Naples, Italy

What a fun day we had yesterday in Naples, Italy! We took a tour by motor launch (a boat) along the Amalfi Coast then headed to Pompeii! We had a great time and learned a lot, so without further ado let me fill you all in on our stop in another beautiful town in Italy!

Emily, by far, enjoyed the boat trip along the Amalfi Coast the most. Man does that girl love boats! :) Of course, it was next to impossible to NOT enjoy the ride along the coast. The view from the boat is breath taking! We passed by several towns on our way to the actual town of Amalfi. The cool thing about these towns is that they all seem to be built on mountains and cliffs. We noticed that they seem to jut out from cliffs…so cool looking! The views from the boat were pretty much exactly what you’d expect to see in a typical Mediterranean town. It was like looking at a postcard! Super neat! The views from the boat were cool, but the best part of the boat ride had to be the trip through a cave. Yes, an actual little cave. At first, we thought the boat driver was just getting us very close to the entrance so everyone could snap pictures of the inside, so we were shocked when he pulled the boat right on in. Em and Dad were fascinated by his driving skills. I must admit, driving the larger boat in the narrow space of the cave was very impressive. We got lots of good pictures of all the stalactites! (Mom reminded us that they were stalactites not stalagmites with a handy little saying: StalagMITES MIGHT reach the ceiling and StalacTITES hold on TIGHT to the ceiling. Cute, huh?) Anyways, the cave was the bomb dot com! It was legit, it was awesome, it was something I’m glad we got to check it! The Amalfi coast was beautiful and so was the actual town of Amalfi, where Emily and I shared a massive donut and dad snacked on some lemon gelato. Beautiful beginning to our day! :)

After the Amalfi Coast, we headed to Pompeii where we had lunch provided by the tour at a local restaurant. Lunch was very traditional Italian and very yummy. Next, we headed to a cameo factory. For those of you who don’t know, cameos are pieces of jewelry with the profile of a woman carved into them. You find these a lot in antique shops. I’m sure my Gran has a few :) They’re beautiful. We all really enjoyed learning about how they are made and how they are priced. We found out that the larger pieces are actually less expensive, because they are easier to carve. However, the smaller pieces are more expensive since they are more intricate and highly detailed. Interesting, right? After learning all about cameos, we headed to the Pompeii. WOW is what I have to say about Pompeii. It is absolutely incredible to think that a city from so long ago was preserved so well. It’s even crazier to think that people built over this city without even knowing it existed. The tour guide told us that a famous person who once visited the city a long time ago was quoted as saying no other disaster has caused given us such a great treasure. Meaning, of course, that if it weren’t for the volcanic eruption, the town wouldn’t have been preserved and so intact as it is today. That makes you think, doesn’t it? Needless to say, I really enjoyed the visit to Pompeii!

All in all, I’d say we had a pretty good day yesterday. Today is a sea day, so I will post a blog filling you in on that in just a moment. I don’t like posting about more than one day in a blog, because I feel it gets unorganized and unnecessarily lengthy. Therefore, I will be posting 3 blogs today. I’ve just posted one on Thursday the 28th. This one covers Naples (Friday the 29th), and the next will cover today (Saturday the 30th). Once again, I will try to upload pictures, but unfortunately my blogging is a bit rusty and I can’t seem to remember how. Cross your fingers and hope it comes to me!