il paradiso.

wow. what an amazing weekend.

so laura, jessie, j9 and i travelled to amalfi and then to capri last weekend. and i had such a great time. it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. i want to go back sooooo badly. i can't even begin to describe what i saw because i can just never explain it. you just have to be there to see it, because my words and my pictures definitely don't do it justice. but i'll try to recount everything as best as i can ..

so saturday morning we woke up at 5am and headed to termini to meet jess and laura for the train. the train left at 7:45am. we met other rome program peeps at the station (cristina, alex, drew, rachel, amy, christina and abbey) who were going to amalfi also and actualy staying in the same hostel as us. so we all took the train to salerno. the girls all fell asleep for most of the ride while i stayed up and watched the landscape pass by. we went through lots of countryside and farm areas which was kind of cool. i saw some sheep and buffalo lol. anywhoot, we finally make it to salerno at around 10:30 where all of us meet up with daniela, emma, and felicia. we all wait for the SITA bus that will take us to amalfi. we all get on and head for the coast. salerno was really pretty - def a typical italian town. everyone hung their clothes out on the front to dry which is funny, and the buildings were really bright and lively looking. it was cool. the roads on the cliffs were mad curvy and windy, and the bus definitely did not handle them very well, so i got nauseous on the ride there. it was the longest bus ride of my life. i felt awful. and i missed a lot of the good views because i didn't want to move for fear of getting really sick. finally we make it to atrani, and i had never been so happy to be not moving. it was glorious. atrani was the town we were staying in, and it's like a 5 min walk away from the town of amalfi. we go to our hostel and the staff is really nice. we walk to our room and we had to climb all these stairs and through these really narrow random alleyways and streets. it was so cute. the room was actually really nice for 30 euro a night. our bathroom had the shower right next to the toilet, which was a fun adventure that night.

after settling in we went to lunch in piazza umberto. i had such yummy gnocchi! and then we got limoncello shots for free after lunch. amalfi is known for its limoncello and other lemon products, so we all took the shot. j9, jess and laura all didnt like it. i loved it. it was sooo good! it was really strong though, so i didnt finish it, but it was definitely yummy. then after lunch we went to the beach and just sat there all afternoon. we took lots of pictures of the cliffs and the mountains and the view of the ocean. it was gorgeous. the beach was interesting because apparently the coast doesnt do sand so well. the "sand" was kinda blackish with some rocks and terracotta. it was hard to walk on sometimes but it was stil gorgeous. the water was so clear and warm and i loved swimming in it.

then we all went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the night. laura and jess went to the chapel for a small church mass and j9 and i got ready for dinner. we went back to the piazza to see if we could find out how we could get to amalfi for dinner and we saw the other crew chilling where we had lunch. apparently it was happy hour so they were having drinks before they were going to dinner. all cocktails were 3 euro, so we stayed for one round of champagne and wine and whatnot so we could figure out how to get to amalfi. j9 had a rossini, again lol. laura had champagne with some kind of juice i forgot which, and jess had champagne with pineapple juice, which i tried and it was really good. i, however, had the BEST DRINK EVER. i ordered a nutella daquiri, which has milk, nutella, and rum. oh my god it was the best thing i have ever tasted. it was just like a chocolate milkshake!! it was so sweet and so chocolately and now i really need to find myself another one or a place up here that makes it bc its so goooood! ahhh i miss it already lol.

after we finished our drinks we went up to the main road and walked to amalfi, which literally took like two minutes. we made our way around this one bend and all of a sudden we all gasped at the same time. the view was so beautiful. the lights of amalfi were shining so bright and glittering off the water. it was amazing. i wish my camera could have really captured everything but the stupid flash kept messing up the lights. anyway, we walked down the road and every five minutes i heard "oh my gosh!" "gorgeous!" "this is soo amazing!". we make it to the actual town and it is just so adorable. the roads are so tiny and the cafes and bars are all open. people and families and children are all walking around. it was so cute. we found a fancy place to have dinner where we sat outside with a view of the ocean. it was so perfect. we ordered some red wine with dinner and had amazing seafood. i has spaghetti alla tarantina, which is spaghetti with mussels. they were so incredibly delicious!! jess had the same thing, and laura and j9 had gamberoni with pasta. all in all it was a successful dining experience. for dessert we hit up a gelateria and got some gelato and a bottle of wine. i got straciatella, as always, and we went to the dock and sat down and just stared out at the ocean for a while. we shared the wine and finished our gelato and just enjoyed the view for the night. it was such an amazing experience.

the next morning (sunday) we woke up really early and got breakfast from a scalinatella because it was included in our price. and it was sooo yummy! my cappucino had a smiley face in it lol. it was really cute. then we checked out and made our way back to amalfi while the sun was rising over the water. it was so pretty! we get to the dock and buy tickets for the boat to capri because we wanted to spend the day there. the boat ride was an hour long, and we got to see positano on the way there which was really cool. the city was very bright colored and built up. i would like to go visit there sometime in the future because it looks fun. anyway, we get to capri around 9:45 and it was soooo gorgeous! the water was sooo bluee and sparkly!! we then took another boat (i know, we love the navi around here) to get to la grotta azzurra. it was kind of expensive, but we knew it was going to be. once we got to the cave we had to jump onto these little tiny rowboats to get inside. mind you, i had my huge ass kipley duffel i just bought and it was heavy. i dont know how on earth the four of us fit in the boat but we did. we had to lean back and basically lay down in the boat in order to get in the cave because the opening was so tiny. but when we got in there it was just so amazing. the water is so breathtakingly blue, apparently because of the way the sunlight reflects off the rocks and hits the water. but it was gorgeous. we unfortunately thought the cave was bigger and sooner than we knew it we were back outside in the mediterranean. i wish the tour was longer than like a minute, but i'm really glad i got to see it because its so beautiful.

we took the boat back to capri and hung out and the beach basically for the rest of the afternoon. the beach at capri was obviously not really a beach but more of a huge collection of baseball sized rocks. it was really hard to lay on but we got used to it. it was definitely more difficult to walk on without shoes, especially when you tried to go into the ocean, but once you got past a certain point the floor was smooth so it was all good. laura and i swam to a rock jetty and climbed up on some rocks to check out the view, which was naturally awesome and gorgeous. i sat up there for a while just taking it all in and thinking about stuff. it was really nice, and really relaxing.

then before we knew it it was 4 oclock and so we headed back to the harbor to catch our boat ride home. it was a little longer than the first one, but we got back to amalfi at around a quarter to 6. we caught the SITA bus at 6 so we figured we were safe. our train was leaving at 7:20, so we'd have 20 minutes to spare. it was timed so perfectly. however, things went downhill from there. i didnt get sick this time, thank god, because i OD'ed on dramamine beforehand. but the bus was terrible. he kept stopping at random curves on the edges of cliffs and he took FOREVER to get to the station. it wound up taking us an hour and a half to get to salerno. so we got to the train station at 7:30, a mere 10 MINUTES after our train left. we were so pissed. so we tried to go up to the teller to ask if we could just change our tickets and he was really mean and said absolutely not bc we bought them online. so he told us to call this number to change oru reservation so we could get home. we call up the number, and besides the fact that the woman was as dumb as a doorknob it took her like 20 mins to write down and comprehend our confirmation number. after another 10 mins on the phone she tells us she can't help us and that we have to go to someone in person to change our train. what the hell. by now its almost 8 oclock and we're all freaking out because we don't know how we're gonna get home. we decide to just buy a whole new set of tickets for the direct train to termini at 8:42, but we find out the train is completely sold out. freak out number 2. the next train to termini? at 2:58am, putting us as getting in at 6:17am. freak out number 3. by now i'm basically hyperventilating internally because i most definitely did not want to wait until 3am, four girls alone, for our train in a town we don't know. we called ddv and he told us to relax and take it easy bc everything would be okay. he told us to go up to the conductor of the full train to see if he could let us on. so at 8:42 we head up to the platform, plead our case and basically beg the conductor to let us on the train. he says we can go on, but we have to pay 212 euro for changing fees and the fee to get on a crowded eurostar (the most expensive train you can take here). the girls didnt want to pay, especially because the 3am train was 16 euro each, but i said absolutely not and bought the tickets on my card. we made it on the train in the silent car, where there were actually 4 seats free which was nice so we didnt have to stand the whole time. our freak out was basically over and i slept the whole ride home. j9 and laura wrote the conductor a thank you note in italian on a postcard and gave it to him which was pretty hilarious. "thank you for letting us on your train. it was nice of you. we really like this train. you are our favorite man of the train. grazie. ciao." lmao. we wound up getting into termini only a half hour later than we were supposed to, which wasnt bad at all. dawson told us which bus we had to take home, the ma2, which was fine. we took it with laura to ville aurelia and then just took a cab to colli. i was so glad to be home.

so that was my amazing and intense weekend. it was definitely an adventure i'll never forget. and it really made me realize how lucky i am to be here for a semester. i get to do all of these things and see all these places. no one has it better than me. i'm so grateful that my parents let me come here and i'm so glad i made time in my schedule to study here, because i really feel like it was the best decision of my life. i may have only been here for two weeks, but everything has just been so amazing. i'm learning so much about history and the city but most importantly about myself. i'm gaining more confidence in my speaking italian and i'm learning to relax and not be so uptight about everything. because things don't always turn out exactly how you want them and how you plan them, and that's okay. you'll recover. it's not the end of the world if you miss a train. and it's okay to get lost, because that's how you learn to make your way around. its part of the experience. and i'm loving every single minute of it.

okay, dan is basically telling me that i've been writing on this for forever and it looks like a term paper, so i'm going to shut up now. i'll enjoy my little nutella to go and start writing my theo paper.

ciao a tutti! tanti baci <3