On Tuesday morning we set out for the Southern Italy tour. Waking up at 6 am after a week of midterms was not exactly what we all had in mind for our fall break. Neither was going on tours of ancient sites, museums and being in Naples, a city full of garbage. Turns out while most of us were dreading going, it ended up a lot better than we thought it would.
Tuesday began with out 3-hour drive to Pompeii, where we visited all the ruins of the city that had been uncovered under almost 2000 years of volcanic ash, dirt and everything else under the sun. As we walked along the ancient city, we saw bars, houses, roman baths, theaters and shops. The city was a perfect construction of a roman town and as we walked along the city, we didn’t just see how life was like 2000 years ago but we saw how a city stopped dead in it’s tracks. There was graffiti on the walls for upcoming political elections and bodies of victims frozen in their last positions, some knocked over from the ash after suffocating, others crouched covering their mouths. As we left Pompeii we saw how the people lived and how similar they were to us.
After Pompeii we settled into our hotel in Naples, found yummy pizza and went grocery shopping. Everyone went to bed far earlier than they had probably in years, since most students were asleep at 10 pm.
Waking up at 7 again to head to the archeological museum was much better after a nice breakfast of fresh pastries on the terrace at the hotel. The museum ended up being closed for All Saint’s Day (a legal holiday in Italy) so we headed to Cumae, which is the location of the acropolis of Cumae and of Sybil’s Cave. For students not in the mythology course, the cave was well a cave, but if you’ve read the Aeneid (or listened to the student presentations on it), it’s the spot of a fortune telling Sybil who helps Aeneas on his journey.
After our morning tours we were let free to wander around Naples. My group chose to visit the Castle of the Egg on the bay of Naples, which led to breath taking views of the city and the sea. We then wandered through the main street, soaking up the activity of Naples. This city was so unlike Rome but I can’t exactly say how, it’s just one of those things you have to experience on your own.
For dinner that night we wandered around looking for a pizza place. Naples is known to be the best city in the entire world for pizza, and they weren’t lying. I’ve never had better pizza in my entire life, including the 6 weeks I’ve been living in Rome. We happened to stumble upon the pizzeria in Eat Pray Love where we each ate too much pizza, took a few too many photos trying to be Julia Roberts and made great friends with the staff.
Thursday was the day of the Almafi drive. If you’ve never heard of the Almafi coast, look it up, because it’s absolutely gorgeous. We packed ourselves into two smaller buses and drove for 4 hours down roads that resembled ribbon candy on cliffs compared to actual roads with a driver who drove a tad too fast. Tad may be an understatement since most of the girls were a little carsick by the time we stopped in Almafi, but it was worth it. The sites were beautiful and once we arrived in the city for our hour break, we didn’t want to leave. The city is known for it’s limoncello and you find it every in crazy looking bottles but the city also has very friendly people and some even better olive oil.
After transferring to the bigger bus with our much better driver (much to everyone’s happiness), we headed to Paestum, which is the site of some of the best-preserved Greek temples in the entire world. Dr. Prebys (the program director) wasn’t joking when she said they were better preserved than in Greece. I took so many pictures because I was so astounded by them and the archeological professor I was with on the tour made everything come alive.
On Friday, our last day in Naples, we were ushered to two museums. The first was the archeological museum, which held artifacts from Pompeii and a large collection of Greek statues. We browsed the collection of warriors and Gods and had a little too much fun trying to decide if Apollo’s head was really on Aphrodite’s body. The professors in this program make all of the visits fun and you learn without even realizing.
The Capodimonte museum afterwards though was one where all of the students could agree they didn’t want to leave. We got a break from the ancient world and looked at Italian renaissance art in a beautiful palace.
For our last night, a few of us went back to the pizza place we’d discovered earlier. They workers remembered us and were so nice. They wanted to take more photos with us, had pizzas in front of us in less than 3 minutes and dealt with all of our excitement. After dinner we were sad to leave because not only had we grown to like Naples, but we were sad to leave the pizza place. We decided if it had been in Rome, it would have been our place to go; sort of how in Friends, they had Central Perk.
As we left Naples early Saturday morning we all looked back on the trip we’d once been dreading. Everyone had a better perspective on the last six weeks and was excited to get back to Rome. It was funny how the minute we got back to the city limits, everyone was excited; Rome has really become our home the last few weeks. Halfway through I can say I learned so much already, everything from knowing if you want the most of the experience, to take archeology, art history or archeology to finding the best gelato places all over Italy. This trip was so much better than I thought it would be, but I was so happy to return to Rome. This week just solidified how happy I am that I studied abroad and I’m looking forward to the rest of my semester here.
No comments:
Post a Comment