Okay – we finished the first part of our trip but onto the next part! I would like to make it loud and clear: Italy is far superior to any other country in the world. Yes, America: you suck. This is all food-wise, and for me, that is a big deal. If you haven’t heard already, my family is Gluten-Free. That means no gluten – in my case, this is a big tragedy because America hasn’t exactly figured out how to do gluten-free the way Europe has – which means I can’t eat wheat, the cornerstone of all things good and tasty in the world of food. If you would like to know more, you can look it up, or go to this article which explains it pretty well.
1) Staying at a Castle House.
I would like to start out by giving a special hoot to the moms in our families for finding this Airbnb! My mom and Mrs. deBlois spent hours planning this whole trip, which included housing. This particular house – I kid you not – was/is a castle. We knew this fact before coming to the house, but none of us kids could ever imagine how grand and old this place is!! We arrived at sunset, and jaws dropped to the bottom of the car. There was a lot of “wooooooahhh” and “Whaaaaaat??” and “Oh my gosh this is so COOL!!!” There was also a bit of “Please be quiet we are trying to park! This isn’t easy!!”. Note to travelers: driving in Italy is NOT easy! The roads are built for tiny little cars, not big, hulking Defenders with a load of six people. I give big applause to my mom for driving in Italy. But back to the house! The structure was built a few hundred years ago. It is one of the 700 (originally farmhouse) houses remodeled to accommodate residence. Now when I say this house is old, I mean it’s old. Like, at least a few hundred years ago. So old, that if you slam the door, the frame will crack and the plaster come out of the actual support of the house. (Yes… this did happen but it wasn’t our fault! 😉 I blame the wind.) The house has beds for up to 18 people, 6 bathrooms, one powder room, a kitchen, a pool, a courtyard, a terrace, balconies, a dining room, a very out-of-tune piano, a sitting room, and a killer view!! All the beds look like princess beds with lace; the whole ordeal included wardrobes and trunks at the end of the bed. I think for an overall rating, I LOVED staying here for when we did, but I wouldn’t come back… the downsides of the house included: no heating (except if you paid 10 euros an hour), so much wind!, the shades would rattle all night long the wind was so strong! I am very thankful that we did get to stay in The Castle House, and the experience wasn’t even over with just that place!
2) Eat all the Pizza We Can!!
Nobody does Pizza better than the Italians. That is just a well-known fact around the world. If you didn’t know that… then, sad sadness for you. But you know what Italy also excels at? Gluten-Free Pizza!! The first night we arrived, the first thing we did? Get dinner. What did we get for dinner? You guessed it! Killer all Italian gluten-free pizza!
3) Try Not to Die On the Roads – Driving In Italy.
Driving in Italy is incredibly difficult. Not only are the roads small for the average car in America, but they are also extremely windy. I would just like to give a large round of applause to both my mother and Mr. deBlois for their amazing driving skills while in Italy. You can never really get the full experience of driving in Italy until you do it physically yourself; if you look on my YouTube channel, you can watch the videos that I post on some of what it’s like, But you can never really get the full experience until you’re on the roads yourself. We spent about 3 hours driving every single day, and the best part was the highways. Most of the time I don’t like highways because of the traffic. But this time, a highway was Heaven to us. We were constantly going into Pompeii and out of Massa Lubrense so there was so much driving in that, but the number of times where our big hulking car got stuck in a sticky situation is uncountable. It was quite hilarious when the car would be beeping because something got too close to it, and Mom would be silently trying to keep her words down, saying particular things about the crazy driving and the car sounded like it was trying to censor her language. To be fair, driving was incredibly difficult; she did a better job than any of us could ever dream of doing. We were driving a big Defender, which if you don’t know, is pretty sizable for a car, especially for six people. But hey, it worked; the deBlois were driving a big van which is even more difficult! But the best drivers of all? Were the bus drivers. I kid you not; they were bus drivers in Italy driving poking tour buses for public transit buses. It was incredible. If you do plan to drive in Italy, get a smaller car, and have an open mind to those around you. Most of all, be prepared to be in literally tight situations!
4) Sunsets on the Amalfi Coast.
Some of my favorite times of the day are at sunset. The Amalfi Coast is a killer place to go if you want to see a good sunset. It’s the perfect place to chill, have a drink or a bite of really good Italian food, and watch the sun sink over the waves. We watched most of our sunsets while driving back from the Amalfi Coast to go home for sleep, but it was still an amazing view. The drive to the Amalfi Coast is quite extensive, and the traffic can be horrible, but in my opinion, it’s worth it.
5) Shopping on the Amalfi Coast.
Just like any other major tourist place, there are Classic Tour ships on the Amalfi coast. But you can also find amazing local shops selling authentic Italian things. This includes clothes or accessories. I still love shopping. 😀
6) Making Fresh Orange Juice.
Of all the things that I’ve done, I’ve never actually made fresh orange juice myself! But that was now going to change. My boyfriend Jacob and I got some oranges and decided to squeeze them. You cut them open, squeeze all the juice out, strain the juice, then you have fresh orange juice! It’s much better than any store-bought, quote, and quote, organic juice.
7) Visiting Pompeii.
There’s a crazy amount of things that I could say about Pompeii, but I’ll have to keep it brief. If you would like to know more fun facts you can visit my other post, 10 fun facts about Pompeii that you didn’t know in textbooks. One of the first days that we were in Massa Lubrense, we went to go visit Pompeii. If you don’t know the history, it was a large city on the coast of Italy that got buried in the great eruption Of Mount Vesuvius in ’76 AD. The city is most known for its preservation from being covered in Ash and lava. It is a common misconception that Pompeii was covered in lava. It was only covered in Ash and pumice Stones which helped preserve the buildings through so much time. We spent about 2 and 1/2 hours on a guided tour while in Pompeii. Many websites will tell you that there is no food or water while in Pompeii, but there are running fountains, and there is one food concession on the far end of the city. You are also able to bring in your own food snacks and water. Getting into Pompeii, I would recommend bringing any identification For anybody in your party. They will ask for passports or driver’s license IDs. I also highly recommend getting a guided tour. We would have learned so much less if we had just walked around and read all of the signs. With a guide, you are working with a professional and local who knows history better than you do. Plus, it’s fun to hear the history from someone who has a passion for what happened hundreds of years ago. There are many food shops around Pompeii, so that if you are hungry after your tour you can exit and get a delicious scoop of gelato!
8)Visiting Herculaneum
It is a common misconception that Pompeii was the only city buried by the great explosion of Mount Vesuvius. This is wrong. Vesuvius’s remnants covered four cities, even though we only got to visit too. The second one which was farther away and closer to the ocean, is called Herculaneum. It has only been excavated for about 100 years now. The city is fairly small and extremely well-preserved. You can enter any kind of day that you will still need IDs, passports, and tickets. I recommend giving yourself about 2 hours or more to explore this city since there is still as much history here as there is in larger cities. Something super awesome about Herculaneum was this one section called the Rejuvenation and Leisure section. After a long afternoon of touring, we found this place, with lounging chairs and an oasis covered in trees. It’s a perfect place and spot to take a nap! To go grab a bite to eat or take a scenic drive up the coast.
9) Easter in Italy.
Yes, we did go on another holiday in a foreign country. This is probably one of my favorite holidays because we spent it with friends. Easter was super awesome in Italy. Not only was it a time to remember how Christ died for us so that we may be forgiven of our sins, but it’s awesome to see how seriously you are taking the holiday. In America, it feels like it’s all about bunny rabbits and chocolate, but here in Europe, they take religion seriously. We actually went to a Catholic parade, I guess you could call it that, where there was a procession in detailing the story of the crucifixion through props. If you would like to see more, you can see my video on YouTube about this. Our Easter day was quite eventful, starting out with the Demolition of a large Easter Bunny. And then a fun Church service, and lunch. Now I guess this lunch probably wasn’t just a lunch. It was more like a breakfast lunch dinner and midnight snack all combined in one there was so much food. We had a total of 10 courses and a Michelin-star restaurant named ___. I tried so many new things like cold shrimp on ice, searing my own salmon on a hot stone, and so much more. There seems to be a story behind each dish and I highly recommend this restaurant. My day ended with Easter photos with my boyfriend. which was so much fun. Italy is a great place to go for Easter in my opinion, And I’m so glad we got to spend our time there this year.
10) Train to Rome!
Awesome Massa Lubrense came to a close and decided to take the train to Rome! Our train departed from Naples actually, but before we decided to leave, we went to one of the top gluten-free bakeries in all of Italy. This place, when we walked in, literally made our Jaws drop. All around us were gluten-free pastries. Croissants, on pain du chocolate, little other round things that I didn’t even know what they were, they were delicious. In the end, we ended up buying eight giant gluten-free donuts, seven little donuts, and 10 croissants. We were stocked for life! Or maybe just the next couple of days. We also decided to get a cake and the random pastries. But other than that, next stop: Rome!
