Italia: Rome & Amalfi Coast

Thanks to the awesome French holiday schedule, we were able to take our first week-long trip this past week!  I think one of the parents at school this morning put it best, "How lucky are we that we can just travel to these countries as if it's another state?"  And how right she is--kids went to Monaco, Corsica, and Morocco to name a few.  I'm feeling very blessed that we have this wonderful opportunity to visit so many places.  Nick and I flew into Rome, headed to the Amalfi Coast, then to the Cinque Terre, and finally to Lake Como before taking the train back to Paris.  It was a busy 8 days, but so much fun!!  I few things I realized on this trip:

Mine's the bigger one, but
I'm still pretty proud of myself!

~Gelato really is the best ice cream anywhere. period.
~the French just really don't seem to care about checking
train tickets on high speed trains
~Double (and triple) check what train stations all your trains
leave from more than an hour before your train...
~it really is possible to pack everything in a backpack for 8 days!

Rome

We flew into Rome late Friday night and after a 110mph taxi ride (no joke), arrived at our hotel.  We woke up bright and early Saturday to explore the sights of Rome.  Since we knew there was a chance of rain for the following day, we packed our day pretty tight with sight-seeing and put on some serious miles walking!  We started at the Vatican Museum, and thanks to online tickets, were able to skip the mile long line (I still don't understand why people don't buy tickets online to this stuff!).  We wandered through the museum and eventually ended at the Sistene Chapel.  The painting on the ceiling and walls is pretty impressive in there, but of course pictures were not allowed.  But, you should probably check out the rest of our Rome pictures here (hint, hint).  From the Vatican we entered St. Peter's Basilica, which was very crowded but quite beautiful.  We didn't spot the Pope, but it was pretty cool to think of all the important events that happened here in history!

Having fun at the Vatican

After St. Peter's we made a quick stop at the hotel to change clothes--no more covered shoulders and knees on this hot day!!  One delicious pasta lunch later and we were on our way to the Roman Forum and Colesseum.  I know I've mentioned this before, but if you plan on coming to Europe, you need to download Rick Steves' free app for tours!  We used it so many times on this trip and made our visits much more informative without having to pay for audio guides.

The Forum and Palatine Hill (the "birthplace" of Rome) was way more interesting than we anticipated it being, despite the fact that we were sweating walking around.  It's pretty cool to imagine the Romans walking in this area and how fancy and elaborate these buildings were back in the day!

Part of the old Basilica in Roman times

That's Rick Steves in our ears!

Roman Forum

Colosseum: super awesome and again, crazy to think about the Romans preparing for battle beneath the floor and other Roman spectators climbing the same stairs we were standing on.  The fact that they were able to create such a big stadium with limited technology is also quite amazing.

Making a wish!

Desert at Sophia..mmmm

That night we checked out the Trevi Fountain (and made some wishes) and the Spanish Steps before an amazing meal at Sophia.  I think we both agreed this was our favorite meal of the entire trip, and it was pretty reasonably priced for the deliciousness of the food!  I highly recommend if you are ever in Rome!  Of course, I still had room for gelato before the night was over! :)

Sunday, we woke up to gray skies and rain, so we were glad that we had done all of our "must-sees" the day before.  We did check out the Pantheon, which is designed with a hole in the roof, so we got to see how the rain comes in and then drains through the floor.  Then we took a walk through the Trastevere neighborhood, which is much quieter and has more of a "local" Rome feel. (Although there's still tourists of course!)  We got caught in a downpour so sat for several hours drinking hot chocolate and people watching.  It was pretty entertaining to watch the guys who usually sell souvenirs try to sell umbrellas to everyone walking by.  I'm pretty sure they make more money in the rain than they do other times!

Trastevere

We got lucky and around dinner time the weather cleared up enough that we were able to take advantage of some amazing views from the top of the Victor Emmanuel Memorial.  Sadly, they closed before sunset, but we added to our mileage count for the trip by walking from the Colesseum to St. Peter's for some night pictures! :)

Summary:  All in all we loved Rome!  Honestly, I loved Florence so much that I didn't think another big Italian city could even come close, but Rome did!  We would definitely go back and explore more of the lesser-known areas of Rome.  The other thing we loved was that even though it's a big city, it's very compact, which made it much easier to walk places (combined with the fact that there's only 2 metro lines).  I'd definitely recommend checking out Rome if you're ever in Italy, just be prepared to put on your walking shoes, and choose a hotel in the middle of everything!

Be sure to check out our other Rome pictures here.

Pompeii and Amalfi Coast

Early Monday morning, we hopped on the train to Sorrento.  I'll just say that walking 1.5+ miles with heavy packs in humid weather is not my ideal way to start the morning, but Nick claims the fact that is was the only 45 minutes it wasn't raining means we were supposed to walk and not take a cab. ;)  Conveniently, the train to Sorrento, is the same one that goes to Pompeii so we made a few hour detour there to check out the sights.  After
fighting off the pushy German elderly tourists and walking the old, uneven roads with heavy packs and 1 shared umbrella in the on and off rain, I was more than ready to go after a few hours.  I think Nick enjoyed Pompeii more than I did, I just kept expecting to see things under ash!  I mean, I know the archaeologists have dug it out, but I really wanted to see some things still in ash!  Oh well, it was still a cool experience! :)

We were greeted in Sorrento with the sun!!! and after checking into our hotel decided to take the bus along the coast while the sun was out.  All I have to say is, WOW!  The views on this road were spectacular and breath-taking.  Going into it, I was more excited about this part of the trip than Nick, but as soon as he saw the scenery, he was as awe-inspired as I was.  The pictures really don't do justice to the beauty of the water and cities sitting on the cliffs.  Despite a few close calls with some cars on tight corners, I wasn't as terrified of the drive as I thought I'd be.  I think being in my own car would've been a different story.

Rain & Sun made for some beautiful photos!

We made it back to Sorrento in time to see a beautiful sunset as we ate dinner on the water.  I tried to be adventurous and order one of their signature dishes with lots of seafood (octopus, scallops, etc.).  I really only like fish, but after eating pig's feet in Paris and loving it, I thought I'd probably like this too.  Not so much...couldn't get over how it all looked like what it does in the ocean.  Lesson learned, but at least I had a beautiful view!



Day 2 in the area, we took the ferry to Capri.  The forecast was for beautiful, sunny skies, but when we arrived there was a very large, very dark cloud hovering over the entire island.  After waiting it out for a few hours, it did finally turn sunny and we decided to rent a scooter for the day.  This is probably the best money we spent on the trip--we had a blast zipping around and checking out all the sights, even some that no tourists were at!  After much debate, we decided not to go to the Blue Grotto--even though a lot of people said it was beautiful, we decided that for 2 minutes inside it wasn't worth the crazy amount of money-a bit of a tourist trap.  We both feel the money spent on the scooter was way better and while recommend it to anyone who visits Capri.


We did take the chairlift to the highest point on the island, and the views were incredible, even if slightly obscured with the low clouds and fog.  All in all Capri is a truly beautiful island with so many hidden vistas.

View from the top

Yep, that's really the color of the water!

From Capri, we took the ferry to Positano, which is absolutely stunning to approach from the water.  We enjoyed some gelato on the beach (don't judge, I know we ate a lot of gelato on this trip!) and explored the village before catching the PACKED bus back to Sorrento.  We ate dinner at a local restaurant and went to bed pretty early in anticipation of our very early morning the next day.


Summary:  This is a very beautiful area, and really the pictures don't do it justice.  But, be sure to check out the rest of our Amalfi pictures here.  Capri and Positano were my favorites.  If you go, I think you have to rent a scooter somewhere in the area.  It allows you to enjoy all the pretty lookouts in such a fun way!
I'll leave you with one last view of Positano...

Keep reading about Cinque Terre and Lake Como here.