*sigh*
Well, it’s over. This is the LAST blog post in my Italy Travel Diary series. You may be wondering why I’m lumping 4 locations into 1 post, and it’s because these we visited these 4 locations in matter of 5 days, and I was really sick for those 5 days so I actually did not do as much as the others. Let’s start with Naples!
NAPLES (or Napoli in Italian)
Where we stayed: We stayed at an amazing AirBnB in the heart of the city. It was super close to public transportation and just a short walk away from a fun pedestrian street that’s full of night life.
What we did: We actually didn’t enjoy the city of Naples as much as I thought we would. It was kind of dirty and gritty and I felt like for me personally, I could have skipped it altogether. However, we did visit the pedestrian street areas where we had the “best pizza in Italy” at Pizzeria Di Matteo. It was soooo good and the portions were freaking huge! You have to check it out if you ever get to Naples! We also were able to take a hydrofoil to the island of Ischia, which brings me to our next location!
ISCHIA
Ischia is a small island off the coast of Naples that we visited on a day trip during our stay in Naples. It takes about an hour on a hydrofoil to get there, or about an hour and a half to two hours on a traditional ferry. There is tons to do in Ischia! You can walk about the main town area for some shopping (definitely try the limoncello and the meloncello here, it’s amazing!), you can visit Castello Aragonese that used to be a prison, or you can enjoy one of the numerous beaches the island has to offer! My group actually did all of these things in the day we were there. Amy and I weren’t super interested in touring the castello so we walked around the town and did some shopping and had lunch, while Colleen and Mike learned all about the history of Ischia lol. After we all met back up again, we took a taxi to Negombo Beach, which is on the North side of the island. It was a beautiful beach, but it is a private beach so you have to pay 33 euro each to use it (kind of a bummer). Also, the taxi rides are pretty expensive, we paid 25 and 35 euro each time we took a taxi, and we had to take a taxi three different times, which definitely added up. So if you are going to visit Ischia, I would keep in mind that it is spendy, but it’s beautiful and definitely worth splurging for!
VIETRI SUL MARE (Amalfi Coast)
After we spent 2 nights in Naples, we took a train to Vietri Sul Mare, a tiny little town on the Southern Amalfi Coast, about an 8 minutes bus ride from Salerno. This little coastal town was very quaint, and it definitely gave us a taste of what small town living in Italy was like, as there weren’t very many tourists at all.
Where we stayed: We stayed about another AirBnB in Vietri Sul Mare. It was quite small, and probably one of my least favorites that we stayed in, just because it was very tiny and the beds were extremely uncomfortable. Colleen and I slept on the pull out couch, and I could feel the metal rungs digging in to me no matter which position or where I laid. This was a HUGE bummer for me since I spent most of the 2 days we were there in bed with a raging fever. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find this AirBnB that we stayed at online and I can’t link it for you guys, sorry!
What we did: Well, I slept most of the 2 days we were there, until the last night when Colleen dragged me out of bed and made me go to dinner with her. It’s probably a good thing that she did, I needed some fresh air 🙂 But the other three went to Pompeii for the day and I am SO BUMMED that I was sick because Pompeii is definitely on my bucket list! That’s OK though, next time I am in Italy I will definitely make it there!
ROME (or Roma in Italian)
Last but definitely not least….Rome!!! We unfortunately only had about 12 hours in Rome, because our train actually broke down in Naples for a little over an hour, and the journey from Vietri Sul Mare to Rome took a pretty long time anyways. We had to walk from our apartment to a little shop in the next town over to buy a bus ticket to Salerno, then we had to take a train from Salerno to Rome, then we had to walk about an hour from the Roma Centrale to our apartment haha. Lots of travelling that day! But the best thing about walking from the train station in Rome was that we got to see the Colosseum, even if we weren’t able to go inside (it was a magnificent sight!).
Where we stayed: We stayed in an absolutely beautiful apartment right along the river. We booked the apartment through AirBnB and it was by far the best apartment that we stayed in during the entire trip, it was newly remodeled and you could tell that the host put a lot of thought in to how she decorated it. If you ever make it to Rome, definitely check this place out!
What we did: The four of us walked along the river after we checked in to our apartment and just kind of meandered around for a bit. After awhile, Amy and Mike decided they were tired and wanted to go back to the room, so Colleen and I kept going on our own and had quite the adventure! We first decided to grab a glass of prosecco, then we shopped around for several hours since it was our last day in Rome and we still had some gifts we wanted to pick up. After we were all shopped out and it was getting dark, we decided to grab a some dinner at a local wine bar we came across. The owner was very nice, he gave us a map of the city and some advice on what we should do with our one and only night in Rome, and after we finished eating, we decided to do something a little crazy! We rented a taxi and asked the taxi driver to just take us around to a bunch of historic sites in Rome, so that we could hop out and take a picture and then go on to the next site! He was really cool about it, and he even pointed out different buildings along the way and told us what there were. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to spend our last night in Rome and Italy!
xo,
B
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