Amalfi Coast was even better than I expected! However, the trip getting there was a bit of an adventure. Jessica, Maeg, Claire, Jasmine and I left on the 3:30 train to Salerno Friday afternoon. From Salerno the plan was to take a bus straight to Amalfi. Unfortunately in Italy, nothing ever goes exactly according to the plan you have. Halfway through our train ride, the train was making one of many stops when I started to realize the train was stopping for a little longer compared to the previous stops. Gradually, all of the Italians' conversations started to get louder and louder. Their hands were flying up in the air with exasperation and a few started to get off of the train. It was then that I decided I should try to start asking questions. In broken English, a nice Italian lady next to me informed that the train was "wrecked." (English translation: the train was "broken down.") After a twenty minute wait on the train, all of the Italians started to once again board the train and luckily it started to work again and we continued on our way. (Not too sure if the train was actually fixed or if the conductor just didn't want to deal with the mob of angry Italians) After the four and a half hour train ride(which was supposed to be three) we arrived in Salerno and found our bus to Amalfi Coast. When we reached Amalfi we gave our Hostel address to a local store owner and asked how far away it was. The store owner (Maria) told us this hostel was a 150 Euro cab ride away. Obviously not an option for our budget, Maria (whom I now call Saint Maria because she was an absolute blessing) called up a friend of hers and told us to go to "Bar S'Rita" and there we would find an apartment complex nearby that would have people out in front waiting for us. I'm not sure how we found the right stop but we managed to make it right to where Maria told us to go. The apartment complex was extremely nice and the owner charged us probably half of what he should've. Grazie Maria!
Saturday morning we all made our way to Amalfi. The people were nice, the water was amazing, and the food was delicious. We spent the whole day laying out, swimming, eating and walking around. We returned to Maria's store and told her husband to make sure and give her many thanks. I had been looking for a hat for a few weeks and Maria's store just happened to have just the perfect selection. Nonetheless, whenever I wear that hat I will remember our dear friend Maria and how helpful she was.
For lunch, we found a little hole in the wall place that had fried seafood and vegetables that ended up being my favorite food of the trip. That night we headed back to Salerno(where the train station is) and stayed the night in a Hostel. Salerno is a very interesting city. Travelers usually just stay there for the night in between journeys and its population mainly consists of locals. We found a pizzeria and ordered a pesto pizza, potato-sausage pizza and finally my absolute favorite, the nutella pizza. If you've never had nutella, either go to the store right now and buy some or come to Italy because they put it on pretty much everything. Its simply delicious. After we had our pizzas we walked to the harbor where they had an open air market and walked down every row looking at everything and talked to a few of the locals.
This morning we headed back to Rome and a strange feeling overcame me as we pulled up to the Rome Termini. I felt like I was finally home. Two and half weeks ago I arrived in Rome with wide eyes to this huge bustling city. Now its honking Italian taxi cab drivers, shuffling groups of people and smell of fresh pasta stroke up an overwhelming feeling of finally being home.
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