Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Almalfi Coast - Wow!!

I have to say again... I LOVE Italy! There are so many cool, chic, relaxing, exciting, historical and beautiful towns to see. We flew into Naples just over Mt. Vesuvius and took a bus to Sorrento. We stayed in Sorrento for three days, spent a day in Capri, and then we stayed in Positano for three days. The views were just spectacular!




Capri. This place was just gorgeous. It was described as Octavian Augustus Ceaser's playground, and they were not kidding. The views were just spectacular!









We were very lucky to take a trip to Pompeii, an ancient city destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D. The city was covered up for over 1000 years before excavation work began. This place was HUGE! The volcanic ash completely kept the city intact.




This is a dining room in Pompeii. You can still see the paint.


The eruption happened so quickly and no one had seen such a sight before. Therefore, many people stayed put waiting to see what the eruption would do. The above picture is a plaster cast that was formed within a hole in the ash/muc during excavations. The hole was where this body had died.


Over 2,000 years, the body decomposed as normal, but left a vacant space within the ground. Plaster was poured into the wholes to see what would result. Once the plaster dried, the archeologists peeled the dirt of the figures and discovered shapes of people in their last moments on earth.




This would have been a still fountain in someones foyer. The pool itself was made completely out of marble.




We took a 4 1/2 hour hike from Positano to Priano. It was called "The Path of the Gods." It really lived up to it's name due to the high cliffs, beautiful views, and unbelievable nature.









It ended up being a much harder hike then we expected. This sign tells us that we have already climbed 1700 steps. We had at least 300 left to get to the top of the cliff.





You can see where the path takes us along the cliff side.




Back at our hotel room in Positano, we were able to relax and take in the views from our balcony.





I believe Positano is the most picturesque city in the Almalfi Coast. Capri is of course unbelievable, and Sorrento was busy and fun, but I really loved Positano.







If you would like to see more pictures from our trip, click the link below.







Lisbon with just the girls

I was lucky enough to travel with two great girls, Nadia and Molly, to Lisbon, Portugal for four days during my two week Spring Break. We had such a great time!






This church was almost completely destroyed in an earthquake. It's now an open air museum. Just beautiful.
We took a trip out to Sintra, a town just west of Lisbon, and ended up in a beautiful castle with gardens. This is a picture of a grotto we found after we were running through a dark cave.


Here is just a small part of what was in the gardens at the castle in Sintra.

Nadia, Molly and I had a picture taken from the castle in Lisbon overlooking the entire city.



We also ended up in Cascais, a great beach town up the coast from Lisbon. Of course I had to have a picture in front of a pink house!