Hostel Of The Sun: Award-Winning Hostel In The Heart Of Naples, Italy

Includes: round trip boat ride to Capri Island with a skipper, boat tour around island including the Grotta Azzura, lunch and free bar on the boat.

If you plan on visiting Capri Island this boat tour is definitely the best value for your money. You will be picked up by a skipper on a speed boat and will be provided with lunch and a free bar.

Ravello is indisputably the romantic capital of the Amalfi coast. Inhabited by only 2,500 people, it sits pretty in the high hills above Amalfi. The town is tidy and geared towards tourists. In the past the town has hosted its share of bohemian characters, including Virginia Woolf, DH Lawrence and Wagner. Nowhere else on theAmalfi Coast can you beat the spectacular views, majestic gardens and relaxing atmosphere you find in Ravello.

Procida is the smallest and considered the most “authentic” of the Bay’s three main islands. Barely frequented and known by tourists, this is the island those looking for a more genuine locals experience will want to visit. Inhabitants of the island quietly live their day to day lives without much interruption or influence from tourist centers or the mainland. Upon arriving ashore you will be greeted with a colorful scheme of cubic houses along the waterfront.

Cuma was the first ancient Greek settlement on Italian mainland (Magna Graecia). It is said to have been founded in the 8th century b.c. by settlers who had already colonized the island of Ischia. It is located northwest of Naples and is most famous for the Sybil of Cuma. The Sybil was a prophetic priestess sacred to the Greek god Apollo. From her cavern Her sanctuary is open for public view.

A true feat for Italian baroque architecture, the colossal royal Palace of Caserta (Reggia di Caserta) has been dubbed the Versailles of Italy. It was constructed in the 18th century for the Bourbon kings of Naples. A jaunt along its mosaic marble floors and under its gold adorned ceilings will make you feel like royalty yourself. If you aren’t intimidated by the size and luxury of the palace itself, try getting lost in the elaborate maze of gardens, sculptures and fountains in the palace’s backyard.

If you want to experience what the ancients used to consider “the entrance to the regions of hell”, then you can’t miss a walk atop the Solfatara Volcano. There is nothing to fear, as the volcano is dormant, like all of the volcanos in the Campi Flegrei area. However, you should prepare yourself for sensory overload of the nose. The Solfatara volcano is famous today mainly for its explosions of sulphuric gases, topping 160 degrees, its boiling mud pit and its carbon vapors. The combination of green, blue, yellow and red exploding out of the ground is truly an exhibition of mother nature´s ability to create the brightest, most vivid colors you may ever see in person. This volcano is a preferred stop for travelers of any age, with any interest.

Pompeii

Opening Times: April-October: daily 8.30 am – 7.30 pm
November-March daily 8.30 am – 5 pm
Last entry one hour before closing time.

Price: Entry costs 11 euros (5.50 euros for EU students, under 18 or above 65 free)
Required time: at least 3 or 4 hours.

Pompeii is one of Italy’s most visited tourist attractions. It stands at the foot of Mount Vesuvius that, with its eruption on the 24th of August 79 AD, destroyed the city of Pompeii by completely covering it in stones and ash. Pompeii lay undiscovered until in 1748 when excavations began on the site, revealing a city frozen in time. A

Population: 5,000

Amalfi is a beautiful town located on the spectacular Amalfi coast around 40 km southeast of Naples. As with the majority of towns along the coast, Amalfi attracts mostly day-trippers and as a result does not have a huge amount of hotels. Those, which it does have, will be very difficult to get a place in the summer months. It is advisable to stay in Naples and head over to the coastal town for the day.

Population: 16,500

Sorrento is a cliff-side town that overlooks the Bay of Naples. The town is famous for its steep slopes, beautiful views of Naples and Vesuvius and most of all Limoncello.

Facts:
Size: about 10 km by 7 km, the largest of the islands in the Bay of Naples, with an area of 47 m² and 37 km of coastline
Population: around 60,000
Location: around 30km from Naples

Although not to the extent of it’s neighbour, Capri, Ischia, the largest of the islands off the coast of Naples, attracts a large number of German and English tourists. Ischia has fantastic beaches, a few very pretty towns, and a number of thermal spa resorts. Despite not being as famous as it’s neighbour, it is considered by most to be the more beautiful of the two. Ischia is also used as the location of some of the scenes in the film The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Capri

Capri

Facts:
Inhabitants: around 7,000. The island has up to 5,000 visitors a day over the summer months.
Size: 6 km x 2.7 km
Pronounced Capri NOT Capri, this island is a single block of limestone in the Bay of Naples that remains relatively unspoilt, despite the masses of tourists that flock there over the summer months. At it’s closest point, it is around 5 km from the mainland.

Nowhere in the world can you have a deeper insight into how Roman life would have been than in Pompeii and Herculaneum. While Pompeii was covered in volcanic ash when Vesuvis ernupted in AD 79, Herculaneum, already partly destroyed by an earthquake in AD 63, being much closer to the volcano was completely submerged in mud, essentially fossilising the whole town. This fossilisation allowed the preservation of many more objects, however delicate. Although smaller than Pompeii, it is though that Herculaneum was a much wealthier town.

What’s the main reason people enjoy visiting here?

Mt Vesuivius is one of the most active volcanoes in europe, and it’s the only one that’s still active and located on the european mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, it’s most recently occuring in 1944. The Volcano is famous all over the world for his eruption in 79 DC that lcaused the destruction of Pompeii and Hercolaneum, now considered to be the best preserved Roman cities in the world.