South trip Part 2--HIKING!!

As I said, Friday was the best day ever.  It started in Pompeii with an early bus ride to Sorrento.  We walked to our hostel, Diana City, which was at the end of the main drag through the city.  There were about 15 of us all staying there in different rooms so getting checked in was a tad confusing, but we managed.  I was in a room with Elise, Jena, and Kylie.  Jena has a Hiking Italy book and Rachel really wanted to go to Positano so we combined the two and decided to do a hike that left out of Positano and went a ways up the mountain behind the city.  We quick got changed into hiking clothes, I packed my purse and we headed to the public transit/bus station.  The trip to Positano was beautiful, but included a minor hiccup when another bus was coming towards us on a road that was about two busses + 2 inches wide.  After threading the needle, we got off at the café where the trail head was.  We got a quick piece of pizza and a celebrator beer for when we made it to the end of the hike. 

The hike began with some stairs (Dear God did we master stairs these during the two days in the South…)  Me, Elise, Blake, Josh, and Aaron took off and formed the ‘fast group’ while my roommates took their time behind us.  The hike was beautiful and just strenuous enough to make the final destination worth it.  We stopped a few times along the way for quick photos of the scenery, but the five of us were determined to get to the top (a moto that defined our entire experience).  We unexpectedly made it to a small town on top of the mountain where we walked around for a bit until the rest of the group caught up.  We continued the hike up a snow covered road to the most beautiful place ever.  It was a terraced field overlooking the city and bay of Positano.  We, of course, took some artistic photos (see facebook for the good ones Blake took), sipped our beers, sketched, and just took in the beauty.  After half an hour we decided to carry on.  The girls wanted to head back to the beach, but the ‘fast group’ now deemed the ‘adventurous group’ decided to go a little higher…We ended up hiking through a snow covered field, about 4 inches of snow, to the next high point.  By that time we could see Sorrento and figured we were closer to Sorrento than Positano and decided we should just hike down to Sorrento!!

We had seen some trail markers, red and white stripes, which is how we got to this high point and saw that they continued back down the mountain to Sorrento so we decided to follow them.  We eventually made it to another small town up the mountain from Sorrento where we managed to get lost a few times.  After asking for directions like 5 times we started walking on the main road to Sorrento.  It was a continuous downhill walk which my knees are still cursing at me for, but it was completely worth it.  Unfortunately we got to Sorrento on the total opposite end of town and that last part of the trip was brutal, but we made it back to the hostel exhausted but so incredibly happy. 

The whole experience was amazing: the people, the scenery, and the challenge.  I was with four awesome people who never made a dull moment and never quit no matter how bad our bodies ached.  We were the adventurous group, trusting our instincts that we could make it back to Sorrento on our own (we saved 3.60euro by walking and not taking the bus haha).

Saturday, believe it or not, was another day of hiking!  We woke up, sore feet and all, popped a few Advil, and headed to the Port.  The port was down like 8 flights of stairs which was painful.  We bought round trip tickets to the isle of Capri (this trip was not going to end with us deciding to get back to Sorrento on our own…I can walk back to Sorrento but I’m not swimming!)  It was nice to be out on a boat despite the rain and chilly weather.  Jena’s book described a hike to Villa Michelle in Anacapri which is what we, the adventurous group plus Jena and Kylie, chose to do.  The hike started with some stairs, continued with some stairs, and ended with some stairs.  It was BRUTAL!  I still refuse to look up how many stairs we actually went up.  It was ridiculous, but again, made the destination so much more worth it.  The Villa was beautiful.  It belonged to Axel Munthe who was a doctor and lover of nature.  Marco told us about how great Axel’s biography was and after visiting the villa and reading the signs throughout the small museum, I decided I wanted to read the biography so I bought it at the museum shop and will start it after I finish Michelangelo J. 

After the villa we went to the center of town where a chair lift takes you up to the top of the mountain.  Higher??  Oh boy!  The adventurous group knew they couldn’t pass this up so we bought a one way ticket up the mountain (Rick Steve’s book said there was a 40 minute hike down).  The ride was pleasant and the view from the top was beautiful even though it was pretty foggy/cloudy so I didn’t get too many great pictures :/  We found the trail head and started down…some stairs.  We made it to a fork in the road which Rick Steve’s suggested taking a 10 minute detour (haha) to see some ruins which we decided to do.  Turns out we spent another hour hiking up the hill near the ruins.  During this hike we kind of lost Josh who, after some shouting and backpack-whistling, we saw on the other side of the valley hahaha.  We finally made it back to Anacapri and took the bus to the marina.  We had a couple hours to spare so we got a snack at the grocery store and went and watched a half of a soccer game!  After the game we saw a beautiful rainbow over the sea and headed to the beach where we met up with a bunch of our friends who had the same idea. 

The ferry left at 6:45 and was just a 30 minute trip back to Sorrento (it was a great 30 minute nap haha).  We literally had to run back to the hostel to get our stuff and all the way back to our tour bus that was taking us back to Orvieto.  It was a long 5 hour trip which I spent the whole time trying to sleep in a variety of positions, trying to find one that was comfortable for my sore body.  We got back to Orvieto about 1am, I washed my feet and hit the hay.  I have not been that tired in a long time. 

All in all the south did not disappoint.  The weather was great, I had the best outfit for hiking, and I got to spend two days with some amazing people.  Thanks to Elise, Josh, Blake, and Aaron for a great adventure J 

If y’all aren’t too jealous, here are some photos of the hikes.  There are more that my friends have posted on facebook if you want.

Ohh stairs...

The map of the first part of our hike...I guess.

A view from the hike

The most well deserved beer ever! 

There were many crosses on the peaks of the mountains/hills.  Good thing because I needed to say a few prayers along the way haha

Who knew you could be hiking in short sleeves for the first part of a hike and be walking through 4 inches of snow all while looking out over the sea :)

Me and Elise, the girls who beasted the hike from Positano to Sorrento.

The boys with the red and white trail markers in the foreground.  We honestly had no idea where these were leading us but they were easy to spot and kept leading us towards Sorrento.

The hikin' ladies

CIAO, Katy