Now that midterms are all over we can finally celebrate and have a weekend trip!
This weekend we went to a little island off Napels called Ischia and LOVED IT!
We were only planning to stay for one day but we decided to stay for 2 and spent only the night in Naples the next day.
We took an early train Friday morning to Napels then a ferry to the island and the weather was beautiful! Since its been really rainy and cold lately, it was weird not having to wear a scarf or my waterproof jacket.
My first impression when we got off the ferry was just in awe. My face litterally looked like this = :O
It was soo sunny, the water was so blue and the cliffs were breathtaking! It took us a while to find our hostel but we finally made it.
If you’re ever visiting Ischia, you need to book your hostel at PARADISE BEACH BACKPACKERS!! It was the cleanest, nicest place we’ve stayed at! Everyone was so accommodating and everyone staying in the hostel were super cool, chill people. We originally was suppose to be in another room with 10 other people, but they gave us a private room with no extra charge! And OMG the view from our balcony was soo beautiful! We could see the ocean and cliffs right from our room and usually they have the pool filled, but their backyard was beautiful too. And since everyone was so friendly, we even had conversations from our balcony to the people sunbathing in the backyard.
After getting to know the people staying in the hostel, it was already getting late, so we all decided to get some snacks at the local shop and bring it back to eat before dinner with the rest of the hostel. We luckily caught the sunset right when we got home and it was honestly one of my favorite moments of this weekend.
It was so nice and relaxing seeing the sunset on the water– and made me miss living in Newport.
After our yummy snacks and wine, we got ready to go out with the hostel– even with the owner of the hostel! He took us to a supper yummy burger place and cool cocktails.
I’m not kidding when I’m telling you this hostel was the best hostel ever! We all hung out after drinks and got to know everyone’s travel stories and it was nice realizing you’ll have friends all across the world!
The next day we all woke up early to hike to Sant Angelo, a small part of the island with a beautiful view. It kinda reminded me of Santorini because the buildings were white with blue roofs. Anyways, while we were on the way to the trail, we ran into our friend Richard, who was staying in the same hostel as us!
After our hike, we had to leave to catch the ferry back to Naples and it was obvious none of us wanted to leave.
When we got to Naples, we went straight to the pizzeria that was in Eat Pray Love. We couldn’t check into our hotel until 8 so we had time to kill and we were starving. We got there right when it opened and didn’t have to wait that long. Idk if its because I have super high expectations of pizza, but it wasn’t that good and even Sophie’s pizza was burnt!
We were able to get another free pizza, but they gave us a beer and we assumed it was because they gave us a burnt pizza, but they ended up charging us for the beer! All in all we didn’t have that great of an experience here and the pizza was just whatever.
After we checked into our hostel, some of us were still hungry so Sophie, Diana and I went on a search for seafood and we stumbled upon Caffetteria del Golfo. They had super good reviews on Trip Advisor so we decided to try.
OMG their muscles and their clam linguine was the best I’ve ever had! It was so fresh and the waiters there were also super nice and funny. It had great ambiance and I would totally recommend anyone visiting Naples to try this place!
The next day we had to wake up at 5 in the morning to catch our train back to Rome and on the way to the train station, Neeka was robbed by a motorcyclist! She had her purse her left side, close to the street and the motorcyclist just drove by and grabbed it out of her arms! Luckily she didn’t have her passport in her purse, but it was still a traumatic experience.
All in all, Ischia was well worth it, but Naples was not!
Here is my video from this weekend!
Tips from this weekend:
1. Be extremely careful and cautious with your stuff at all times, especially in the south of Italy.
2. If you know you’re hiking, make sure you bring athletic shoes- our friend Kaitlyn didn’t have appropriate shoes when we were hiking and she ended up spraining her ankle!
3. Hostels do make a difference in your stay, research your hostel really well before booking. Also- location is suuuuuper important!- Probably one of the most important
wanderingintowanderlust 