One of the things that motivates me most in this life of sin is the fact that traveling is a thing. Like…actually going out of your comfort zone, plunging into a world of languages that you will likely be foreign to, and learning about the different walks of life that are happening simultaneously with our every day routines blows my mind in the best way.
So I have set a goal for myself! Ever since I lived in London for 2 months, I knew that I wanted to get far, far away from the beautiful yet somewhat daunting lifestyle of being an actor in New York City (typical, I KNOW) and explore new lands outside of the U.S.A at least 2 times a year! So far, I have kept up my promise and am excited to plan the next adventure!
What I realized, though, is that I have not been writing down and sharing with the world the wonderful experiences I am having and little tips and tricks I learned along the way. I would like to change that! So here goes nothin’:
Part 1 CAPRI
I made my first trip of the year this past May when I finally made it over to Italy. Sweet, sweet Italy. Land of unlimited pasta, gelato, and pizza. (This is not an understatement these are basically the only menu options and I was pretty happy about it.) I met up with my friend Nikki (whom I love dearly) over at the airport in Rome. She flew in from California and I from NYC. Seeing her was strangely calming; I was expecting to jump on her with glee and freak out, but we saw each other and just warmly embraced and began our journey. It was like a really great calm before a beautiful fuckin’ storm.
After traveling 8 hours on the plane (uh…many more hours for her coming from Cali) we promptly hopped on 2 trains, a ferry, and a very small, pretty terrifying bus to the island of Capri. Here is where our journey begins.
We stayed in Anacapri at an airbnb that was absolutely beautiful with a very sweet, very adorable older couple who spoke little to no English. Thankfully, Nikki studied Italian in school and was able to translate and speak to our hosts pretty darn well! While we were in Capri (we were there for about 3 days), here is some of what we got to do:
-Swim into the Blue Grotto
-Hike down to the natural arcs and sit on the small cliffs next to Fontelina beach
-Visit the gardens of Augustus
-Take the chair lift up to Monte Solaro
-Visit the lighthouse and have wine and pizza at sunset
-Met an insane man named Antonino (Who is basically like the mayor of Capri)
-Walk through a thunderstorm and duck into a seemingly small cafe only to find that it was a huge, magnificent garden covered by a massive bamboo umbrella. Here we had an amazing dinner, got free dessert, free drinks, and even a ride home! haha
These are just a few highlights from the trip to Capri. It was the perfect amount of time to spend there, as it is an island.
Some tips/things we learned:
-Most of the things to do in Capri can be free! Not everyone gets to swim into the Blue Grotto, but that is only because it is very tucked away and it states that swimming is “Stricktly” (the signs spelling, not mine) prohibited. And, to be fair, the actual look of the grotto is pretty intimidating. There is just a small deck next to it that doesn’t allow you to see into the cave itself. Once you jump in the water and swim over a bit, you can see that there is a chain that you can hold onto that will guide you into the grotto (which looks pitch black but once you get inside it is glowing ELECTRIC blue!) Luckily, we met some locals who convinced us to go swim into it when we didn’t even know it was an option and it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip! The only thing on the list above that actually cost money was taking the chairlift up the mountain, and that was pretty cheap. And of course, we bought our own wine and pizza which in total was about 8-10 euro!
-Capri is not really a party place! Thinking it would mostly be on “island time”, the actual town of Capri was very, very quiet at night. There were about 3 major nightclubs, 2 of which were closed and 1 which had no one in it! To be fair, we were there on a Thursday night at the end of May. And after midnight more people began to roam the streets. Perhaps there is more that happens that we weren’t able to come upon!
-Always be open to meeting new people and making conversation! They will have great tips and advice on where to eat, what to see, and things to do that are free of charge.
-We stayed in Anacapri and that was something we were worried about at first thinking it would be far from everything, but quickly learned that it was a brilliant idea! It is a maze-like town that has very friendly, warm people and is actually a lot closer to Capri’s main attractions such as the Blue Grotto and Monte Solaro. Also, it is a lot cheaper and has many corner stores and shops that sell a delicious variety of pizzas for about 2-3 euro and massive bottles of water for .70 euro!
-If you like hiking, there is plenty to explore and see here! I think it’s a great option to start off with on a trip to Italy because you only need a few days there, it’s actually fairly affordable if you are using airbnb and splitting with a friend (it only cost me about $127 for 3 nights! Not 2 shabby)
-Something that is not a bad idea if you enjoy traveling is to take a credit card out specifically for when you plan on making these sorts of trips. I planned my trip a couple of months in advance and paid for my flight and both airbnbs using my debit card so I wouldn’t have to worry about those things being taken care of. The credit card comes into play when you are actually overseas! I took out some Euro, but mostly used the card to pay for any transportation, meals, and extra little things I wanted. Be aware that they don’t really take Discover card over seas at all. I don’t know if this is fairly common knowledge, but I learned that the hard way in France when I ran out of Euro and couldn’t use my credit card. Give yourself a fair limit that you know you will be able to pay off over a couple of months.
I am really excited to share part 2 of this trip, which was when we ventured back up the coast and went to Rome! I feel like I have so much to share and don’t want to overwhelm, but should you have any questions feel free to reach out! Also, follow me on Instagram to see some sweet pics! @katie_lugo