When In Roma: Day 45-Napoli-Capri!-Venezia!-Thursday-3/17/11

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY EVERYONE!!!! Woke up this morning and enjoyed some more peanut butter toast, because yes, our hostel had PEANUT BUTTER :D haha it wasn't raining and Becky and I were excited! Partly cloudy, but patches of sun, we couldn't be happier after yesterday's on and off rain showers. We ate breakfast packed, but on our St. Patty's day shirts and earrings and hit the pavement for the ferry station to Capri.

We got the first ferry out at 9:05am because our hostel informed us it was the cheapest one. We walked all the way up to the top deck and took some really awesome pictures of the port. It was pretty nice up there when the boat wasn't moving, but the minute we were on our way it got pretty chilly, but we toughed it out so we could lay in the sun and soak in the rays. Plus we wanted to see what the sights were from above and take awesome pics!

We approached the island and it was the cutest little marina/port area and just a giant hill. Becky and I were ready for a second little snack a cappuccino to wake us back up. We didn't want to stay in the port though because it was really touristy so we decided to head up the hill. Little did we know what a climb it would be. We were literally walking up hill for a good fifteen twenty minutes maybe. Winding through the small roads and side stairways. We saw the little shuttle bus, that we later found out was a decent price and what most tourists used to get up the hill, fly past us. It was pretty funny, but we once we could see the top clock tower we were determined to make it all the way there by foot.

Once we made it to the top piazza or open square area it had a ton of cute cafes with outdoor seating. The weather was beautiful, we chose a seat at Piccolo café because it was the most busy so we figured it was the best. I forgot to mention, not only is it St. Patty's day, but the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy as well! Every little table had an Italian flag on it and we think there was a parade that went through the square after we left.

Sitting at that table was one of the coolest experiences because it felt like we were up in the clouds, like I could touch the sky. It was really awesome, but expensive! We later found out that Capri was a vacation island for the rich, makes sense because it's absolutely beautiful! As we sat outside sipping out cappuccino's and enjoying out cornetto (croissant) con nutella (with nutella) a little kind of ugly/sad looking dog came over and sat next to us howling. It was on of the funniest experiences. I felt like I was sitting next to Jax, my sister's dog, and he was talking to us all through our snack. Seriously, it sounded like he was talking/whining/begging us to drop just one little bite of croissant for him. Unfortunately, we knew if we did, he would probably follow us around the rest of the day. I don't understand though because he did have a collar so you would think he had an owner, but we are still not really sure.

After our bite to eat we headed off Augustus's garden. Along the way we found a map, postcards, a super cute charm shop. At the charm shop the man told us the story of the lucky Capri bell from the bell tower we sat near earlier and we decided to each purchase a little bell charm. Becky got one for her bracelet and I decided to wear it as a necklace. I will have to tell the story later because I can't really remember it too well at the moment.

We made our way to Augustus's garden and it was super beautiful and super windy because it was a little platform garden right on the coastline of the island. I'm not sure if we were just in the entrance area of the garden or the real thing because there was a gate nearby the went further in, but it was closed. Either way it was a fun place to snap awesome pictures. We even helped take a family's photo for them and I bet you a million bucks it will be there next Christmas card.

After Augustus's garden we decided to head to Anacapri which is on the same island, but a different part further up the mountain. We took a bus this time. Once we arrived we browsed some of the shops and decided for a fun adventure we would take the chairlift to the very tip top of the mountain. It was probably one of the most exciting experiences I have had yet. We were literally floating slowly up through the clouds and once we got up to the top there were clouds flying by beneath us! We had to wait for clear patches to come through just so we could take a picture of what was below us.

That was only my second time on a chair left and they didn't buckle us in or anything! It was really slow though so I was never too nervous about falling out. At the top we got some really cool pictures, but it was cold and windy and not a very big platform at the top, so once we explored a little bit we headed back down. The chair lift was perfect for snapping lots of pictures because it went nice and slow and you could see the mountain on one side the coast on the other and little mountain houses and gardens below.

Once we got to the bottom we were ready for lunch. We shared a small caprese pizza then headed back took the shuttle back to Capri. We were hoping it would take us all the way down to the Marina, but when it didn't we decided just to walk. It was a pretty enjoyable trip back down because we were behind a group of kids, we think probably young high school kids maybe, and they were quite an entertaining group of people. Well, mostly just the one loudmouth guy of the group, but either way Becky and I kept listening to him and laughing in the background. He had swim trunks and and was all excited to get to the bottom and go in the water. What a crazy kid, I'm sure he froze.

By the time we bought our ferry tickets it was about 3:30/4 ish and we had originally thought about hiking the Almafi coast after, but I'm glad we opted out because we both ended up falling asleep for the ferry ride home. We sat on the inside this time because it was clouding up and looked like rain was on it's way.

We got back to the hostel and took a good one or two hour nap. After we woke up we looked up trains to Venice and found out they were a little more expensive than expected and the cheapest train left at about 7pm and road through the night with one switch in between at Bologna and arrived at about 8:30-9ish at Venice. We had 2 hrs until it left and we still had to buy our tickets and eat dinner so we packed up fast, checked out, and booked it to the station.

Once we got to the station we bought our tickets and relaxed a little bit on a bench with a Panini. It is quite the train station, Naples. Kind of scary/sketch/dirty compared to the rest of the stations I have been in. We kept to ourselves and decided after standing around awhile we would hit up the bookstore. It was really nice in there and cozy. I ended up buying the Da Vinci Code for the trip :)

Once we boarded the train we had a business man in our cart and a very…interesting we'll say, lady. She talked and sang to herself and had a lot of smelly food that wasn't the most enjoyable for the rest of us in that tiny compartment. She ended up taking up two seats to lay down while the rest of us tried to curl up in one.

It was probably one of the worst train rides I have ever been on and I hope I never experience something like that again. Not only was it hard to sleep on the train, but it was motion sickening, we ran out of water right away, and there were really creepy people who kept looking in our cart. Not fun. We made it though. The switch at Bologna was a little stressful because that was at about 3/4 in the morning and no one was working. But, to our relief, we found it and even got to pick out seats. That train was much more clean and we fell asleep right away.

It wasn't until around 7am where I woke up again to a tap on my shoulder to move my backpack into my lap because the train had filled up and someone needed my backpack's seat. Reaching Venice was one of the greatest things in the world. We got off and paid to use the bathroom where we brushed our teeth and splashed our faces with water. Then we grabbed a quick bite to eat and walked outside to beautiful weather and sunshine :)