SITA Adventures

Waiting for the ferry in Forio

This morning we only had a short class and then the rest of the day off. Krysta and I had plans to go to Positano as well as a few other girls in our class who were not going to stay in our same hotel. There was a ferry that left from Ischia to Sorrento but not until 5:30 pm so Krysta and I tried to seek out other options. The lady at the ferry desk said okay we go to Positano direct on Sunday and we said no we want to go today and she told us no, we only go to Capri today. We told her that didn't work for us but she kept trying to convince us Capri was so nice and we needed to go there and to go to Positano sunday. We just had to walk away because she wasn't understanding and found a route to Naples thay left at 1:00. We got to Naples and ended up finding where the SITA buses were, which was just right from the port. We found a man that kind of spoke English and said we could take his bus to Positano we just had to switch in Amalfi. He informed us that it left in 30 minutes so we asked where the toilets were and he pointed and said hurry my bus is leaving in 5 minutes...we were confused as to how 30 minutes miraculously turned to 5 minutes. When we got on the bus it was packed and we had to stand, we had no idea how long this bus took but we knew it was at least a couple hours, luckily halfway through people started getting off so we got seats after about an hour. We had no idea the route the bus was taking but we started seeing signs saying that we were on the road from Naples to Salerno, we thought it was way faster to go Naples-Sorrento-Positano but our backpacks were up in the racks too far away to grab and we didn't think the bus driver would have led us astray. Well we were wrong we ended up going on a long winding path transferring in Amalfi to another bus to Positano, with the total trip time being about 4 hours. This is way longer than just going to Sorrento and then Positano, which is what we thought. Most people say the SITA bus isn't the best for people who get carsick because it is so swervy, which is true you are constantly turning but Krysta and I were both fine with it. It was also less scary than I had thought it would be, yes you are driving on the edges of cliffs but you go so slow it's not that bad, I acutally find the bus ride we do with 18 students on the narrow paths in Ischia way more frightenting (but fun) than this was. We had no idea which stop to get off in Positano so I had to show the bus driver my phone to show him that we wanted to go to Nocelle. At first he said he didn't understand but after looking again he said second stop Positano and I pointed at myself and the door to indicate I wanted him to tell me when to get off, just hoping he understood my charades. Luckily he understood and we got off on a street with a little cafe called Bar Internazionale. 

The lady inside spoke English well and directed us what bus to take to Nocelle, but it didn't come for another hour and a half. We walked around a bit and it was really werid because as we walked around everyone was saying Ola to us, it was if we crossed the borders. We decided to buy some groceries at the tiny mini mart to make sandwiches and a local lady laughed at us as we tried to communicate with the store owners Quanta coste? 

This is the tired puppy that ran up beside me while I sat on the curb eating my sandwich and waiting for the bus. They always say never to pet dogs in other countries because it is a big risk for rabies but...I've probably pet 15 already on this trip. He curled up behind us and slept as we ate.

When we finally got on the bus (we ended up chasing a few down that we thought were it first) we had no idea where to get off or how to get to our Bed and Breakfast-Villa Sofia from it, I asked the bus driver but he shook his head and I said Non capito? and he said Si. I showed an older lady my phone which had the address and she shook her head as well. At this point Krysta and I thought great we will have no idea where to go but then I saw the old lady only said no because she couldn't see and she was now in the process of pulling out her reading glasses. Once she saw the address she said Ahh Villa Sofia? and we said Si! and she indicated that she knew and would show us. She got off the bus with us and walked us to where we needed to be and then pointed on the path the rest of the way. We later found out that while we were on the bus when she was making a phone call she was acutally phoning the Villa Sofia and letting them know we were on our way. 

This is the view from our room

The B&B is gorgeous and we got there just in time to watch the sunset over Positano and the tiny surrounding islands. 

-A