So on my way back towards to the South of France from Southern Italy I stopped again in Cinque Terre and spent 5 days relaxing and hiking in one of my favorite places in the world. As I have said before in my previous blog about being in the Cinque Terre, what you do their is nothing, just enjoy being there!
It was different to be there in the fall, instead of August. Although it was very pleasant during the day(75°) during the evenings it was chilly and you could not wear shorts, and there were alot less people which was nice.
Sorrento, Pompei, Capri, The Amalfi Coast
My next stop after Croatia was the Southern Italy
My home base for the 6 days I was in Southern Italy was the city of Sorrento. During most all of my travels in Europe, I have been using the website Hostelworld.com to book all of my hostels. For those of you who have never heard of this website, this website allows you to choose the country you are in along with the city you want to stay in and the dates and the website comes up with a list of Hostels that are available. The really cool thing about this website is that each hostel is rated by fellow travelers who have stayed at the hostel before. So you know if you are going to be staying in a dump or not! When I searched Hostelworld for Sorrento, this Hostel called 7 Hostel came up with a 97% rating, so naturally I decided to stayed there. This hostel was extremely fancy, the nicest I had stayed in by far. It just opened in June of 2008. Rumor has it, that the owner of the hostel has several 5 star resorts in Italy, and wanted to create a 5 star hostel... well I think he accomplished what he wanted to do!
During my time in Sorrento, I did day trips out to different areas around Sorrento.
My first day trip was to Pompei and Mount Vesuvius. Pompei was a Roman city that was destroyed 79AD by the erruption of Mt Vesuvius. Today the ruins of Pompei remain. In one of my pictures you can see the mold of a human( in the crouching position) that was barried during the erruption. Every time I see Roman ruins( particularly in Rome), I am always impressed on how advanced the Romans were for their time, and this was still the case for Pompei. After touring Pompei, I went on a tour up to Mt Vesuvius. The Bus took us almost all the way to the top, but we had to hike the last 1/2 mile. There were some fairly unfit people in the tour, and needless to say some made it to the top, and some didn't. From the top of Vesuvius you have a grand view looking over Naples, Sorrento, the Island of Capri, the Bay of Naples.
Capri
I got up early purposefully to avoid the large crowds on Capri, unfortunitly I was not sucessful in my mission. Apparently other people read Rick Steves' Italy book and there was already alot of people who had the same idea as me. Capri was the island where many Roman emporers went for holiday and has become known as a very posh place to go to for your holiday.
When I arrived on Capri, I headed straight for the Blue Grotto. Thankfully the water was calm, so the Grotto was open. From my pictures you can see the Grotto. I was told that the Grotto is blue due to the suns reflection on the bottom. It was really cool. The rest of Capri was very touristy and crowded. I took a single seat chair lift up to the top of the mountain. At the top, the view was amazing. You could see Sorrento to your left, and down the Amalfi Coast to your right. It was great to visit Capri, but I don't think it would be a place I would visit again.
The Amalfi Coast
The Amalfi Coast consits of several different towns, the two largest being Positano and Amalfi. I visited each of these towns on two different day trips.
To be completely honest, I wasn't really impressed by either of them, but if I had to pick one, Positano was by far better than Amalfi. Although the views were amazing, they felt very touristy to me. I perfer the Cinque Terre. When I did my trip to Positano, I followed Rick Steves' advice and took the bus out and the boat back. I have never been on a more thrilling bus ride than the one from Sorrento to Positano. On one side you have a cliff, about a 800 ft drop down to the sea below, all the while vespas are passing you on the inside. The road is so narrow in some points, that there are police officers directing traffic so there are not accidents. At one point when we passed another tour bus, the buses had to fold in their mirors to be able to pass eachother.
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