Day 3: Royal Palace of Caserta

Before this trip I'd never even heard of the Royal Palace of Caserta. Obviously I haven't really studied my Italian history to know that the Spanish used to rule in the southern part of Italy. The palace is in the Baroque style and was started in 1752.

It was very impressive and my favorite part were the mile long gardens at the back of the palace.

I literally took tons of pictures of the inside, but I'll spare you and only pick a few.



The outside of Caserta



The inside of the palace



One of the beautiful chandeliers



One of the many ornate decorations



This was one side of a massive nativity scene. If you look closely you can see the manger scene.



One of the awesomely cool statues in the gardens



Looking back at the castle. Can you imagine having these gardens in your backyard?



The statues at the very top of the gardens.



The waterfalls at the top of the gardens.




Me! After the long hike to the top.

Day 2- Amalfi Coast

On Day 2 we got up early, had breakfast and left the hotel in order to catch our cruise boat by 8:30. By the way, the hotel we stayed in was awesome. It was called the N.H. Ambassador Hotel and was a high-rise. I had a great room on the 19th floor and they had good breakfast buffets for being an Italian hotel. It was there that I had latte fresco (fresh milk) that absolutely knocked my socks off. It was so creamy and delish and if I drank it everyday I'd probably gain 10 lbs in no time.

The boat that we took had three levels and I and the girl I hung around with for most of the trip chose the top level. There were deck chairs to sit in and we had an awesome view of the Amalfi Coast.



This was the view right as we were leaving the dock. We left from Castellammare.

We stopped in Sorrento to pick up some more passengers and then sailed towards Capri.



This was a small fortress type protection after we had left Sorrento. I would have liked to have been able to explore it.



First views of Capri. I want to go back to Naples just to be able to see Capri. We only got to sail around one side of it.



Me with the island of Capri behind me. This is where we dropped anchor for 45 minutes and they allowed us to jump off the boat and swim. Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. The water was beautiful, warm and incredibly salty. Seriously it was the saltiest water I've ever swam in.



Another view of Capri



One of the many islands that we passed. I liked this one because it had a church on top of it.



This is what I had to look at a large majority of the cruise x 100. Aren't you glad you weren't me?



Lemons on display in Amalfi



When I'm in a region, I like to sample the foods it is known for. This region was lemons so I had limoncello, lemon cake and lemon drops. This lemon cake was to die for. It had a sort of cream layered in the middle with cream on top with bits of lemon peel sprinkled on the top.



Me with Amalfi in the background



A guy in the group had a birthday during the trip. The Italians brought out four cakes for the people at our table to share. We thought it was so nice of them until we got the bill and the actually charged us for the desserts. Um...gee thanks! We weren't the ones who even told the waiters it was his birthday!



This was the view I had from my hotel room.

Last day of pictures tomorrow.

Day 1- Pompei

So...I'm breaking the Naples trip down by days to make it easier for me and less boring for you.

The first day was 8 hours of riding on a bus and then Pompei.

It looked rainy when we got to Naples, but then finally started raining on us right as we started our tour of Pompei. Thankfully it stopped raining after about twenty minutes, which also cleared the crowds out.



This was towards the start of our tour, it was one of the main squares of Pompei.



One of the infamous plaster casts of the bodies found at Pompei. This guy was trying to cover his nose and mouth from the poisionous gas. I can't explain how weird it was to see this place that was preserved from 79 A.D. It was surreal!



This was one of the entrances to the bathhouses. I believe it was on the men's side. Very picturesque.



This was in the courtyard of the largest house in Pompei. The House of Faun. (Named so after a statue in the courtyard)



A scene from the brothel. They had a "menu" of different options you could ask for. This is one of the options.



One of the statues on the wall at the bathhouse.



A view of the huge courtyard and a view of Vesuvius. If you look you can see it shrouded in the clouds.




I believe this is still part of the bathouse, on the side of the goblet it has the price engraved on how much it costs to use it.



This is the price engraving on the side of the goblet



The fruit stand outside of Pompei, where I might add I purchased the best lemon granita (slush) I've had since I've been in Italy.

Look for more trip pics tomorrow!