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Sorrento, I believe, is my absolute favorite city of all the ones we've visited so far in Italy. It's got the excitement of Rome but the slight calmness of Tuscania - the perfect balance. I mean, there's so much local culture here like with the all the citrus and lemon that the town is just brimming with energy. We arrived in Sorrento and looked out from the balcony of the Circumvesuviana station. I was awed by the colors - the green, yellow, and orange of the lemon and orange trees growing in the streets and the bright purple and magenta of all the flowers pouring off people's balconies and the houses themselves - each home looked like a gorgeous wedding cake - the smooth pink and yellow ore cream sides decorated with white lace trimming - gorgeous, bright, sunny, and lively - my kinda town! Anyway, as I stood taking it all in, Gab spotted our hotel - Hotel Nice, just a 2 minute walk from the station - the perfect location. We checked in and checked out our hotel…quite charming! The walls were bright lavender and violet and adorned with bright framed photographs of artsy beach and water shots - love it! Our hotel was perfect for what we each paid (25 euro a night). We got one air conditioned room with one queen size bed and 1 bunk bed set. Emily and I got the queen while Gab and Josh took the bunks. The room was small but we had a balcony with a great view and a functional, clean bathroom - what more did a bunch of college kids need? We spent the evening exploring the town that we'd be spending the weekend in - peeking in shops and making sure to hit up all the highlights in Gabrielle's travel guide book like the Frontier club (where frisky old timers go apparently). We found a lemon grove which was super cool. It was locally owned and just beautiful. The air was so thick with the scent of citrus and it took everything in me to stop myself from plucking one of the numerous lemons off the trees - I mean, they were just DRIPPING with fruit! As I walked through, I got a sudden idea: when I get home, I'm going to buy a lemon, cut it in slices, and coat the slices in sugar, and then freeze them - sweet treat perhaps?


Anyway, at the end of the orchard was this little gift shop - the wooden shelves were lined with lemon, mandarin, and orange marmalade, black licorice, and lemon, basil, orange, walnut, and blueberry limoncellos. I got to try a few -yum! We continued on our way trying to find Trattoria Emilia - partly because it's got Emily's name in it, mostly because Gab's book pointed it out as being delicious and cheap for weary travelers looking for dinner. As we walked along the street, the horizon suddenly opened up to one of the most beautiful seaside scenes I have ever seen. The water moved in a mellow and beautiful way, cool and gray lapping up on the shore below us - the sun hung lazily above the edge of the sea in the distance wearing a cloak of clouds. Colorful ships of every size dotted the pier. We all stopped to just breath the sight in.

We walked for about 10 minutes more until we found the restaurant, complete with blue and white checkered tablecloths simply waiting for us on the sandy beach below. What wonderful luck - our restaurant was right on the water! The prices were decent so I ordered gnocchi with clams - quite possibly one of the best pasta dishes I've had this entire trip! The gnocchi was deliciously light and I've never had clams before, but these were great! We took our time with dinner - eating the Italian way - slow and filled with conversation, just chilling and watching the sunset.
After dinner, and quite happily full after a day of traveling and walking , we just walked along the beach and found a great bench to just sit and watch the waves from. Now night time, the navy water was speckled from the light of the moon and the golden yellow lights of the restaurants nearby. The waves just kind of lapped the shore so sweetly - almost lulling me to sleep right then and there. It was just so…tranquil. I wish I could bring that back with me to the States. I mean, one of the reasons I love this trip is because I have the opportunity to go on all these random adventures. I absolutely love family vacations but I don't really ever get to wander around by myself or appreciate little beauties like this one. If there's anything I could bring back, it would be the magic of these moments. I wish I could just bottle up the jasmine, lemon soaked air and the sound of the waves crashing softly on the beach, and taste of the sweet melty deliciousness of that first lick of gelato just for you.

Anyway, speaking of gelato, Gelata couldn't come all the way to Sorrento and not try some so we went to Gelato Primavera - a place where Gab's book boasts all sorts of famous people that graced the walks for the island go. There, oh holy goodness, I cannot even being to describe how happy Gelata was! The guidebook promised 7- different flavors daily…they only had like 30 or so but that's still very impressive! The lady at the counter was kinda snippy which made me a bit upset…giving out gelato is like giving out love…there should only be good intentions there! In any case, after quite the taste test, I discovered my favorites - Torronchino nougat and Kinderbuono candy bar, and Macadamia nut…oh heaven! We walked around for a bit after that since it was the first day of FIFA, I'm sure all of Italy was buzzing with pride let alone Sorrento - the major streets and flags and colors up everywhere - there was even a little commemorative parade complete with little elementary school kids in patriotic colors. Of course, when we wanted to go to sleep, our bit of town had a mini black out - which meant that we were outta luck when it came to lights, air conditioning, and plumbing for the night. What an adventure eh? I thanked God that I have such an amazing dad thought - because he made sure I brought a flashlight to Italy and more importantly instilled within me the idea to always have it with me. guess who saved the day?? (Thanks daddy!)
For the amount we paid for our hotel, the breakfast was really well worth in - unlimited cereal, yogurt, tea biscuits, nutella, croissants, and beverages. It felt nice to have a filling breakfast before starting a very full day. We bought our ferry tickets that’s would take us to Capri and boarded on time. They didn't really have any seating or anything on the top deck so we found some airplane like seating inside the cabin. The ride took about 40-50 minutes (perfect time for a nap). I felt very excited for Gabrielle when we made it to the island - she's been waiting to come here for forever! We looked around for a bit but then, seeking and adventure, I just started to lead the way (of course, the Peter Pan song "following the leader" came on in my head at that moment and of course, I insisted upon skipping around and acting it out). We hiked for a while up the mountain until we reached Capri Town - that was really ool although it was super clear how touristy this place was looking at the jacked up high prices. We took a bus up to Anacapri, the older town on the very top of the mountain. After exploring around there and grabbing lunch, we took another bus down to the Blue Grotto (one of the main attractions at Capri).

We waited quite a while in a long line which gave Gab and I ample time to somehow put on our bathing suits with all our other clothes still on - some American tourists informed us that if we're lucky, we'll be able to swim in the Blue Grotto! Soon after that, all 4 of us boarded this small boat and we had to bend down so as to not hit our heads when the boatman led us in through this tiny entrance into this semi-underwater cave. The thing about the grotto is that it's this luminescent brilliant blue color, completely naturally. Gab showed me pictures and it promised to be amazing. We entered the cave while our boatman sang a pretty song in Italian about the cave and we admired how gorgeous the cerulean water looked like - the purest cyan blue ever. He turned our boat around heading toward the only entrance/exist after about a minute in the cave. I asked if we could jump in and he said "yes as long as you pay your boatman a hefty tip" and since Gab's book specifically warned us against this, I decided not to push it and instead loewred my head for the exit. Was the Blue Grotto cool? Yes. Was it worth 11.50 euro? Absolutely not! Oh well - I guess it was one of those once in a life time things. We wanted to save as much money on transportation as we could so we tried to find a way to walk back down to the Marina Grande where our ferry had docked earlier - no such luck! So we decided to go on a bit of an adventure and proceeded to play follow the leader…all the ay up to Anacapri! We literally hiked from sea level to the top of the mountain in ridiculously hot weather. I loved every second! In all aspects, it was great - a beautiful green, scenic route, no noisy tourists, a great workout, and good bonding time with the group…yes my feet ached a little bit but that was all part of the fun! We hydrated and rested in Anacapri and caught the only bus heading to Marina Grande. Our ferry was at 6:15 pm so by the time we made it to the port, we had a remaining hour to spend just stopping in stores that we missed and saying farewell to Capri.
Back in Sorrento, we had a similar night as the one before (just minus the black out this time).
The next morning was very chill. We took a slow morning seeing as we'd have a heavy day of traveling later on. We did some last minute souvenir shopping (hello 2 new scarves!) and checked out of our hotel. Gabrielle and I actually went to a really cool church in town - it was beautiful and the choir sung really fun songs. By the time we finished lunch, it was time to board the Circumvesuviana back to Naples again…and pretty much the entire return journey was a repeat of the departure journey (complete with another sprint for the train in Rome Central Station with a 15 minute layover) just in reverse. I couldn’t believe it when we made it back to Tuscania safe and sound! What a great weekend…and such a cool traveling experience!