Domain: Boundary in the Architectural World: April 2013

This past weekend [April 11-14th] we took another trip with Bus2Alps [the same group we traveled to Vienna and Salzburg, Austria with back in February], this time to the Amalfi Coast in Southwest Italy. I can say one thing for sure, the trips were polar opposites. Now, I don't say that due to the quality of the trips, they were both phenomenal and Bus2Alps does a fantastic job planning out all of the portions of the trip for those who choose to travel with them, its just that one happened to be in the middle of Winter in snowy Vienna and the other happened to be spent mostly beach bound along the Mediterranean Sea soaking up the nearly Summer sun.

We departed Florence on Thursday night at 7:30 pm aboard a coach bus heading for Sorrento, the location of our hotel for the weekend, and arrived there around 2:30 am. After getting a small amount of sleep we left our hotel on Friday morning at 7:15 am for the port of Sorrento and boarded a large boat to head to the the island towns of Capri and Anacapri for the day. The ferry first took us on a tour around the entirety of the island to give views of the beautiful natural landscape and to allow us to enter the Blue Grotto, the world famous cave which is quite an experience to be able to enter in to. After finishing the trip around the island the boat dropped us off at the port of Capri and we took the short walk up the hill to the actual town of Capri. The town, perched above the port, provided some amazing photography opportunities and offered the most delicious lemon and blood orange slush drink I have ever had in my life. After spending some time in Capri walking around the shops and taking photos from the large overlook we boarded a small bus which transferred us to the town of Anacapri located even higher up on the island. While in Anacapri we got some delicious pizza for lunch, chilled out in the sun, tasted some local limoncello, took a chair lift to the very top of the island which landed us in the clouds, and did a little more browsing around in the local shops. Around 3 pm we started the walking descent back to the bottom of the island and the port of Capri. On the way down we stopped to take an abundance of photographs, played a small game of soccer with some of the others on the trip who were from Ireland and subsequently got kicked off the field by a local, and ended up at the sand and rocky beach of Capri where I was bold enough to take a swim in the frigid waters. After this we boarded the boat again to sadly depart the island of Capri and head back to Sorrento for the remainder of the night where we ate dinner at the hotel and went into downtown for a little taste of their night life.

Tile Sign for the Town of Sorrento

Port of Sorrento

Our Boat Coming into the Port

View Out of the Back of the Boat with the Italian Flag

Sea Side Town

Port of Capri

Our Boat Rower at the Blue Grotto

Entrance to the Blue Grotto
[yes we fit a small boat with 5 people on it in there -
I still don't really know how]

Inside the Blue Grotto

Captain's Quarters

Boat Wheel

Island of Capri

Lighthouse on Capri

Island of Capri
[Lighthouse on Far Left]

Rock Formations at Capri

Island of Capri

Rock Formations at Capri

Stalactite Rock Formations at Capri

View From Capri Town

Me at Capri Town

Town of Capri

Me at Capri Town

Capri Town Panorama

Pizza for Lunch

View of Anacapri from Chair Lift

The Chair Lift

Top of the Chair Lift

In the Clouds

Statue at the Top of the Island

View of Anacapri from the Chair Lift

House Entry at Anacapri

Purple Budding Tree at Anacapri

View to the Sea from Anacapri

View to the Sea and Capri from Anacapri

Capri and Beyond from Anacapri

Boat at Sea from Anacapri

The Coast

The Coast and Beyond

Capri and Beyond from Anacapri

The Port of Capri from Above

Capri and Beyond from the Descent from Anacapri

Panorama View from Anacapri

The Walk Down from Anacapri

Road Along the Cliff and Beyond

Road Support

Capri and Beyond

Port of Capri and Beyond

Beach of Capri

Port of Capri for the Last Time

Saturday morning we departed the hotel at 9 am via bus to head into Positano. Although the trip to and from Positano was a little shaky being that it followed an extremely high and windy road directly along the cliff coastline, the town of Positano is unlike any other that I have ever seen and is likely the most beautiful place I have witnessed thus far on this Earth. The town itself is full of pastel colored houses and shops and the black sand beaches which sit on the Mediterranean Sea are beautiful, despite the constant attack they take against your feet with the many rocks present on the beach. Really just the experience of sitting on a towel on the black sand beaches of Positano and being able to turn around to view the beautiful town is one that is quite unlike anything else I have ever been able to do. Also while in Positano, we boarded a boat which took us to a different black sand beach which could only be reached by boat and went up on the cliffs for some cliff jumping. Again, the experience of doing this in Positano, Italy is one which I cannot even fully describe with words here on this blog, but it was one I will definitely never forget for the rest of my life. Upon returning to the town of Positano after cliff jumping we hung out on the beach for the remainder of the day before returning to Sorrento for the night.

Positano from Above

View out to the Sea

Positano from Above

Road of Positano

View of Black Sand Beach and Positano

View to the Top of Positano

Positano from the Sea

Positano and Land Formation from the Sea

Amalfi from the Sea

View from the Beach

View to Positano from the Beach

View of Positano from the Beach

Positano from the Beach

Ship at Sea

Positano and Beyond

View Down the Coast

Ship at Sea at Positano

Coast of Positano

Positano from the Beach

Positano with Flowers in the Foreground

Positano

Ship at Sea with Painting and Boats in the Foreground

Positano

On Sunday we did the most terrible thing I have had to do on my entire trip to Europe: pack up to leave the Amalfi coast. We did get to visit Pompeii before returning to Florence, however, which was really awesome in its own respect. Being the most visited archaeological dig site in the world, Pompeii attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year with its very well preserved remains of Roman civilization. The remains of Pompeii are far better preserved than the majority of remains from the Roman Empire due to the fact that they were entirely covered in volcanic ash from 79 AD to 1748 AD. This provides a look at Roman life that cannot be had really anywhere else in the world and really capped off my look at Roman and Italian architecture in this study abroad experience. I was particularly interested in the city of Pompeii as I have written two academic papers which dealt with the typical living conditions of the wealthy and poor citizens of Rome comparatively which used both Pompeii and Herculaneum as the basis for research and it was really quite an amazing experience to see the remains first hand. After finishing up within the city walls of Pompeii we then grabbed a quick lunch and departed Pompeii for the six hour drive back to Florence.