School Sponsored Trip to Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri and Naples


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April 8th 2012
Published: April 8th 2012
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Happy Easter!!! Buona Pasqua 😊 I'm currently in Catania, Sicily writing this blog. We came here for Easter break from Friday- Monday but that will be a later blog (at some point).

Last week, we (Me, Carrie and Abby) went with about 40-ish other students from Umbra to Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri and Naples. Sounds familiar, don't you think? The trip the week before that included these same places, but not Capri and Naples.

We got on the bus at the ridiculous hour of 6:30am. I'm getting used to these. Wait to hear what we had to do for this trip..

We drove in a big bus down to Pompeii and were split into 2 groups and given a tour of a the city...AGAIN. Yawn. The tour wasn't even that great. And it's not like I've seen it all before/learned about it all before, Oh wait, I have.

After that there was a group decision to stay in Pompeii for lunch. Whoever decided that (not me) was nuts because it was obvious that outside Pompeii is a tourist trap with not even great food. But, democracy won. So we had to sit there for about an hour until we could hop back on the bus and head for our hotel in Sorrento.

The Hotel Michelangelo was actually a really nice place. Sorrento was pretty and had orange and lemon trees everywhere you turned. That day we had some time to explore the city and stumbled on a lemon and orange grove! We ended up buying some and eating them right there. It reminded me of being at home and going apple picking.

That night we ate dinner at the hotel. I had fish, but it wasn't anything worthy of writing about. That night we went straight to bed because we were exhausted. The next morning we had to wake up early again to catch a ferry to Capri.

While in Capri, which was actually really beautiful, we went on a boat tour of the island. It was 16 euro and was worth it for that much. However, they didn't make it clear that if you wanted to go in the Blue Grotto you had to pay 12.50 euro more. Sneaky! We decided against it. You had to get in a tiny row boat and were only in the grotto for about 2 minutes. Not worth it.

To describe Capri, I would use the words, "a work out." We ate a relly great lunch, walked around by the water, and then saw a sign to go to the city and center. We followed it immediately. Little did we know that it was about a 20 minute (probably more actually) walk up stairs. We were struggling seeing how it was around noon, heat of the day, full from lunch and, did I mention, it was UP STAIRS? We were lauging and crying at the same time it was so miserable.

When we finally reached the top, sweating and panting and looking like death, we saw a lot of other Umbra students looking quite in tact and enjoying drinks. We asked them if they climed all the way up to the top like we just did.

Of course they didn't. There was a 1.80 euro bus that brought them up. OH!! We probably burned 180 calories just by walking up there. Anyway, we finally made it to the city center in one piece. It was actually a really nice view of the ocean and we got to walk around the rest of Capri, which has
before heading to Capribefore heading to Capribefore heading to Capri

Abby, Me, Carrie
tons of expensive shops and nice hotels, all balancing on the island cliffs.

We ran into the 2 staff members who came with us on the trip while they were having lunch. They suggested following this road "down there" that would bring us to the ocean for some great pics. Of course we listened to them and did just that. Surprisingly (or not so much at this point) the walk to the bottom was seriously part of a triathalon. Maybe I'm being dramatic because I was in jeans and sandals, but it was tough. We finally made it to the bottom though and were right on the water. We DID get some great pics but definitely had to work for them.

I will not document the climb up, for it was even more of a work out.

After this challenge we rewarded ourselves with gelato. And a fried ball of rice. And a fried grilled cheese with ricotta and mozzarella 😊 gotta love southern Italy.

After a while longer we got back on the bus that brought us back to Sorrento where we had another un-noteworthy dinner. People were actually pretty disappointed. We went to bed early again because the next day we had to get on the bus and head for Naples.

On the bus that morning, we were immediately greeted by 2 tour guides who told us they would explain everything we were about to see on our drive from Sorrento to Naples. Except, the minute everyone sat down, we immediately fell asleep. Once we arrived in the city of Naples, we were shown some random landmarks on the outside of the city center.

We were then brought into the city by the tour guides. They showed us the Royal Palace and a main square, told us to avoid a certain area, and told us we had to be back in 2 hours to get back on the bus. We were all kind of clueless. So we walked around and found a place for pizza that ended up being pretty good. After that we walked back to the bus and drove back to Perugia.

The three of us agreed that this trip was not really worth what we (our parents) paid for. The dinners weren't great, we didn't need that bus tour, and the tour of Pompeii wasn't stellar. We felt we could have done the same trip on our own, but for much less money. Obviously we wouldn't have had that nice of a hotel, but still. At least I got to see all those places. Everything was beautiful and I'm happy I got to go on the trip.

I hope everyone (anyone????) reading this had a great Easter. Today I missed my family so much! I love when we have Easter at our house and family comes over for dinner. Today was definitely not the same. Church was completely different, too. But, I did see these pastries that my grandma used to make so that made me extra happy 😊 I got to eat one too. my parents are coming to Perugia on Tuesday! I cannot wait to see them! 19 more days until I come home yayyy. Ciao for meow 😊 xo


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Lunch in CapriLunch in Capri
Lunch in Capri

Spaghetti Carbonara yumm
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(more alive)
me!me!
me!

in Capri


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