Viva Italia - Part Due (Two)

Busabout 3-day Italian tour group shot
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My Italian adventure continues with a three-day southern Italy trip to Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, Amalfi Coast, and Ravello.  While still in the US, I found this great tour through Busabout (based in the UK) and booked it instantly.  It cost approximately $250 without accommodations, but included tour guide, tickets, and air-conditioned transportation.  Me and my fellow Busabout tour mates (approximately 25) were picked up at Camping Roma and greeted by our gregarious tour guide - Laura.

Symbol directing people to the red light district in Pompeii
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On our way to our first destination, we made our first pit stop at Auto Grill, which is essentially a mini supermarket/deli off the highway. It is worth noting that we were all confused with the purchase process.  If you want to order something, there are several steps you need to take:

You can tell you are in the red light district by looking at the protruding phallic symbols above the doorways

Step 1: Find what you want

Petrified body of one of Pompeii's slaves
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Step 2: Memorize it in Italian

Step 3: Queue up in the cashier line to pay for it

Step 4: Go back to your original spot during step one. Then queue up at the deli or cafe line (with your receipt) to pick up your item.

Quite inefficient, right?

Statues lining the masseuse room within the bath facility
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Pompeii - After the Auto Grille, we drove an hour to see the former city of Pompeii, which was buried under volcanic ash after Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. We took a 2 hour guided tour through only 1 of 8 sections.  Our guide took us to former residences, marketplaces, bath compounds, and the red light district.  You can tell you are in the red light district by looking at the protruding phallic symbols above the doorways.  Also, there is an elevated, carved penis along the walkway pointing towards the brothels.  Everyone took a photo of that! I saw a couple of petrified bodies - one could have been a slave since he wore a belt around his waist. We also toured several bath houses.  My favorite was the interior of one of the men's masseuse rooms.  There were sculptures marking the entire perimeter.  Between each sculpture was an indentation, where men used to place their garments. Quite beautiful!

Sampling limoncello in Sorrento
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Sorrento - We arrived at Camping Santa Fortunata in Sorrento shortly after visiting Pompeii. I originally reserved a tent, but upgraded to a small casetta instead.  After getting settled, the entire Busabout tour group gathered at 5:15pm to take a local bus (cost 1.30 €) to downtown Sorrento.  Note:  While on the bus, make sure you validate your ticket or you will be fined up to 6x the ticket price.

Sorrento is absolutely gorgeous!  If I could afford it, I would definitely live here.  It's an upscale town with plenty of character.  The foot traffic was heavy, but everyone was in a fantastic mood.  We went inside a gelati shop, where I tasted the most refreshing watermelon gelati I've had so far - and I've had A LOT!  Next we sampled Limoncello at Limoro Limoncello.  This is a common alcoholic lıqueur in Southern Italy.  I might add that it definitely has a kick to it - a whopping 35% alcoholic content! After our amazing pre-fixe (13.5 €) group dinner at il Leone Rosso, we gathered at a local karaoke bar, where my tour mates sang country, rock, and top 40 hits.  There isn't enough Limoncello in the world to get me to sing in front of strangers, so I remained a spectator. I had a great time nonetheless.

Just arrived on Capri Island!
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A few of us (Dorrine, Ronny, and I) waited for the bus for 45 minutes before reaching the campsite after midnight.  Our guide warned us that most locals are on "southern Italy" time so waiting is quite common here. The bus was 30 minutes late. Since my casetta was close to the pool, I couldn't sleep since there was a raging poolside party until well past 1am.  Lucky me!

Capri - The Isle of Capri is absolutely MAGNIFICENT!!!  After the somewhat rocky 40 minute ferry ride, we landed on Capri Island.  My tourmate, Dorrine and I decided to make the 1/2 hour uphill trek towards Capri town.  We unknowingly took the vehicle pathway instead. Luckily, it was still very early and there were hardly any vehicles.  Once in Capri town, we decided to board the local bus to Ana Capri to beat out all the other tourists who wanted to take the chair lifts to Mount Solaro (the highest point on the island). For 7€, we boarded the 1-person lifts (very similar to ski lifts), which takes approximately 12 minutes to reach the top.  Glad I didn't wear my flip flops since your feet are dangling the entire time. Once in a while I thought about the cable snapping since we had plenty of time to think and reflect on the way up! Once we took a few snapshots of the incredible views, we boarded our chair lifts for the 12-minute ride downhill to grab something to eat.  Note: We were strategic about taking the chair lift first thing in the morning (around 10am) since we knew there would be a LONG queue right before lunch time.  We were right!

Ana Capri chair lift to see the top of Mount Solaro
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Capri has many POSH stores, which we happily avoided.  Instead, we visited the Giardini Di Augusto - one of the main gardens on Capri Island overlooking the famous Faraglioni Rocks.  Back at Marina Grande (the primary port), we watched this man craft these custom sandals for a female customer.  Italy has many made-to-order shoe shops, where you can customize by color, size and type.  The prices can be steep (59€ and up).  It's even more expensive when you multiply those prices by 1.47 to get the US equivalent. Ouch!

Look at these HUGE lemons!
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The only thing I purchased at Capri was a roll of duct tape to patch up my borrowed back-pack.  The original patch came off during transit (Sorry Annie!).  There are many things to do on Capri Island such as visiting the Blue Grotto (closed that day due to high tides) and lounging on the beach.  The beach was extremely packed - every square inch was filled with bodies.  Looked quite uncomfortable.

Back at the campsite, we all met for our last group meal at the on-site restaurant.  I split a bottle of Pinot Grigio with my busmate Sue and that complimented my pizza marguerita and salad dinner. Later that night, we were  entertained by a poolside Cabaret show. I wasn't at the pool, but I could hear plenty of amplified screaming followed by the Benny Hill theme song every 10 minutes.  Many of us couldn't go to sleep since this went on for hours!  My poor tour guide's cabin was right next to the pool so she looked just as bleary-eyed as I did the following morning.

In front of the Faglioni Rocks
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Amalfi Coast - Left the campsite at 7:30am for the extremely windy drive down the Amalfi Coastline.  We stopped at a hill overlooking the town of Positano, where °Only You° was filmed.  Speaking of filming, a production crew stopped traffic in the middle of the two-lane road to build part of the set.  This created a small traffic jam on the hillside. What were they thinking?  After we managed to get through, we stopped at Amalfi for 2 1/2 hours to roam around and visit the boutiques and restaurants throughout the town.  I decided to get a latte macchiato and two miniature chocolate croissants and spend most of my time journal writing.  I also walked into a few souvenier/mini-market shops to grab some water, but that's about it.  While the town of Amalfi is beautiful, I didn't have that same jaw-dropping feeling that I had when I visited Capri.

The town of Amalfi
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Ravello - We left Amalfi just as the tour buses started to pile up along the hillside.  Thank goodness we were driving in the opposite direction.  We managed to reach the smaller, less frequented town of Ravello.  The tour guide told us that Ravello has inspired many great writers such as Virginia Wolfe.  I can see why.  The town is very serene and quite calming!  Most of us spent time sitting on a bench, getting to know each other while eating our gelati.  Ravello also has a stunning theatre, where many musical performances are held.  We had less than an hour in Ravello, not enough time to tour the facility, where the musical stage is located. But I heard it is quite lovely, especially at night.

My casetta at Camping Santa Fortunata- It was an OVEN in there!
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Overall, the Busabout tour was well-organized and truly amazing!  I met and interacted with many incredible people from the US, Australia, UK, New Zealand, etc. I heard that Busabout hosts tours all over the world.  One of the best organized tours I've had thus far.  Highly recommend it!

After 4 hours, I am back at Camping Roma - my FAVORITE accomodation.  Grabbed some dinner at the mini-mart and went to the laundrymat to wash my clothes.  Two months into my trip, I am ready to burn everything, and I'm looking slightly disheveled lately.  I really wish I packed the Febreeze (just kidding, kinda!).  I also purchased my 4th pair of sunglasses at the campsite market for only 5€.  I keep breaking my glasses so I hope this is the last pair I have to purchase on this trip.  Tomorrow, I will take the Eurostar to Florence and continue my Italian journey.  I LOVE ITALY!  Viva Italia!