Hi everyone! :)

Well, we survived our first weekend trip! Myself and three other girls spent Thursday evening in Naples, most of the day Friday in Pompeii and Saturday and Sunday in Capri!

Thursday afternoon we took a train to Naples. The train was very nice and very comfortable. It was one of the EuroStar trains, which run at an accelerated speed. It only took us about 3 hours to go from Florence to Naples when normally, by car, it would take twice as long. We arrived in Naples once the sun was already down and we tackled our first hostel experience. The hostel we stayed in was rated one of the best ones on Hostelworld.com and we made sure that we reserved one that only had 4 beds in it so that we weren't sharing our room with any strangers. Looking back on it now, the hostel was relatively nice, we were a little uncomfortable with it at the time because we arrived once it was already dark out and we are not used in staying at places that aren't nice hotels. Good experience, but I'm going to try and do my best to stick with hotels. I feel more at ease at those! :) After having a mediocre dinner in Naples we went to bed to wake up early and begin our day of sightseeing in Pompeii.

Friday morning we took a bus to Pompeii and spent most of the day touring the ruins there. We didn't feel like paying the extra money to have a tour guide so we toured it ourselves. It was nice, but I'm not really sure what the ruins were from and what it was exactly I was looking at. I was able to get a nice tan though walking around in the sun all day and it was a nice little workout! If I were to do it again, I probably would have spent the extra money on a tour guide so that it was worthwhile. I have a lot of nice pictures, but no captions because I didn't know what anything was. We ate a nice lunch in Pompeii and then returned back to Naples to jump on a boat to depart for Capri.

Oh, Capri. Capri is my favorite place in the whole world. When we left Capri to head back home I told it I'd be back in ten years, if not before, because I loved it so much! It is absolutley beautiful! I think my pictures turned out great, but still they do not do it justice. I like to describe capri as a mix of Mackinac Island, Naples (FLORIDA), and Denison. Mackinac Island because it is an island that is full of tiny roads and fun little shops with a very laid back atmosphere. Naples because it has that old world feel like the older part of naples we would visit and it had that sense of high class clothing and boutiques. People were very well put together and the weather was very similar to that of Naples, Florida. Finally it reminded me of Denison because it was very hilly and the roads were very winding. Imagine all of that and hopefully your imagining Capri.

The part of Capri that our hotel was located in was called Anacapri. I loved Anacapri even more than I loved Capri. Anacapri was located up in the hills and was almost its own little community. The town square was so cute and the views form some of the areas were breath taking. The people there were so friendly and welcoming. It seemed like a kind of small community where everyone knew each other.

Friday night we settled into our hotel (which was advertised as a hostel, but was wonderful) and took a bus down to Farroh beach to enjoy the sunset. There was a small little outdoor bar there where we had a few drinks while watching the sun go down. It seriously felt like I was in a movie. We were sitting at the bar, watching the sunset, while a man was playing the guitar and singing Italian music and beautiful (and well dressed) people sat and visited like they had all grown up together. We ended up meeting a guy our age while we were there. His name was Paulo and he told us all the areas of the island we must visit. He was 22 and was born and raised in Capri. I was so envious! After the sunset we ate dinner right in the center of Anacapri. We ate at a wonderful pizzeria! It seemed to be the town favorite, because it was the first time so far in Italy that we had to wait for a table. To compensate for our wait they offered us a glass of champagne and we visited with the locals of the area. One British couple that we met before being seated suggested we order the Margarita pizza with smoked Mozzarella. They swore it was the very best kind. After being seated, we did just that and had a wonderful dinner. Our table overlooked the courtyard of the local church that children played game in while their parents had dinner. Little Italian children are so beautiful! I wanted to steal one! After dinner, we decided to head back down the island to Capri and people watch while having a drink. Capri is where a majority of the nightlife is held. People in Capri were dressed head to tow in designer merchandise and looked like they should have come out of a advertisement for Emperio Armani or St. Johns. It was unbelievable. Even the men were dressed to the nines! After spending some time people watching in Capri we headed back to our hotel and anticipated the coming morning.

The next morning we woke up early and took a boat tour around the entire island. The boat had about twenty-five people on it and lasted about two and half hours. This is where I was able to take a majority of my great pictures! The sights were amazing and being on the water made me feel at home! The best part of the boat tour was the last stop. The last stop brought us to the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is a natural grotto cut into the side of the island where (somehow, I have no idea how or why) the water literally glows blue. It's unbelievable to see! When we arrived to the grotto four people at a time had to transfer over to a small rowboat that an Italian man operated. We had to sit in the very bottom of the rowboat sitting as close as possible to each other. When entering the grotto we all had to lay on top of each other in order to fit through the tiny passageway. It was actually kind of scary/exciting! We had so much fun! Once we finally made it into the grotto we took a bunch of pictures and our man who was rowing the boat began singing to us in Italian! It was quite the experience. After exiting the grotto and heading back out to where all the larger boats were docked, we realized that we didn't see our boat and our captain. Several minutes later our boat had returned after having forgot about us and leaving us! Luckily, there was a nice Canadian couple on the boat that had realized we were missing and said something to the captain. The Canadian couple told us that the captain had the boat take a vote whether or not they should return back to the grotto to pick us back up and everyone voted against us!! Apparently, they didn't like us very much! haha! Thankfully, they didnt go by the majority vote and they ended up coming to get us.

Having spent most of the day out on the water with the boat tour, we decided to spend our afternoon on the beach! We spent a couple hours at one of the larger public beaches in the area and enjoyed the scenery and people around us. Different that our beaches in Ohio, the beaches here are stone beaches! Not the most comfortable, if laying out on a towel! The stones do not get as hot as the sand does at home which was a good thing. After the beach we headed back up to Anacapri, spent some time in the shops and had a nice dinner at a little place off the square. I had THE BEST homemade ravioli I've ever had! It was to die for! I'm still craving it two days later! It was a great night!

The next day, Jill and I spent some time in the local shops again while the other two girls did some exploring on their own. After going in countless stores I ended up finding a cute little sun dress in a boutique. It's all kinds of colors and I plan on wearing it sometime this week while I'm out and about!

Traveling home was easy. Our boat and our train were on time. We were all very worn out by the end of the trip. It was hard leaving Capri because I loved it so much! If anyone ever has a chance to visit, do so! ... And take me with you! :)

This week is a very short week! We have class today and Tuesday. Wednesday morning we leave for London early. I will be posting another blog tomorrow evening to give an update on what my itinerary will look like. I hope all is well back home and everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend!

-Mom and Grandpa, safe travels coming home!

-Taylor, OMG you're leaving for college soon. Get EXCITED! :) Can't wait to hear alllllll about it.

Love you all and miss you!

Ciao for now!

Carrie