Amalfi Coast Weekend Trip: Sorrento, Capri, Positano & Pompeii

This past weekend the Velluti crew headed to the South to visit the gorgeous coastal towns of Sorrento, Capri and Positano as well as the ruins of the ancient town, Pompeii. This was the trip I had been looking forward to for weeks and after hearing so many great stories about the scenery and beauty of the place, I had high expectations. My expectations were far exceeded,

The Velluti girls went with an organization called Bus2Alps. Bus2Alps basically advertises to students and young travelers in Europe and sets up weekend trips to different places by providing the transportation, lodging and activities for the weekend for a flat rate. Our organizer, Tiernen, was great and set up a lot of fun activities for us for the weekend.

We met at the Santa Maria Novella train station at 7 pm on Thursday night and loaded a huge greyhound bus. We traveled through the night watching movies and sleeping and arrived in Sorento, the town in which we would be staying, a little after 1 am. The hostel, called 7 Hostel, is unlike any other hostel I have witnessed. It really should not be considered a hostel but a hotel. It is an extremely nice place with a bar, restaurant, lounge area and most importantly, clean sleeping areas. Each room housed 10 people and lucky for us, the Velluti girls travel everywhere together in a pack of 10. Tired from the drive and with an early morning departure for Capri, we went straight to bed.

Friday morning we got up at 7 to get ready to  leave for the island of Capri at 8. We met downstairs in the lobby/restaurant and we were greeted with a wonderful bikini-friendly breakfast of coffee and chocolate covered croissants. After breakfast, we loaded on to the bus and headed to the Sorrento marina, Marina Piccola. The drive was spectacular. The bus wound around the mountain, making tight turns down a curvy road with views of the Mediterranean sea in the distance. It was AWESOME. After about a 20 minute drive we arrived at the marina and loaded a ferry to take us to the island of Capri.

On the way there, we made a short stop at the Blue Grotto, a sea cave on the coast of the island. Once the ferry was anchored, we were transfered to smaller boats holding only five each. When we got to the opening of the Blue Grotto our driver stopped to wait for the perfect moment to enter. The tide rises and falls every few minutes and there is only a small window of time when the opening is big enough for a small boat to squeeze through. Inside the grotto, light from outside shines up through the water lighting the cave in an eerie but beautiful blue glow.

After seeing the Blue Grotto, we got back on to the ferry and headed for Capri. There, we wondered around the hilly town, tasted limoncello, watched men make hand-made sandals and got lunch at little pizza restaurant. Afterwards, we had a few hours of beach time and then got back on the ferry around 3 to take a boat tour around the island. The coast of Capri is the prettiest place I have ever seen. Never in my life have I been somewhere so beautiful and peaceful. 

We returned to Marina Piccola a little after 5 and headed back to 7 Hostel to get ready for a night out in Sorrento. That night, we ate at a great restaurant and afterwards, went to a karaoke bar. 

Saturday morning we had a later start time at 11 and headed to the town of Positano. Positano is entirely built on the mountainous hillside overlooking the Mediterranean sea. The houses seem to hang off the cliffs and look as if they are built on top of each other. During the morning, we wondered around the town and stopped in various stores and grabbed lunch at a sandwich shop. At 1, we met down at the beach to rent dingys and go cliff jumping. Each boat held 8-10 people and we all took turns driving. The cliff is really a huge rock in the middle of the ocean about 20 minutes out from the beach. All 8 boats anchored around the 20 foot cliff and we jumped into the water and swam to the rock to climb it and then jump off. I was not prepared for the strength of the tide and as I got closer to the rock, I got slammed up against the side and as a result, got a few cuts and bruises. However, after getting pulled up by some guys in our group, I still wanted to climb to the top and jump off since I came that far. So worth it. But after doing it once, I swam back to the boat. I was exhausted.

We hung out around the cliff for about an hour and then headed back to shore where most of the Bus2Alps group decided to spend the rest of the afternoon laying out on the beach. Later, around 6, we headed back to Sorrento. That night the entire group stayed at the hostel and had a group cook out. A band played at the hostel that night and after a long two days, everyone was content to hang out on the Hostel’s outside roof deck that overlooked the ocean.

Sunday we headed to Pompeii around 11, our last stop before heading home. Pompeii is an ancient Roman town near Naples that was compleatly burried for hundreds of years under volcanic ash after the eruption of the nearby volcano, Mount Vesuvius, around 79 A.D. A tour guide took us on a 2 hour walk through the ancient city and talked about how the town was presumed to be. Apparently, ancient Pompeii was a town with lots of wealth and resources and because it served as a port city, it was a very busy place. It was hard to imagine the city our tour guide described because now, the ancient ruins are covered in in dust and hardened volcanic ash, making the entire city look brown, depressing and desolate.

After the tour, we all loaded back on to the bus and headed home. The day had started off pretty dreary and overcast and right after we got on the bus, it started to pour. This was the first time it had rained since I have been in Italy and I was grateful that the bad weather held off until the end of the weekend. We got back to Florence a little before midnight and almost all of us were dead tired.  It was an awesome, beautiful weekend filled with sun, boat rides, cliff-jumping, touring and sightseeing. The Velluti girls said their goodbyes to the other students we had met this weekend, thanked the organizer and then began the trek home across the city of Florence. After crossing the Ponte Vecchio, we couldn’t resist and stopped at our favorite gelato shop for a midnight snack.