Monday, October 19, 2009

Amalfi Coast

This past weekend was the school trip to the Amalfi Coast. We left Thursday at 4 pm for what was supposed to be a five hour trip down to the town of Sorrento, the trip ended up taking seven hours. We got to the campground where we were staying at 11 pm. We were scheduled to eat dinner at 9 pm at the Campground Restaurant. Lucky for us they're willing to wait for a group of 130 people who will makeup the largest single group they've seen probably since Gonzaga was there last. the dinner was actually much better that I was expecting considering that we were to hours late to a "campground" restaurant, actually it was good enough that I decided to go back to them for dinner the next night. We weren't able to move in to our cabin until 1am. The campground had been smart and turned on the heater before we moved in, but with the recent temperature drop and the thin walls of our cabin we were still quite cold on our first night.

On the first day that I was in Sorrento, I went with a group of people around the Amalfi Coast. We took the bus all the way to the city of Amalfi. While in Amalfi we hiked up to a lemon grove and went to the local church and saw a collection of their religious historical items. After we left Amalfi, we went to the small town of Positano for lunch, we found a nice place just off the main street that seemed inviting enough, I had the quattro formaggi pizza, again, it has become one of my favorites. After that it was time for the hour long bus ride back to Sorrento. We took a little longer than we planned so we didn't get to see to much of Sorrento but it is not as quaint of a town as the other two. For dinner we stayed at the campground restaurant, it had been delicious the night before and was very reasonably priced so we tried it again. After that it was time to call it a night, it was quite a walk back into town so we just stayed in.

On Saturday I went to the island of Capri, it is a beautiful island famous for it's Blue Grotto. We didn't get to go to the Blue Grotto while we were on the island because the weather was just to bad for the boats to try to get close to the grotto. The bad weather included rain, which shut down the only other major attraction on the island, besides shopping of course, the chair lift to the top of the Monte Solarno. From the top you can see the entire island, it was closed most of the day, but I was one of the few who was able to go up the chair lift and get to see the entire island from that vantage point. There were only a limited number of ferries to get off the island, we ended up having to wait 'til 6:15 to catch the last one back to the main land. After that we took the advise of one of the other students and went to a restaurant called Bufalito, and I had pasta with Water Buffalo meat. After that it was off to the Irish Pub to watch college football and celebrate Kepfer's 21st birthday, we ended up at a karaoke bar singing Grease and Journey.

On our way back on Sunday we stopped at Pompeii and had a tour of the ancient city. The drive back took as long if not longer. I was supposed to meet some of mom's work friends who were in Italy for dinner or gelato but I wasn't back until 9 and didn't have a chance, but that is okay because the entire pensione ordered Il Panda, the best/cheapest Chinese food in Florence, and I worked on my Italian homework.

PS: I got my flu shot so you don't have to worry anymore.

In the church in Amalfi

Peeking through a relic

View from the chair lift

Guys at the top

Father Brian and I at the top

Whole Group at the top

Us in Positano

Karaoke bar for Kepfer's Birthday

Mass at Pompeii

3 comments:

  1. These are places I've read about in books -- how fun to see a glimpse of your visit.

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  2. Yeah! We got to see your face in the pictures. Father Brian looks quite young. If you still had your facial hair, maybe younger than you.
    I made Amalfi Garbanzo Bean Soup for dinner (from my crock pot recipe book) in your honor. We all liked it.
    Love,
    Mom

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  3. Father Brian is 34, he just had his birthday

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