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!!

Southern Italy Tour - part 1.

What a trip! I'm not sure where to even begin my story - but I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning.
Another epic-ly long post is about to happen. But don't worry, this was an epic trip so it is definitely warranted.

Our trip began last Monday (the 18th) around 9 pm when our train pulled out of one of the smaller stations here in Florence. It was our first experience with a "couchette" (koo-chet) -- aka an overnight train car with 6 people to a tiny compartment. Let me just say - it was a little (a lot) creepy. Nevertheless, our entire group was in one car (for the most part) and most everyone had just our people in their compartments. I was lucky enough to be in a room with 5 other girls. So, I took dramamine - we shut and double locked the door and attempted to sleep on this long train ride to Reggio Calabria.

Sleeping was overrated; I tried not to think about how fast the train was going and how since I was on the middle bunk I would fly out if we stopped to quickly...but, we arrived in Calabria safely the next morning...around 6 am. If I had only known the long day that was about to happen!

We got onto a bus and rode into town and stopped at a bar for cappucinos (or hot chocolate) and pastries -- this seems to be the first thing we do...anywhere really. We dawdled around waiting for the Archaeological museum to open. Finally it did and well, let's just say I don't remember much about it except the notes I took during class. We did see the Riace bronzes though -- they are 2 of 4 or 5 bronzes still in tact in the world. They are free-standing (also amazing). They were cool I suppose.

We left the museum, got on a bus, the bus got on a ferry and we took a ferry across the Straits of Messina to Taormina, Sicily. We checked into our Really nice hotel only to find out that there was no heat (a pipe busted and they failed to let Robbie know) in any of the rooms. All the rooms were tile -- so, needless to say I slept in 2 pairs of socks, stretchy pants, three shirts, my fleece jacket and my scarf that night. Thankfully it was semi-fixed the next day.

We met up and took bus up the 'mountain' where the town was actually located (our hotel was about 2 flights of stairs above the shoreline, so to get 'up' to the town would've been a long walk!). And, we visited an ancient Greco-Roman theater. Mona-Lee wanted to take a picture of our entire group sitting in the amphitheater; so we all walked up and scrunched together so she could snap the picture. While we were up there, Robbie yelled "Mona-Lee, sing something! Let's hear the acoustics!!" Now, Mona-Lee is a piano teacher and she majored in vocal (I think) in college and she does have a beautiful voice. She got embarrassed but once we started chanting her name she began to sing. Funny, but right before she started to sing a group of Italians had walked in and sat on the opposite side of the theater. They started cheering when she finished and yelling "Encore!!" - unfortunately, she blushed even more and refused to sing another note.

We were given free time that evening to eat together and explore the town. So, Amy, Coulter, Tyler, Nick, Riccardo and I saw this old castle situated on the highest point of this mountain (it was called a mountain, I promise!) and decided that would be the perfect place to watch the sunset. So, we made the trek up the hill -- hundreds of stairs...I promise! And finally made it to a flat point where we could see every little town and the Mediterranean and Mt. Etna. We could see the castle up above, but we realized it was locked so we pretty much gave up and decided to watch the sunset from there. However...all of a sudden we heard someone yell at us and we turned around and! There was Brett, standing ON TOP of the castle and waving his arms. He, JT, Nathan and Travis had hiked up from that point and climbed the walls and got in. As they were moving to the gate (we had hiked up this far by then) they realized that they had actually broken in because there was a huge lock on the gate. But, that didn't stop us.

We climbed the wall (yes, I climbed an old rock castle wall) and got to the top of the castle and the 10 of us watched the sun set. It was one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen.

I will leave you with a few pictures because I must go eat breakfast and begin a project; however, there is much more to tell - so check back often!

This is the sun setting behind a smoking Mount Etna (still active volcano!)


Sometime today I'll figure out how to rotate this. After we conquered the castle.


Ciao!

canoli anyone?

I am in Sicily - I have been here since the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
Tuesday evening I watched the sunset from a high point in Taormina - but, the sun went down behind mount Etna...so it was definitely beautiful.
I took a boat on Wednesday with a group of friends around the coves there and we went into the caves along the shore....we were in the Mediterranean.
We are in Agrigento today - which used to be a Greek colony so there are lots of Greek temples.
Tomorrow we go to Palermo.
Then take a bus to Napoli (Naples) then onward to Sorrento, Capri and the Amalfi Coast.

I don't know when I'll have internet again...but I'll be back in the villa Monday evening for sure :]

Ciao!