Southern Tour - part 3.

Where did I leave off?
Oh yes, the Greek Temples at Agrigento.
That was such a long day.
We ate lunch at like 11 that morning (which is really early for Italy) and then didn't eat dinner til after 8!! We were famished.
Our dinner was a lot of fun though - and it was roasted chicken breast...I had just said earlier in the day how much I would love to have that for dinner! After dinner we decided to spy on this guy and this girl that have started dating; so we tailed them for about 30 minutes...and then couldn't find them. Amy, Libby, Tyler, Nick, Riccardo and I ended up wondering through the olive groves and ended up back at one of the temples...apparently we weren't supposed to be there and the guard made us leave. Whatever!

I think I'm on Friday. I know that everyone really enjoys my play-by-play.
We took a bus to Monreale and went to some church that had a lot of Byzantine artwork inside -- mosaics with lots of gold on the ceiling. We climbed to the top (which wasn't very tall) and ate our lunch overlooking the town of Monreale; it was pretty gloomy. This guy stood up there for a while as we ate our lunch and didn't say much but just seemed to be observing us. This will come into play later.

We left Monreale and traveled to Palermo...home of the Godfather! We visited the Cappucin Church (google it, it's creepy) and saw the Teatro Massimo (a very expensive theater; 3rd Godfather is filmed partly on these steps. Palermo was nothing too special. We got on a boat at the port around 8 pm. It was a big boat! It had 8 or 9 decks. I had never been on such a boat.
It was not as cool as a cruise liner or anything - but it was definitely cush for one night on the sea. We ate a huge dinner and then sat in the bar (Italian cafe) til about 11 just visiting and listening to Mona and Riccardo tell funny stories about using the wrong phrases/words in their second language. Slept real NICE and docked in Naples around 6 am. I slept much better on the boat than I did on that stinkin' train! The rocking of the water rocked me to sleep.

Regardless of how well we slept on the boat we were still tired. So, when it came time for our 2 hour bus tour of Naples --- I think pretty much every one slept. We got off the bus and went into the Naples Nazionale Arcaheological Museum - and it was FREEZING. I don't know why these museums think that they can't have heat. The floors are marble, the walls are marble, the ceilings are marble, the old stuff is marble - heat will not hurt it!!!

We saw a ton of things. But, the highlights were the bronzes that were uncovered in a villa in Herculaneum (destroyed by Vesuvius) and all the mosaics recovered from homes and businesses in Pompei. I understand now why Dr. Warren did not take us there when we came to Italy my senior year; there was some pretty graphic stuff going on in Pompei. We went down to the ground level and saw a ton of ginormous sculptures from monoliths. I like sculptures. I think they are quite impressive.

We went onward to Pompei. I really can't describe this to you. It was huge - really a very big city and at least 1/3 of it (it may be 2/3s I can't remember) lies covered still. Walls, roads and mosaics were still in tact and in many buildings there were still frescoes on the walls. Vesuvius really did preserve the town well.
Pictures?
This was the most beautiful thing in Pompei; It was so well preserved. This is a fresco in one of the most affluent villas in Pompei.


Captured in the last moments.


We took a train to Sorrento from Pompei and headed to our hotel. It was a creepy hotel. It was built into the side of the hill. You walked in on the top floor and had to walk DOWN to get to your room. The lights flickered a lot when they came on...it was just creepy. We ate dinner at a pizzeria and the food was AWESOME. The atmosphere? Well, it was creepy too. That whole night was creepy. No more details. Basically we needed the ghostbusters though!!

We had gelato at this world famous place called PrimaVera. The owner of the gelateria has made dessert for the Pope before! In the square of Sorrento he had made a chocolate Ferrari! And, there was a brand new Ferrari on display. It was very nice. Brett said, "That is the sexiest thing I have ever seen" in reference to that car. It was humorous.

Sunday...(this trip is SO LONG!!!) We took a ferry to Capri where we got on a boat and took a boat tour together around the island for about 2 hours (we all got a little pink in the face). While on the boat tour we got in little row boats and went into the Blue Grotto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Grotto) where the Roman Emperors (specifically Tiberius) used to swim when they were at their villas on Capri. The boat ride was really wonderful...and Robbie, who is wonderful, ended up paying for all of us. He's a nice guy.

Roaming around Capri was nice and relaxing. Really February isn't a great time to go to these resort towns because nothing is really open. But, we also went to Villa San Michele which was owned by Axel Munthe (a Swede) and he lived there until 1949 and now it has been turned into a museum because he collected so many historical artifacts and preserved them in his house so well.

We took the ferry back to Sorrento and walked back to the hotel after we went and saw the HUGE Ferrari exhibit in the square that night. Not only was there at least 1 brand new one - there were 7 or 8 cars that were less than 5 years old and one that was a Ferrari Classic. It was pretty neat.

We ate dinner in the restaurant in the hotel and members of the church in Naples came and ate with us as well. We had a nice devotional afterwards. I love how every time we worship with the Italians we sing in Italian and in English..and I love singing "Ti amo con l'amour di Gesu" (I love you with the love of the Lord) because we know that one and it's nice to sing in their language too. One of the Neapolitan guys did a magic show for us afterwards. It really made me miss Mr. Geoffrey and all his AWESOME magic tricks!

Got up early the next morning; packed our bags and locked them up in a room and took a bus to Positano. I'm not sure why. It was a pretty boring place. We sat at a bar for probably 2 hours. I did get some awesome hot chocolate. I realized, that if you order cioccolato con panna you get it with whipped cream --- so it's not quite as bitter as just cioccolato caldo (hot chocolate).
Trained home and...well, here I am.

We didn't have class til 2 this afternoon - which allowed everyone to sleep in and recover. Semi.
I'm still pretty tired.


My mom called today; My Uncle Pat died. He's technically my great-uncle, but for the past couple of years I've stayed with them a bunch of times when I've gone to Memphis to visit Jonathan and we always visited them when I was a kid. But, I've really formed a relationship with them the past couple of years. He got really sick right before I left (he had colon/lung cancer the past 4 years) and I went to visit him in the hospital when I was visiting before HUF. I like to think that he knew I was there when I did visit him - but, I'm so glad that I did get to see him that one last time. My heart hurts a lot because I feel so far away from home - and I can't be there to give my Aunt Dorothy a hug or my grandmother either --- I just can't be there. If I was at Harding I could be there right this minute to take care of my Aunt. But, I know that my cousins are there and that everything is okay, but it still really makes me homesick.

Sigh. Those were 3 epic posts. But, I think I'm caught up.

Ciao!!