Sorrento and Capri – Contiki Mediterranean Quest Tour

We woke up in Florence, and got ready for a long day of bus time ahead of us because we would be heading from the north part of Italy all the way to the south, Sorrento!

Sorrento

Several naps and many snacks later, the bus pulled into the gorgeous city of Sorrento, Italy. We didn’t have too much time left in the day for sight seeing, but our tour manager made sure we were able to take in some amazing cliff top views of the city before taking us to our hotel. That night, us and and our two friends, Erin and Em, went into the city for dinner and of course, gelato.

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Dermot drinking his roadside lemon ice with Limoncello

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Capri

It was boat cruise day! Our tour manager informed us that we would be taking a boat to the island of Capri, and then once we got to the island, we’d take another boat to cruise around the coast.

After we got off the first boat, we had some time to tour around the island, and pick up snacks and drinks for our upcoming boat tour. Now, in Desta’s mind, she thought the boat we were about to board would resemble a large catamaran or some other large, smooth sailing type of water vehicle  (after all there were 40 of us). That vision was inaccurate. We were still pumped though, and of course, grabbed the front of the boat to get all the good views in. The water was pretty choppy, and the boat was riding the waves, up and down, up and down.

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The sights were amazing though. We discovered the reason why they use these boats is in order to take you right into the grottos the sea has forged into the side of the cliffs. We also drove right through a hollowed rock formation known as the Faraglioni. The perspective of viewing land from sea is something so beautiful, and we couldn’t be happier to appreciate our view with all our awesome Contiki friends (and each other, of course!).

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After about 1.5 hours into our cruise, Desta started to feel a little off… Good thing we were just about to stop the boat for a little swim! We eagerly jumped off the boat into the Mediterranean Sea.

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After our swim at sea, our boat driver decided we should start heading back because the water was quite choppy. Desta agreed. She probably should have known that she would be one of the only people to get sea sick, but of course she didn’t. By the time she was pale as a ghost, she took the advice from a Contiki friend to move to the back of the boat. Needless to say, Desta spent the remainder of the ‘cruise’ at the back of the boat with her head in her hands. Wouldn’t know it by the photos though (they were all taken within the first part of the boat trip!).

Once Desta had tasted the sweet sweet relief of being back on land, we decided we would head to the beach and take advantage of the warm Capri sun. We laid on the pebble beach, took a swim, and soaked up the sun. We stayed out on the beach for as long as we could, but when some rain clouds rolled in, we promptly rolled out, and went back to the activity that we could rely on rain or shine – gelato.

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Once we arrived back in Sorrento, we spent some time looking around its old town, and Dermot handled his second gelato of the day like a champ. We headed back to the hotel, and then all went out for a group dinner at a local restaurant. After dinner, we came back to the hotel for a few drinks, but then it was time to turn in, because the following day we were headed back north to Rome, with a pit stop in Pompeii!

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