Hi, sassies! Our trip to Italy was totally indescribable, so I’ll do my best to give you all of the details in my very first travel guide! I’m going to break down the guide into three parts: Napoli, Siena, and Rome! We went to several cities from Napoli so I think this will be the easiest way to give you details on where we stayed, where we ate, how we traveled, what we recommend, and we would do differently! Enjoy!
Lukas’ family was so wonderful to travel with! Growing up my family only traveled within the United States, which I’m so thankful for those memories, but going out of the country was never in the cards. The Jacobson’s are very well-versed travelers, making the whole experience in Italy one that I’ll never forget! His mom, Marla {follow her on insta @myhumbleneedle}, speaks fluent Italian so we had no language barriers. Marla for the win!! We left Houston at 9:00 PM and we landed in Istanbul, Turkey at 11:00 AM the next day. The Istanbul Airport is by far the NICEST airport I have ever been in. I’m not going to lie, I was a little apprehensive flying Turkey after the attacks a couple of months ago. We decided that we weren’t going to let fear get in the way of our trip which was one of the best decisions we made. Our layover was 5 hours, we ate and shopped a little {hold the phone, I forgot face wipes so it gave me an excuse to shop the beauty section :)}. We got back on a plane to take us to Rome, making us land around 1 AM. Jet lag is NO JOKE. Whenever I’ve talked to someone that has traveled internationally I’m always rolling my eyes because I had never experienced a huge time change and I didn’t think it was real. HA. HA. News flash! We stayed at a little hotel in the city just for the night, we didn’t fall asleep till 4 AM. We got up the next day around 9 AM, had breakfast, walked to the Trevi Fountain, had lunch, and then hopped on a train to Naples! The train system is really easy to use and navigate through, almost every major city in Italy you can get to by train. We met a really sweet couple from Austin, Texas and shared a bottle of wine. How crazy is that?! We’re all the way in Italy meeting people from the lone star state! It’s a small world after all 🙂 We arrived in Naples, hailed a cab, and we headed to our Airbnb that we would be staying in for the next 3 days!
The patio at our home in Naples and the view from the corner. Our house in Naples was nestled in the “upper” side of the city. Naples is known for being a working, industrial city in Italy and isn’t very touristy. It’s also quite a dangerous city. We were told to not look like tourists, hold on to your purse, and look like you know where you’re going. We didn’t have one problem! 🙂
The first day in Naples we had dinner at the Pizzeria Manfredi which was DEVINE. We ate breakfast every morning at the house so we made a quick stop at a local grocery store. The cheese section was out of this world so naturally I was super happy!
The main reason we stayed in Naples was because we wanted to go to several cities along the coast. On the second day we took a ferry {about 17 euros} to the island of Capri. By far one of my favorite stops of the trip! The island is so picturesque, the town is built up around the cliffs and little sailboats are docked along the shore. So dreamy! Lukas and I broke off from the group to rent a scooter to take up to Anacapri. We do not recommend doing this if you are not familiar with riding a scooter/motorcycle! I felt totally safe with Lukas driving but I couldn’t bring myself to ride my own scooter, and I have one of my own! Drivers in Italy don’t really follow laws of the road and it’s a little scary! Lukas took a video of the ride on his GoPro, we should have that up pretty soon! Once you see the video you’ll know what I’m talking about!
When we first arrived on the island and on the ferry! How handsome is Lukas? 🙂
How beautiful is this?! We stopped on the side of the road to just take in the view. I cried! It was so overwhelming! I’m on the island of Capri, riding a scooter to lunch with my boyfriend. Doesn’t get much better than that for me!
This is where we had lunch in Anacapri! Get the lemon fettuccine alfredo!
After lunch we did a little shopping! Capri is known for their handmade sandals so that was at the top of my list of things I wanted to get! There’s plenty of little sandal shops around the island, but this is where we went and got some pretty fabulous shoes!
We hit the ground running on the third day! The taxi driver that picked us up from the train station when we arrived in Naples offered to be our tour guide on this day! For 300 euro he picked us up at 8 AM and took us Pompeii, Amalfi, and Positano! SO WORTH IT! We never had to worry about how we were going to get from city to city which was so nice! Pompeii is an archaeological site that was once a thriving and sophisticated Roman city. It was buried under meters of ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. The city has gone through years of preservation efforts and it is so surreal to walk through the ancient streets.
Lukas was so good about documenting all of our stops on the GoPro. If you’re planning a trip, invest in the GoPro Hero 5 Black!
Our next stop: Amalfi! It was about a 1 hr 30 min drive from Pompeii. We stopped to have lunch and we walked through the Amalfi Cathedral! Definitely something we recommend doing. We had a little over an hour before we needed to go to our next stop which was a perfect amount of time to do both!
We had lunch at Taverna Deli Apostoli. It’s right off of the cathedral! Great lunch with a view!
The Amafli Cathedral is a 9th-century Roman Catholic cathedral in the Piazza del Duomo, Amalfi, Italy. It is dedicated to the Apostle Saint Andrew.
Now we’re off to Positano!
Positano was beautiful! I REALLY wanted to stop here and it did not disappoint! The night before I was on Pinterest and I came across the Champagne Bar in Le Sirenuse Hotel. Le Sirenuse is an extremely exclusive hotel, we were super lucky to even get a table. You must stop when visiting Positano!
View from the Champagne Bar at Le Sirenuse Hotel.
That rounds up the first part of our trip! Get ready for part two!
