K E L L Y L U K E R

Waving goodbye to Capri, we board the 8:30pm ferry back to Naples.  We plan to get some pizza and chill before taking our overnight train all the way up to the Cinque Terre (ching-quay tair-ray, or with a Sienese accent: sheen-quay), part of the Italian Riviera.  Well, I pull out our train tickets… Okay, so Italy operates on military time, or 24 hour time.  Then when you combine that with a little bit of dyslexia, how can you blame a girl for reading 21:09 as 12:09??  So when I thought our train was at midnight, it was really at 9… We arrive to the train station 20 minutes after the train left.  Womp.

BIG womp.  So here we are, four American girls, in the Naples train station, close to 10:30 at night.  Then add on the fact we don’t know what to do, blindly looking around, making us even more obvious targets.  The next train to where we are going isn’t until 4:30 in the morning… 

As we are standing by the self-help ticket machines, a man comes up to us asking if we need help, and he seems very nice so we tell him our story.  He tells us that as 4 girls, we shouldn’t be out this late in Naples, and above all, the train station is the most dangerous place to be, and he can’t in good conscience leave 4 girls stranded, so he offers us a ride.  He says in the next town over, Salerno, trains run every hour through the night and he’s a “taxi” driver.  I say “taxi” driver because I don’t believe he is a licensed one.  First, he shows us a picture of his daughter on his phone, who looks like a baby prostitute, and then his wife joins him, who looks like a prostitute too.  His car doesn’t have the little taxi sign, but he proceeds to show us a paper card validating his “taxi license”.  Scenes from the movie Taken are flashing through my mind.  Veronica, Kristina, and Brenna are all completely fine, convincing me that he has our best interest in mind and such, and I mean, he is very nice, but I hesitantly get into the car.  At the point in which he pulls over for gas and asks US to pay for the gas, I am practically sobbing.  Ummmmm taxi drivers don’t do that.  Once on the interstate, I am not longer just praying, Lord, please just get us to Salerno safely, over and over, but also, please don’t let us crash, as he is driving about 85 miles per hour on this very curvy highway.  Basically, my options were that I was going to die from a car crash or because I was sold into sex trafficking, great choices.  Thank the Lord, though, we finally arrive at the Salerno train station.  So he is a great guy after all… umm, until he tries to charge us 800 EURO for the ride! Excuse me, but no.  He had said 1 euro per kilometer at the beginning, but then he tries to tell us that we must EACH pay that, PLUS the distance for him to return to Naples.  I refuse to give him any more than 100 euro total, but the other girls give in to giving him 200 total.

So here we are, now at the Salerno train station looking for when the next train leaves… at 3:30 in the morning.  Strike number two for the man from Naples.  Admittedly, if one must wait in the train station until 3:30 in the morning, it is MUCH safer to do so in Salerno than in Naples.  At this point, you just can’t do anything about the situation but just say what a good story it will make…

2 espressos and lots of shared stories and delirious laughter later, we hop on the train to Rome, ticketless.  We all vowed not to speak a word of Italian until we reached our final destination, hoping to play the “pretty and dumb American girl” card if we ran into any trouble.  Everyone on the train to Rome is passed out and I snooze for a little bit.  Thankfully, the ticket controller never came around.  We arrive in Rome (again) at 6:40 and hop on the next train going to Genova at 6:55.  Yes, ticketless again.  All we wanted was just to get on a train and keep going, no more delays.

Okay, so here we are on this train to Genova.  Our original tickets were for the slow train, which left the previous night, and would have taken 9 hours.  The train we were now on was a fast one (so more expensive) and would only take 4 hours.  So, eventually the ticket controller comes by (luckily it’s a nice old guy), and we explain to him, in English, about how we missed our train in Naples, and we were lost, and Naples, and lost, Naples at night, Naples, Naples, Naples at night.  What a nice man, he said he’d only make us pay the difference in price for the ticket, which would be about 30 euro a person, or we could just get off at the next stop and buy tickets.  We tell him we’ll get off at the next stop.

But, well, we don’t get off.  Our plan: pretend to be asleep so if he comes by again, we can just tell him we fell asleep, it was an accident, we meant to get off, we haven’t slept in forever, we’ll get off at the next stop, we’re sorry, blah blah blah.  Luckily for us, he never comes back, although I spend the whole ride pretty paranoid.  We could have gotten in big trouble… but alas; we arrive safely to La Spezia Centrale at 10 on Friday and hop on a 5-minute train ride to Riomaggiore, the first town of the Cinque Terre.  After not sleeping the previous night, we essentially spend the day sleeping once checked into our apartment.  I peruse the town of Riomaggiore a little and sit on the rocks at the beach at the baby port, reading my book and taking pictures, soaking in the sun. 

Riomaggiore

As I stated previously, the Cinque Terre is part of the Italian Riviera.  Cinque Terre means the five lands.  It is technically a national park, composed of 5 small cities along the coast, connected by various hiking paths through the forest.  Riomaggiore is the furthest south, and then heading north, are Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterrosso. 

Saturday, we hike for 6 hours straight.  Mamma Mia, probably the hardest hike I’ve ever done.  Back in the fall, the Cinque Terre suffered some horrible landslides due to lots of rain, so they are still rebuilding/fixing some places.  We first hike along the coast on the Via dell’Amore, where lovers can hook on a lock on various spots and it secures their love for each other forever.  This leads to Manarola.  The coastal paths that go from Manorola to Corniglia and then Vernazza are all closed currently due to the landslides, so we instead hike up the mountain, and then down again to Vernazza, passing over Corniglia… woo, quite the hike. We then trek the final coastal path to Monterrosso to chill on the beach some before catching a train back to Riomaggiore to cook some pesto – my absolute favorite pasta and the staple of the Genovese. 

Town 1: Riomaggiore

Via dell'Amore

Via dell'Amore.  a little stormy the first day

Town 2: Manarola

Town 3: Corniglia.  The town on the hill

Corniglia

Other side of Corniglia

Town 4: Vernazza

Vernazza

Vernazza

On the way from Vernazza to Monterrosso

Town 5: Monterrosso

Easter Sunday we hop from town to town via the trains, quite tired from our hiking the day before, and explore the personality of each. 

And, alas, we head back to Siena Monday morning, but not disappointed to leave.  Siena is still my favorite place in Italy.

Well, spring break was definitely quite the adventure, but still very relaxing.  Aside from the sleepless night in Naples, I did manage to get lots of sleep and still do a lot.  I am quite happy I didn’t kill myself in trying to cram in 6 different places in 10 days for only a taste, but instead thoroughly explored 3 different places.  What I cannot fathom now is that I only have 3 weeks left in Italy. 

Allora, again with the 6 am flights…. We leave our apartment at 3 am, take a taxi to a different airport (El Prato this time… MUCH closer to the city center).  MY LAST RYAINAIR FLIGHT! WOOO!!!  They definitely didn’t make it easy for us though.  See, you are allotted only one carry on, and they MEAN IT – you can’t even be holding a clutch in your hand if you have a bookbag.  ONE CARRYON.  They are crazy.  And your bookbag/suitcase must fit in this tiny box thing, so here we are, stuffing everything we can into our clothes so our bookbags are either not too “big” or because we can’t fit everything in them to begin with.  Poor Veronica looks about 10 pounds fatter, rice cakes stuffed in each pocket, atleast 4 layers on, things stuffed down her pants.  Quite comical.  Luckily, we make it onto the plane without having to pay any extra fees.  Close call for Ashley, her suitcase just a little “too big” but she just hops in a different line and makes it on.  Phew.

Port of Napoli

We fly into Rome Ciampino and then take a bus for an hour to the train station.  Now, our ORIGINAL plan was to spend the day in Rome, THEN train to Naples, THEN ferry to Capri…. Uhhhh, NO.  We were crazy to think we could travel since 3 am and then sightsee Rome, and then Capri.  Luckily, we could change our ticket to an earlier train quite easily and we were on our way to Naples by 9:30.  Arriving in Naples by noon, we decide to walk to the port so we can see Naples… ummmm…. Yeah, there isn’t anything to see.

1. There is trash EVERYWHERE. 
2. Disgusting.
3.  It smells HORRIBLE.
4. I felt very uncomfortable/unsafe… and it was the middle of the day
5. Overall, pretty sketch

the Bay of Naples

Now, I know there are beautiful parts to Naples… but I honestly think it is most beautiful when you are on a ferry sailing away from it.  The view of the Bay of Naples is gorgeous and I think that is as close as I want to come again.  Naples is acclaimed to the best pizza in Italy, but we didn’t want to hang around to try it…

the Bay of Naples

And out of the filth and grim, we arrive in Paradise: the Isle of Capri.  After 12 hours of traveling, it is such a reward not only to arrive at our destination, but a bonus that it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  Over the next 3 days (Monday evening through Thursday evening), we exhaust every possible thing to do on Capri.  Originally, we intended to do Almafi, Capri, Positano, and Pompeii in this time period (always trying to do too much, I know.  But I’ve seriously learned my lesson), but after our traveling experiences prior to spring break, we decided not to push ourselves and utilize the break to sightsee and relax.  After all, we do have 3 ten page papers to write, completely in Italian, once back in Siena….

entering the Marina Grande of Capri

Capri has two towns, Capri and Anacapri (which means “above” Capri).  After getting off the ferry, we take a bus up to Anacapri and check into our bed and breakfast, Hotel Bussola – it is the perfect little place to stay, so elegantly decorated, clean, with breakfast included, and the owners are just the NICEST people ever.  They essentially planned out all the activities for us to do during our stay with directions and a map and everything.  We walk around the town of Anacapri, have some pretty baller pizza for dinner, and head in early for the night.

We leave early the next morning for the Grotta Azzurra.  Oh my word, everyone needs to see the Blue Grotto.  Lucky for us, it’s pretty close to Anacapri.  After taking the bus to the Grotto, Veronica, Kristina, Brenna, and I hop in a little canoe and within a minute we are already inside the Grotto.  You have to lie down in the canoe because the entrance is really tiny.  Once you’re inside, it’s like the water is glowing this bright bright blue.  Our canoe man, along with all the others, is singing in beautiful Italian, the music echoing in the cave.  Pretty romantic.  But our canoe man even let us swim in the water!!  Goodness gracious, it was freezing and I was in for about 30 seconds before scrambling back into the canoe, but still.  I swam in the Blue Grotto.  Take that.  I am so glad we got there early because when we came out, there were tons people lined up to go in and tourist season is just barely beginning.  There is a legend that if you bring your husband to the blue grotto…. And…. Well… your kids will have blue eyes.  Even if it doesn’t work, it still would make a cool story.

Kristina was SOOOOO excited for the Blue Grotto

Yeah, Veronica and I are pretty stoked too

entering the Grotta Azzurra

swimming in the blue grotto!

After the Blue Grotto, we take the chairlift up to Mount Solare, which provides the best view of the entire island.  It’s stunning, for you can see everywhere on the island practically.  We spend the rest of our day around Anacapri, topping off the night with a FABULOUS dinner – Gnocchi Gorgonzola, OH MY GOODNESS, best dinner I’ve had here. The wine, which I’m still trying to find so I can buy a bottle, Piedirosso di Tiberio, is the best wine I’ve had in Italy, I swear.

Anacapri!

the town of Anacapri

Anacapri

Capri side

Veronica, Me, Kristina, Brenna

Wednesday, we spend all day on the Capri side of the island.  We walk around the town some, then proceed on our hike, which is supposed to take and hour and a half.  Well, after we spend some time at the Arco Naturale, we go the wrong way, adding about 2 hours to our hike… but no worries, I saw even more of the island this way, so it’s all good in the end.  Near the end of the hike, we come to this little “rock beach” and soak up the last hours of sun laying on the rocks and jumping into the pretty cold water.  Finally back into the town of Capri, we visit the Giardino Agosto, a quaint and beautiful garden with yet another fantastic view.  Eating the best gelato ever, homemade limone e fragola, lemon and strawberry (the lemons, limoncello, etc. are famous on the island), we meet these two old Italian men from Capri, caprese, who are so proud of us for our actually being able to speak Italian, and not that poorly.  I swear all of the caprese people on the island are the nicest people in Italy. 

the rock beach we chilled on

WEE! but the water was freezing...

Giardino Agosto

Thursday, we do another hike, this one 3 hours, along the Anacapri side of the island.  It starts up by the blue grotto and goes all along the coast to Faro beach (which means lighthouse.  Yes, there is a big lighthouse there).  We finish our day shopping around Capri, souvenir hunting, before taking the 8:30pm ferry back to Naples.

Anacapri coast

Faro beach

Capri is definitely one of the loveliest places in Italy.  Most people only take day trips to Capri, but it’s a shame because you can’t do everything we did in just one day.  I feel as if I did everything possible on Capri, but I would still go back.  It’s a very cute and quaint mix of a boutique and nature; there is both lots of shopping and lots of outdoor activity.  It is just not possible to be anything but relaxed – there is nothing stressful or exhausting about Capri, except maybe being exhausted from hiking.  Capri also kind of reminds me of Neverland from Peter Pan or the world in Avatar.  The perfect little Italian paradise that feels almost like another world.

Next stop: Cinque Terre!