Week 4

This week was by far one of my favorite weeks in Sorrento. I spent most of my days between the beach and class, but I got to start my weekend on Wednesday! Wednesday night I went to another sunset meditation class, and then my friends and I went out for gelato (like we do almost every night). Then once Thursday rolled around, I got to do a gelato making class at Gelateria David. The owner, David, showed us how to make Lemon Sorbet Gelato. While making the Gelato I learned the differences between creamy and sorbet gelato. Creamy gelato is the most common type and is made with a dairy-base, whereas sorbet gelato is not made with any dairy. However, any flavor gelato can be creamy or sorbet, even chocolate! After learning how to make the gelato, the best part was next, trying the gelato! I haven't tried lemon gelato since being in Sorrento, so this was my first time and it was amazing.

The next day I got to cross a new item off my bucket list, SCUBA DIVING!!! My friends and I went to the Punta Campanella Diving Center in Sorrento. We signed up for the Discovery Double Dive, which I recommend if it is your first time. The whole tour is about 5 hours, but the first hour is spent getting ready and having a short lesson on the basics of diving. Once everyone is ready, they took us out on a 35 minute boat ride to our first destination, the Bay of Ieranto. We got into the water on the shallow end, and practiced using our gear under the water. Once they checked that everything was working properly and we were all comfortable, we started our dive. When I was practicing in the shallow-end, it was hard to breathe. However, once I actually went under and was in the proper position, it was easy and quickly became second nature. My advice after this first dive, is to start going into the water when you feel ready, but don't expect it to feel natural until you are completely under. While under the water we only reached depths of about 10 meters, but I got to see so much! I saw many types of fish, coral, and even an octopus. The coolest part about diving was seeing the ocean from a different perspective. Usually we admire the ocean from the top looking down. But for this, I got to become a part of the ocean. While scuba diving, I realized the marine life was not afraid of me while I was down there. Interacting with the ocean in this way really made me feel like I wasn't just an observer, but I was a piece of the ocean. After our first dive, we got to do a second dive in another location. This dive was even cooler because we got to fall backwards off the boat in our scuba gear and go straight down to the bottom. I felt 100% confident on this dive after having practice. We went deeper, probably around 20 meters and got to stay down longer. With scuba diving, everything starts to feel natural very quicky and it gets much easier to navigate in the water. This is one of the reasons I recommend the double dives!

After a day of scuba diving, we all ate lunch together and took some naps. Once we were all rested we went out on the town and enjoyed the stores, bars, shops, and clubs. We love to go to the English Inn and hang out with our favorite bartender Danny! We stayed out late and then ended the day at one of our favorite late night restaurants, Pizzeria De Franco. Franco's is open until 6am, so on a late night, it is the perfect place to stop with your friends. The pizza there is my favorite in all of Sorrento, so I bought one of their T-shirts to show my love!

The next day, I had a trip to Mount Vesuvius for a wine tasting. This trip was included in my tuition with SAI. We went to a winery called Cantina del Vesuvius Winery. They gave us a tour of the vineyard and showed us where the wine was made. I learned that the wine on Mount Vesuvius is some of the best wine in Italy, because it in grown in the ash from the volcano. This ash carries many nutrients and minerals that are good for the taste of the wine and prevent you from getting headaches and stomach aches after drinking. We sampled 5 different wines and then enjoyed an appetizer, main course, and dessert. The wine was the best I have ever had!

The next day I had one more big activity for the weekend. We did a boat tour for the day at Capri, with the company Lubrense, which also provided transportation! The plan was to see the blue grotto, but due to the storm the night before, the waves were to big to go inside the blue grotto. However, we did not let that get us down. The boat ride to Capri was beautiful and the water was so clear. The captains took us along the coast of Capri and we got to see the white, coral, and green grottos. We also got to see the faraglioni, the natural arch of Matermania and the Punta Carena lighthouse. The Faraglioni is a big stone arch that Capri is known for. I swam near it last time in Capri, but this time the boat went through it. Legends say that if you kiss someone you love under this arch, your love will last forever! The boat then stopped at Marina Piccola where we swam and ate. Eventually the boat picked us back up and stopped at another place for us to swim. Then another storm started coming in, so the waves were getting rocky; but it made for the best boat ride ever. We were going really fast and bouncing up and down in the front of the boat. It started the rain and then we saw lightning. So, obviously we asked the captains to turn up the music and we sang Viva La Vida by Coldplay. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO ENJOY A STORM ON THE WATER. No matter what happens, you should always live in the moment and make the best of it. That day really made the the quote "cogliere l'attimo" (seize the day) mean something to me. Because no matter what happened, we had fun and it was one of the best days ever!!! After getting back to the dorm, we hung out with the rest of our friends, ate dinner, and worked on planning our next few weekend trips!