Sorrento - Last day

Have I mentioned in the previous entries how lovely the sea looked? Seriously, the mediterranean sea has the most gorgeous tone of blue ever, and since it had been so fricking hot, we decided to go to the "beach" on our last day there. Yeah and I say "beach" because there's actually no sand or anything. What they did was cool, though, they set up a fake beach that looks sort of like a pool, yeah? I don't know, I quite liked it! The only negative thing I want to point out is how much salt there is. If you go to the beach in Sorrento you will get salt on your phone, clothes, hair, etc. 

I didn't take that many photos because I spent most of my time in the water, which by the way had the perfect temperature and just yep, we had fun on our last day there. Then we did the usual and ate in one of our favourite restaurants there and then we just went to sleep right after because we had to get up at 4 am for a long day of traveling.

 

Due to some strikes in France our flight got delayed, but it was no biggie. 

The weather in Portugal (at least in where I live) was awful, as per usual, but I felt so relieved that I had returned to my comfy bed.

This was the last pic I took in Sorrento, which is the first thing you see once ypu step off the train that takes you there. It looks so bright, yet it was 5 am there and it was raining! 

Anyway. Where was I? Yes, this is the first thing you see when you arrive, and the last thing you see when you say goodbye. I hope I get to return to Sorrento one day, just like that song of theirs. 🎶 Torna a Surrientooo 🎶

Arriverdeci Sorrento!

Naples (again!) - day 10

It's really really late right now, and I need to wake up early tomorrow so let's see how fast I can do this, shall we?

So yeah, I didn't love Naples on my first visit, I wasn't going to love it on the second one. The reason why we had to go back was because we just had to visit its Archeological National Museum. Well, that I absolutely loved! I also found out there is a whole room filled with erotic art from Pompeii! They found them in brothels and they were made to "stimulate" the guys that went there. There were literally sculptures of huge dicks, paintings with people doing uh stuff (there was even a painting of some people sixty nine-ing wtf?) and even a sculpture of this dude fucking a goat from behind. I know, right?! It was messed up and I loved every second of it.

But of course there was also the usual lovely roman art, and even some egypcian ones. I think that the egypcian ones should be returned to Egypt, though, don't you think so too? I mean, not that I mind seeing swaggie mummies with hair still on their heads, but it's Egypt's art, not ours. Ours as in European or southern European.

We also went to this huge ass church, the one that I talked about in my previous entry about Naples, that had graffiti all over it. It was still quite pretty on the inside. 

And I included a photo of my lunch that day because it was the only day that I didn't have pasta or pizza at both lunch and dinner (and because food, obviously).

Caserta - Day 9

And on the tenth day we went to Caserta! It was really really far from Sorrento so we had to catch and switch trains a butt load of times, and by the time we arrived we were super sweaty and smelly but I still really enjoyed this day! We just visited its palace, that although it's facing its inevitable deterioration, was pretty amazing. I really just laughed when my dad told me that it is considered a "secundary palace". Well haha, seriously? Then my house is what? 

But see it for yourselves! 

I had to be really selective about which photos to put here because I just took so many! To the ceilings, the chandeliers, just literally everything! 

One small detail that apparently no one seemed to notice was in the "chapel" (and I say "chapel" because it could be a whole church compared to other chapels). There were still some tracks of the bombs that the americans dropped there in 1949. Later we found out that some men from the railway station also died due to the bombings. But hm, anyway, yeah, the chapel. Do you know when you're earing corn and you just go all om nom nom nom on it? Well that's how the pilars ffrom the chapel are, all munched and stuff, which was sad to see, obviously. 

The picture takes some of the impact that you get in the place, but I think you can get the point.

Oh, and the last thing I wanted to adress, was the palace's lovely garden! It was huge and so so green. I had forgotten how it is to be in gorgeous gardens like these! They were also renting bikes, and of course we took the chance. Although with my brother that wasn't the case. He didn't want to ride his bike because it was pink and had the word "regina" which is latin from queen. He needs to man up!

 The way up left us breathless, but the way down was amazing. Wind blowing everywhere, we were going super fast because and because we knew that cold water was awaiting us on "the finish line".

Capri - Day 8

YES, finally! This was my favourite day! That day was my mum's birthday, so my dad decided that we should go to Capri and spend the day there. It was so so so worth it, Capri is absolutely gorgeous and wonderful! It was sunny, so that was a plus, but the views and the bright colours just left me with hearts in my eyes! We didn't even eat in a fancy restaurant, we just ate delicious pizza outside a church, by its steps. An old lady tried to offer us cherries from her own garden but at the moment me and my brother were so surprised that we didn't quite understand what she was trying to say. She tought we were from northern Italy and that we would understand! We spent most of our time in Anacapri, we visited the Axel Munthe house, which left my dad fanfirling over him and how awesome he was.

It just seems like a permanent post card, doesn't it?

This was one of the most unique churches I've ever been to! Its floor was all tiled with the scene from Eden's garden, and it was really lovely.

The garden and the view from Axel Munthe's house were just breathtaking... 

Later we found out that there were some chair elevators that took you up the mountain, and of course we just had to try it. And I cannot stress enough how gorgeous the views were.

More gardens, seagulls breathtaking views and perfumeries. There were so many of them! Oh, and there was this really pretty street that was full with the best label stores. I wonder who can afford that? Only tourists, maybe, since the people there are quite poor.

Man, even remembering this makes me all nostalgic! I fell in love with Capri so deeply...

Ercolano - Day 7

So after the failed trip to Ercolano (or Herculaneum, whatever you call it) we just had to go back. Ercolano was one of the cities that was affected by the Vesuvius, and it's really well conserved too. It's considerably smaller, which is good, Pompeii was so so big that under the sun everyone got tired, but Ercolano is small so you can visit it in a few hours and then go to the town's virtual museum, which was very interesting, but also sad to see how such stunning cities were destroyed.

I didn't take a lot of pictures in Ercolano, maybe 10 or something. I felt a bit weird being in surreal places like these. 

Lazy day in Sorrento - Day 6

On the sixth day my little brother was already all worn out, so we decided to explore Sorrento a little bit more. We had lunch by the sea and then stuffed ourselves with delicious ice cream.

As you might've seen, the lighting was terrible that day, because it was raining, so I didn't take that many pictures. I also found really lovely, colourful flowers during my walk!

Vesuvius - Day 5

This was one of my favourite days, to be honest! We were supposed to go to Ercolano and the Vesuvius, but Ercolano was closed because of a storm so we just went to the volcano. We shared a big taxi with a very nice british couple, some dude from Seattle with big muscles and his mom, and a very rude woman and his cool husband. Seriously, I just wanted to slap the woman across her face. We stoped to see the views and she was all like "Ohhh this is pretty! Wait what exactly are we looking at?" *her husband answers Naples "What?! Really? But it just looks so.. so flat!".

Our family just laughed and laughed. She was one of those americans got surprised that we actually ate with forks and knives, because shocker... we're actually a first world country *gasps all over the room*. When we headed back to Ercolano after climbing the Vesuvius, that woman started yelling at the driver and calling him stupid for not taking her precisely where she wanted! "This dude just keeps telling us the prices gos- HEY. LISTEN. WE WANT TO GO DIRECTLY TO POMPEII! Is that so hard to understand, geez!" And her husband was  like holy tits there she goes again. She ignored the rest of us awaiting in the taxi while we just calmly waited for her to stop yelling at the poor man.... Anyway...

That's the crater. I didn't take that many photos of the view because we were so high that we were litteraly covered in clouds (and with a lot of cold!). On the way up there we saw trails of lava from the most recent explosion, which was in 1949 if I'm not mistaken. It was an haunting experience. Knowing that once again, in a few more years, he will wake up again and claim everything that is his. The things is that when the whole Pompeii thing happened, there weren't that many civilizations surrounding the Vesuvius, but now there are, and they're a lot! And one day they will be nothing but ashes and dust...

Naples - Day 4

Oh lord, the fourth day. It saddens me to say that this was my least favourite day. Honestly, Naples is not for me. Naples can either go from gigantic castles, to dead mice in the street in no time. I mean, even some of the castles and churches were falling apart. It was sad, really. It used to be a really important city, but now it's just decadent... Graffitis all over the city's most important church, garbage all over the sidewalks, and just so so much poverty. I left that place with a lump in my throat. I saw an old man without shoes sleeping on a bench, an old lady crying, her face full of scars, a man with no toes, a woman with that condition that makes you have huge tumors that make it impossible for you to even move (that was the most shocking, she couldn't even wear pants nor underwear due to her condition...). I must sound like a spoiled little girl, but I really am not, but I just hadn't seen so much poverty and decrepitation in just one day... 

The church from the middle is the church I was talking about. It's pilars are full of graffiti saying stuff like "Justin Bieber saved my life <333" and stupif crap like that. Seriously? In a church? I'm not even christian, but where is your respect? Obviously there were good aspects about the city, I still went there 3 more times during those weeks, but it just wasn't my cup of tea...

Amalfi - Day 3

I remember how exausted I was this day. And it was obly the third one! I guess I just wasn't used to walk around that much and waking up so early. But anyway, on the third day we went to this poor fishermen's town called Amalfi, which was absolutely adorable and lovely. Also, I had a very amazing lunch there, I had this thing called frituras, and basically it's this paper cone filled with fried things, it can be just varieties of meat or fish, and they were surprisingly good!

The only trouble was getting there, and the weather, apart from that, Amalfi is really preatty in its own way.