Capri, “L’isola del Sole”

(From 11/23/10)

Knowing this weekend was our last travel break was sad and exciting. It was sad because now, I only have one more hostel adventure, one more time exploring an Italian city, one more time travelling with newly made friends, one more weekend here, in Italy. It was exciting because the days until my departure are quickly winding down, and soon I will be home in America, embracing people my heart has been aching to see for three months. Study abroad has ruined me. It has given me a taste for new things, things that aren’t attained without some difficulty. I’ve acquired a fondness for long train rides, for adventure, for the nightly walk along the corso with friends. I’ve developed a taste for homemade pasta, for cappuccino and caffè, for art museums, for wine, for the Italian language. On the other hand, words cannot express how thrilled I am that in 16 short days I will no longer need to stay up until 2 am every night doing homework, or to strain myself to understand people talking to me, or to survive with only five long sleeved shirts and two pairs of jeans. I cannot wait until I can talk to my family without having to calculate a six hour time difference, until I can see my boyfriend’s face, until I can go places without walking in the rain, until I can eat something other than pasta. For this weekend, however, all these things I tried to put out of my mind and focus on fully enjoying the experience. I wasn’t completely successful, but I did have quite an eventful trip.

Meredith H., Brianna and I traversed to Sorrento, where we soaked in Italy’s beautiful southern coast and took two day trips, to Pompeii and the Island of Capri. I think we’ve become more comfortable and relaxed about travelling as the semester has progressed because on our first trip we were paranoid about missing trains, had the bus schedule memorized by heart, and had worked out every detail, almost down to what restaurant we would eat at for each meal. This trip, however, we made reservations at a hostel, purchased our train tickets to Naples and back, but that was all. Upon arrival at the Naples train station, we had to figure out how to get from Naples to our hostel in Sorrento, a sizeable distance. It turned out to be much, much easier than anticipated, because there is one small train line that runs from Naples to Sorrento, with lots of stops in between. After the hour long train to Sorrento, we realized that our map of the town was very poor and we did not know exactly where our hostel was. But finding the hostel also turned out to be very easy because there were signs directing us to it from the train station. It was a short walk, and we were very pleased that we found it so easily.

Later that day, we hopped back on the train to visit Pompeii. Pompeii was massive—much, much larger than I expected. It makes sense, considering that it was a city, but it was still quite large. We walked through crumbled walls and aging columns, saw faded frescoes and a few body casts. It was difficult to imagine a time when Pompeii thrived with life and was inhabited by anything other than stone ruins and homeless dogs. As we walked through, it started to rain. We were expecting this from the weather forecast, but it still was not ideal sight-seeing conditions. As we were walking towards the exit to leave, it began to pour and by the time we left we were very wet.

After being rained on in Pompeii, just as the weatherman had predicted, we expected Saturday to be 66 degrees and sunny, also as the weatherman had predicted. However, we were very disappointed to wake up and find it to be much cooler than 66 degrees, but decided to bundle up and make the best of it. The previous night we asked our waiter, “How do you get to Capri?” We went down to the port as he had suggested and found the ticket booth for the hydrofoils easily. In about 20 minutes, we were sitting on the top deck of the boat enjoying the breeze and the view of Sorrento’s gorgeous coast. In the distance, the sky was gray and we could actually see the rain falling. Jokingly, we said it was looming forebodingly over our trip to Capri, but dismissed it as nothing more than a light, passing shower and nothing to worry about.

Capri was certainly very beautiful. When we landed it was slightly stressful navigating through the herds of tourists and avoiding the people offering us 20 euro bus tours or personal taxis exploring the island. Instead, we found free maps and used public transportation for 1.40 euro a ride. First we got to ride a special cable car up to Capri, and after that we rode buses winding around narrow, curvy roads, with only a thin metal bar separating us from the steep cliff inches away. Originally, we had hoped to take a boat tour of the Blue Grotto, a brilliant cave that reflects sunlight to make the whole space appear a lovely blue. But being that it was cloudy, it wouldn’t have been worthwhile. Once dark clouds began advancing, we decided to find a restaurant for lunch before getting caught in—what we thought to be—a passing shower. As soon as we sat inside the restaurant it started sprinkling. It sprinkled, then drizzled, and dripped, eventually working up to a solid pour. We sat for quite some time, thinking it would pass over, but it only got worse. Finally we decided that it probably wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, and we should call it a day. So we paid our bill and bravely stepped out into the storm.

What an adventure. Meredith and I were wearing our rain jackets, and Brianna had her umbrella, but neither proved successful in shielding us from pelting, sideways rain and guarding our feet from the gargantuan puddles that quickly turned into 4-6 inched of flooding everywhere. By the time we made it to the bus that would take us back to the marina, we were soaked. We boarded just in time, however, because a few minutes later, ½”-1” hail began pelting us from the sky. The water and hail flowed down the winding road alongside our bus like a river, flowing to the sea. When finally we made it to the bottom of the island, I hopped off the bus with my non-water-proof tennis shoes into icy water that came up to my ankles. We dashed under the nearest awning almost as fast as the lightning flashing overhead. It ended up being a small restaurant. At first we thought the owner was angry with us but after he told us to go inside and sit down, we realized he was just upset because the water was beginning to creep into his restaurant building. We sat there for quite a while, and eventually, the rain and hail ceased and the flooding went down to normal-sized puddles.

After that adventure, we were able to make it back to Sorrento on the next boat, but were very much drenched. Because we had been anticipating much pleasanter weather, Meredith and I had packed a pair of sandals, but no other extra shoes. We ended up going German and wearing our sandals with socks. Although we were disappointed about the weather, it at least makes for an exciting story to tell and fun memories. After all, lots of people have been to Capri when it was beautiful and seen the Blue Grotto, but only we (and a small handful of others) have survived a hail storm on the so-called “L’isola del Sole.”