worst city I've ever been too...and I though Brussels was bad last year.  Brussels is an oasis compared to Naples!    

Despite the yuckiness of Naples, our week long trip to Italy was fantastic.  I hope you all enjoyed our pictures!

Rachel

Rome

A few months ago, Josh and I decided to take a trip over the Easter holiday.  Here in England, Good Friday and Easter Monday are both bank holidays giving Josh a good chunk of time off.  Last year, we took a trip to Belgium, Germany and Holland.  This year, we decided on Italy because - One: we loved Venice and wanted to see more of Italy,  Two: we felt Rome was a 'must do' before we move back to the States and Three: there is gelato available on every corner...and who doesn't want that on holiday?

Our Italian holiday started off in Rome where we spent three nights at a fantastic guest house (Merulana Inn) right around the corner from the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica.  The Basilica is beautiful and huge!  Amazingly, the beginning of this church go back to 431 AD, it was built to honor Virgin Mary after she was 'officially' proclaimed the Mother of God.

The back side of the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica 

The beautiful ceiling inside the Basilica

Alter at the Basilica 

After dropping off our bags, Josh and I headed to Vatican City for a tour of the museum and to pick up our tickets for Easter Mass the following day.  We thought that picking up our tickets would be relatively easy, but the vague description from our letter didn't offer much help.  We were suppose to find some bronze doors off of the right side of the Bernini colonnade which was undergoing construction and covered in scaffolding and fabric.  I asked no less than 5 guards/workers for help only to be vaguely pointed in the direction of the construction.  After 45 minutes of searching I finally found a few small hand written signs that gave some general direction (although they ended up leading me to the bathroom instead).  Luckily, the next guard I asked was right next to the entrance through the construction to get to those fabled bronze doors and after going through another maze of confusion I finally had our tickets!.  (By the way, I'm pretty sure all the doors I saw that day were bronze, so the description in my letter wasn't helpful at all!)

Tickets in hand we moved on to visit the Vatican Museum.  The vast amounts of people visiting the Vatican Museum was sadly off-putting.  It was difficult to move through and around people and tour groups which made it hard to appreciate the artifacts.  That said, the highlight was getting to see the Sistine Chapel, which was smaller than I expected.  It was beautiful and even though it was crowded with people the room was peaceful.

In St. Peter's Square

Vatican Museum Entrance

The crazy amount of people going through the Museum at the same time as us...this has to be a fire hazard!

A tapestry of Jesus rising from the dead.  

The map room inside the Vatican Museum.

Josh and I were exhausted after our Vatican Museum tour so we headed back to our hotel, grabbed some snacks, sandwiches and wine from the nearby grocery store and had a picnic in our room.  It was an early night for us so that we could be up and ready for Easter Mass the next day.

Just to give you an idea of how many crowded the Easter Mass was, here are two pictures of me by the gate to St. Peter's square.  The first picture below is of me on the day before Easter...the second picture is at the same location 2 hours before mass was to start.  It was estimated that 500,000 people attended!

It is hard to explain the feelings and emotions and physical pain involved with our Easter mass experience at the Vatican.  I was filled with joy to be there on a beautiful day, to watch history as Pope Francis officiated his first Easter mass as Pope.  It made me tear up to see so many people in one place who have the same love of God and Christianity.  My bodily discomfort and the push of the crowds kept getting in the way of truly enjoying the experience though.  From the beginning of our 2 hour wait for mass to begin, we were jostled and jabbed by elbows by people trying to get a better viewing spot.  Josh and I stood our ground as much as possible, we barely moved our feet over the 4 hours we were there which was painful!  Being short, I couldn't see very much of what was going on and even the TV monitors were too low to the ground for me to see much of anything.  I did get short glimpses and lucky tall Josh saw everything just fine!  As soon as mass started, the crowd surged and went crazy with their cameras, ipads and camcorders trying to see Pope Francis.  Eventually it calmed down a bit and I was able to close my eyes and enjoy the beautiful singing.  I didn't understand much since the mass was in Italian, but I was mostly able to follow along.  When the time came for communion, the crowd surged again and our once close space became even closer (I didn't think it was possible!).  I would have loved to get communion, but was not willing to elbow my way through people and possibly lose track of Josh, so I stayed put.  Easter mass at the Vatican was a surreal, humbling and beautiful experience, but not one I would likely want to do again...there were just too many people and standing in one spot for over 4 hours was painful.  I think next year I'll watch the mass on TV from the comfort of my couch!

Before mass on Easter Sunday 2013

The beginning of mass with our new pope.

Josh getting a picture of the crowd.

More crowd...

Josh and I in St. Peter's Square, Easter mass 2013

After mass, Papa Francesco came out in the pope-mobile to wave to the crowd.  

Easter address to the world.

Resting our legs while the crowd disperses!  

Our Easter day picture :)

Josh and I had no plans for the rest of the day, so we took a leisurely stroll through the streets of Rome where we found a market, ate pizza in a park and toured a few churches.  After a well deserved nap at our hotel, we ventured out at night to see the Colosseum and to find a place to eat our Easter dinner.

The crowd leaving the Vatican

Delicious dried and sweetened fruits we found at the market.  

One of the fountains in the Piazza del Popolo

Josh relaxing in the park after our meal of pizza.

A pic overlooking part of Rome

Josh getting a drink at one of the fountains :)

People congregating below the Spanish steps

The Colosseum at night

Our Easter dinner beer...we had two kinds of bruschetta, I had a salad and Josh had some creamy tortellini   

On Easter Monday, Josh and I had early morning tickets to tour the Colosseum.  I'm so glad we bought tickets online!  We were in a special tour group that gave us access to areas that people who just walked up to buy tickets couldn't go into.  It made the experience so much more enjoyable and informative.

The entrance to the Colosseum 

The underground rooms

One of the spots where a wood beam was turned to lift animals onto the surface.

Below the main floor, where animals and people were kept until the shows started.  

Josh and I in the underground section of the Colosseum 

Palatine Hill from the Colosseum 

Overlooking Palatine Hill

Josh and I at the Colosseum

What an amazing piece of history and architecture!

We loved our Colosseum tour, what a great place to visit!

Josh and I in front of the Colosseum, after our tour.  

After our tour of the Colosseum, we walked across the road to visit the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.

Ruins at the Roman Forum

Josh wanted me to get his whole body into one of those arches back there...but I suck at taking pictures!

Roman Forum

Beautiful view of Rome!

We then headed out to do a little more Rome sightseeing, with our list  including the Pantheon  Trevi Fountain, Cappuchin Crypt, Santa Maria Della Concezione, and the Bascillica San Clemente.  I did a ton of research on the internet before we left and I thought most of these things would be open on Easter Monday. Sadly, we weren't able to see the Pantheon or Santa Maria Della Concezione.  We did get a view of Trevi Fountain, but it was crazy busy with people so we didn't stick around too long.  One of my favorite things of the day was visiting the Cappuchin Crypt.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, but the tour takes you through to 5 or 6 little rooms that have been completely decorated with bones, there were even hanging light fixtures!  It was extremely creepy to see the huge amount of human bones stacked and displayed, but I still enjoyed it!

The entrance to the Pantheon 

Josh is excited about Rome!  I can't remember where this pic was taken...

The Trevi Fountain...does this remind anyone else of Las Vegas?!?  It seemed fake to me, but I know it is real!

Josh and I by the Trevi Fountain

Josh taking a break on our way to the Cappuchin Crypt.  

Phew!  Our three days in Rome were jam packed!  I think I'm going to split this trip up into two blogs...this one seems to be long enough as it is and we still have 4 more days of our holiday to share.  I enjoyed Rome and would most definitely go back, there is so much to see and do!

Rachel xoxo