Italia Nostalgia, part 3

Another two weeks have gone by, so it's time for the third installment of Italia Nostalgia! For those of you who haven't read part one or part two yet, I studied abroad in Italy three summers ago. I started this mini series to share photos from my trip! Check out the other two posts to see my other photos if you haven't already, and stay tuned for the fourth and final part to be posted two weeks from today. Today's post is all about the places I visited in the region of Campania in southern Italy. I visited new places pretty much every weekend, and this trip I took during my second weekend there. It was a long weekend because June 2nd is a national holiday (Republic Day), so I had lots of time to explore!

Sorrento

Sorrento is south of Naples and is the gateway to all of the surrounding areas I visited. I didn't wander around Sorrento very much, but I can tell you that there are lemon and orange trees everywhere (have you ever had limoncello? It tastes like liquid Lemonhead candy) and it has beautiful ocean views. In Sorrento, I had this pizza thing filled with Nutella and topped with sugar. I don't think I've ever had so much sugar in my life!

Pompeii

I was so excited to visit the ruins of Pompeii! I think volcanoes are so cool, and it's amazing to see what an ancient city looked like and to learn about its destruction. It's actually quite large. I didn't get to walk through all of it after spending many (hot) hours there. There are a lot of details that are still intact and I think it's incredible! (The plaster cast below still has its teeth. Pretty cool, huh?!)

Ercolano

The ancient city of Herculaneum was also destroyed by pyroclastic flows from Mount Vesuvius. I really liked all of the ancient art still intact on the walls. It's hard to believe this place was once buried in 60 feet of mud!

Isola di Capri

The island of Capri (pronounced KAH-pree, not kuh-PREE) is located a short boat ride from Sorrento. It's home to two towns, Capri and Anacapri, as well as the Blue Grotto. I tried to visit the Blue Grotto, but I got there when a million other people were there, so the wait would have been two hours (on a rocking boat, no less). To top it off, the tide was coming in. At high tide, the little boats can't get under the rocks to go inside. I watched these people flatten themselves in order to get below the rocks! I have no idea how they got out... Anyway, I ended up spending most of my time in Capri after riding a bus through the narrowest streets ever in Anacapri. (I seriously thought the bus was going to go over the edge of the road and down the hillside when we passed other cars!)