Amalfi Adventure

Saturday, Mary and I made a pack to put the entire day in God's Hands. All we planned was that we were getting on the 5:40 am train to the Amalfi Coast. Little did we know of what was to come.

Left the Villa at 4:30 am, took a night bus to Trastevere where basically we felt stranded. Had never seen this part of town before, it was dark, and had no idea how to get to the train station from here. Luckily there was a nice lady in the coffee shop that spoke English that told us what bus to take. Got on another bus to Termini Station. Arrived at 5:35am and still had not purchased our tickets. We sprinted off the bus to the ticket machine, printed our tickets, and raced to the train (not even knowing which one to get on-had to look at the signs and figure that out-all in 5 minutes of time!) Found the train and literally as we stepped on, it started to move. All we could think was that was God's Hands right there.

Rode the train for 2.5 hours. Both of us stayed awake because we didn't trust any of the sketchy people around. Got off the train at Napoli Centrale (Naples). Had no idea where to go next so we asked the information station. Good thing she spoke English too. We had to buy another train ticket to get to Vietri. We got on the train that said "Vietri" but still not sure where to get off because the signs on the train didn't correspond with our ticket. We must have looked really confused because a nice Italian guy helped explain to us where to get off.

So after an hour we got off at the sign that said Vietri. But that's all there was. Just the sign. We felt so stranded because there was absolutely nothing else around. We were at the top of a hill, so we looked out to see where to go. The view was breathtaking. Mountains surrounded us, colorful buildings over a few hills, and the ocean in the distance; a beautiful sight.

Decided it would be best to walk towards the civilization. Figured out that we had to take a bus to get to the actual Amalfi Coast. We got on the first bus we saw. A lady started speaking Italian to me but all I could say back was "No parlo Italiano" and she said "No speak English" haha. Then I said "Amalfi?" And she said, "No, Sorrento." So we found out we got on the wrong bus. Got off at the next stop. An old Italian man saw us looking at the sign and pointed to what bus number we had to get on. I tried to communicate by using my English-Italian phrase book and then found out we needed to buy a bus ticket. So we did that and finally got on the bus we needed to.

The bus ride was an hour long, of going around curves on the mountain. I felt like we were going to fall off the cliff at any moment. Every time we turned, the driver honked the obnoxious horn so no one would run into us. Besides feeling nauseous, the view was incredible.

Praise the good Lord when we arrived at Amalfi. 8 hours of travel and we finally made it.  The entire bus ride I had to pee like Niagra Falls, so when we got there my first goal was to take care of that. I had to buy gelato in order to use the bathroom.  They sure get you in Italy.

Unfortunately as soon as we sat down at the beach, it started raining. I only got to eat half of my peanut butter sandwich before we had to get up and find shelter. That was a hard task itself, because there was no place to go without having to pay for something. We walked around different shops, trying to stay dry, then just decided it would be best to eat lunch in a restaurant because there was no where else to go. Had some delicious pizza at a place that looked out onto the ocean; very nice.

Then the sun came out! Used this time to take some great pictures and enjoy the outdoors. It was gorgeous.

The sun didn't stay out long, but we made the most of it. After a few hours we made our journey back home. We had to do the same exact thing as we did on our way here. Bus back to Vietri, then bought another train ticket (harder to communicate with people this time because they spoke absolutely no English). It was pouring down rain, my socks felt like sponges, and our train wasn't coming for another hour. Still, we kept positive. This day was in God's Hands.
The train came, but it wasn't the right one, so had to transfer to a different train later. That train took us to Napoli Centrale, where this time we had 8 minutes to buy our tickets and find the right train, so you can imagine, we did have to sprint again.
But thank the good Lord we made it!

2.5 hours back to Roma. Took the metro and a bus to get back home.
Overall, even though today didn't go how we pictured it, it was still an amazing day. God protected us and led us on our way. We put all our trust in Him, and he helped us on our journey!
Grew so much, learned a ton. Conquered the train, bus, and metro system and feel empowered to go anywhere in the world.