Rome, Sorrento, and Pompei: Excursion 1

So the last 3 days I have been on my first excursion of the trip abroad. It was filled with ups and downs and I think I am still sorting out how I feel about the whole thing so here is the play by play.

Monday which seems like a millenia ago, we ended class early and headed to the train station in Arezzo. Kiran, Spencer, Kaitlin, Nikki, Meredith and I had reserved a car for ourselves and took off on the direct train to Naples. This was probably one of the nicest trains we have been on so far and it was GREAT to have our own room to ourselves. We pulled the curtains (to keep unwanted creepers away) turned off the lights and slept on and off for the four hours to Napoli. So when I pictured Naples I pictured a sort of Raleigh like city in the countryside with a large overlook of the coast of Italy. WRONG! Naples I now know is pretty much the armpit of Italy and the scariest ghetto-looking area I have been too in a long time. When we exited the train a nice Italian boy named Fillipo showed us to the subway to get to sorrento and on our way there I saw a woman throw up into the train track rails (WELCOME TO NAPLES FOLKS!) I should have known then to expect the unexpected on this trip lol. So anyway we got on the subway for about a hour or so and arrived in Sorrento. Which again was nothing like I pictured, granted it was overlooking the ocean but the weather was pretty crudy. Our hostel though was very nice and much cleaner than I expected it to be. For a six person room it was pretty spacious and had just enough of the ammenities to keep us satisfied. The first night we grabbed a light snack for dinner and met some Canadians, Brits, and Americans and played a large series of card games so that was nice. We turned in fairly early cause we had to wake up early the next morning. The next morning we woke up around 8 got our complimentary breakfast and hopped on the first train bound for Pompei. Pompei was probably the highlight of my entire trip. Its this huge ancient town that was destroyed when a large volcano in the area covered it in lava and molten ash, but this disaster also preserved the remains for centuries. You can see roads, houses, gardens, even a theatre. Its cool to see how innovative the people were back then, in the roads they have large rocks in the intersections that were used when the roads were forcibly flooded to clean them and citizens used the rocks to cross over the flooded streets. There are also remains of the unfortunate souls that didnt survive the volcano attack. I know its creepy but I took pictures of the statues I guess you would call them. I kept thinking about what they were doing right before it happend and what they looked like before they were essentially molded into a statue. Ok so after about 3 hours of exploring pompei we went into town grabbed another cheap lunch and went into this limoncello factory. Limoncello is a lemon flavored liquer that is native to that area. We also discovered that there was a man there that made hand made shoes, so I counseled with mom and did my first and only splurge of the Italy portion of the trip. I bought myself a nice pair of sandals that I had custom made to my feet, I got to pick the colors and everything. I took about a million pictures of the man (his name was castello) making them so I will post those as soon as I can. Then it began to pour outside so we rushed back to the subway and headed back to Sorrento. Some of the girls met boys that night and stayed out way too late so I got very little sleep that night making sure everyone was okay and safe. The next morning we woke up around 6:45, grabbed breakfast, and headed on the first train back to Naples or the armpit as I call it. After arriving we got on the next possible train and went to rome.

The train to rome was a Eurostar which was a very swanky train but we couldnt all sit together and it was extra money to reserve it so I wasnt that impressed. The train station in Rome though was super nice and I knew from the moment we got off the train that I was going to like Rome much more than Naples ( I mean no one threw up in front of me in this station so that right there made me like it even more!) Our hostel in Rome was about four blocks from the station ( you will find out later that this was a very good thing) and so nice. It was called the Alessandro Palace and its suited just for young travelers. It was about 30 euro a night so a bit more than we wanted to pay but it did offer free breakfast and dinner so it sort of was a good deal in the long run. Our six bedroom was clean but quite odd since you had to stick the key to the room in this little slot for the electricity and air conditioning to work. Anywho, after we dropped our stuff we set out on our first walk to the Colloseum. So on this trip, I have become the card carrying map reader (they call me the bloodhound ;) Which I am actually pretty proud about because if you asked me to read a map 14 days ago I would have had no clue. Granted it took a bit of fenagalling but I finally got us there. Then we tried to find an atm which was an illustrious fail so we decided to just chip in for each other for the ticket in to the Colloseum. Then we got roped in to our first tour of the trip which to be honest I didnt really think was all that worth it. Granted, we got to bypass the line in, but a lot of what the guy talked about I already knew. The colloseum was beautiful and very well preserved, I enjoyed it and we stayed about 2 hours inside. You cant actually climb as high in it as I thought we could, but the second level had a good view of the mechanics inside so I got some interesting pictures. After that we walked past ancient rome, pass this huge monument called the wedding cake, to the Trevi fountain. The fountain was probably my favorite place we visited in Rome. It was ten times bigger than I thought and very crowded but it had this peace about it that was exactly what I needed at that point. When we got there our feet were pretty well tuckered out so we grabbbed some of the most glorious gelatto I have had so far and had a bit of a sit down. I had a big ol' cone of menta stracciatella (mint chocolate chip) caffe (coffee) and niccolia (hazelnut) I know I know weird combo but it was amazing! So we sat for a bit and than took pictures and tossed in our coins. I tossed in two coins which is suppose to signify that A) I will come back to Rome soon and B) I will fall in love in Italy (go figure). Afterwards we walked about in the marked and I picked up some postcards and checked out the area around the fountain. I also got sexually harassed by a living statue in the area dressed up as Charlie Chaplan. Yes folks its impossible for an italian man to look my way but Charlie Chaplans have no problem expressed their interest (my luck) and we committed a cardinal sin of study abroad and ate at mcdonalds. It was the best mcdonalds I have ever been too (it had burgers on foccacia bread) and spencer even got a beer in a italian sippy cup. We then trudged our way back to the hotel about an hour walk and crashed from the excercise. All the girls showered and than we went down for dinner. After that I was feeling a bit low and I went back upstairs to shower and relax.

Today, we visited the vatican. We took another very long and in my opinion expensive tour but again we got to bypass the lines so that was good. The vatican city was beautiful and immense and I was quite bummed we didnt have time to see everything. We did however get to see one of the museums and the Sisteen Chapel, which was beautiful. Its much smaller in person but one of the most ornate churches we have visited so far. Our tour guide taught us some neat stuff about Michelangelo and I learned that he really did not want to have anything to do with painting this church which seems ironic for all the prestige it now receives. We also learned that back in the day one of the cardinals gave Michelangelo flack about his paintings (which included alot of nudity that this particular cardinal didnt appreciate) so late one night Michelangelo sneaked into the chapel rubbed out on of the faces and repainted it in this mans likeness. The man he turned into the cardinal was actually the mythological human figure that was suppose to be the gatekeeper of hell tehe ;) and then the pope wouldnt allow the cardinal to have his face removed so its still there in the right corner of the judgement.

After that, we booked it back to the Trainstation via the metro, and realized we had only ten minutes till the last train back to Arezzo left. This where the trip gets interesting, we quickly designated four of us (spencer, kaitlin, nikki, and yours truly) to RUN back to the hotel grabbed ALL our bags and RUN back in less than ten minutes mind you. Apparently all this walking has put us in better shape because I have not ran that fast since jr. high. We basically sprinted four blocks (in my crocs) to the hostel. Formed a line and heaved bags to one another and than ran back to the station in six minutes! When we arrived the two girls with all our purses had moved from where they were before so we were left money and phoneless. All of my lack of sleep than caught up too me and I began to cry and curse quietly in the middle of the station next to the train we needed to get on until heavenly spencer and kaitlin found Kiran and Meredith and we all boarded the train. I have never been so happy to get on a smelly train before! We sat down and I couldnt believe we had done it, I was so proud of myself I could have just kissed myself if it was possible. Granted, I was embarassed I lost it along the way, but hey growing pains I guess...


Look for some postcards coming your way(s) soon.
All my love, miss you all so much
Hopefully the next post wont be so long!
Ciao
SB