Well, I think it's safe to say that I am easily distracted from writing or I just do not update as often as I would like. I've never been super great at keeping journals in the first place, seeing as I usually can only write when I feel the need. And the need is usually random thoughts I keep to myself at the fear of sounding stupid, something I don't want to forget (like dreams, ideas, etc.), or making my yearly list of favorite things. I usually even promise myself to write in my journal everyday, which still has not happened since 7th grade. Whoops. My parents are not avid journal goers, as far as I know, so as Freud would, why don't we blame it on them. Therefore, my lack of journaling is because of my parent's lack of journaling.
I hope that is enough, to pardon my journaling.
...I love you Mum & Dad! (insert sheepish smile here) :cD
So to move on, Naples.
Well, we left the apartment a bit later than we meant to, but we started walking anyways. We had to get to Termini Station, which is farther from our apartment than it seems. Especially when some paths are closed off without warning. So, we searched for a taxi, which we finally found in front of the huge white monument dedicated to Italy's first king & queen or something. We got to the station with a few minutes to spare, but we were one of the last groups to arrive and had to disperse among everyone else on the train. I attempted to sleep, since it was early and I had no idea how long this day would be, in terms of walking. I was not very successful.
We got there at I forget when, and were herded into a museum. It turned out to be the Museo Archelogico Nazionale. It had a plethora of cool sculptures. We had a few hours in there and in those hours, our teacher Francesco took us around for a brief sort of tour and then gave us another hour or so to sketch and explore on our own. My particularly liked this sculpture and came back to draw it later:
Anyways, then we had time for lunch (but not enough for me to find the place for the BEST PIZZA in the WORLD! mentioned by Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love...sigh) before getting an impromptu tour of Naples, courtesy of our teachers. It was kinda fun, it not confusing, since we weren't told where we were going. We just got moved around a bunch of places and then got handed pastries, which I believe are called sfogliatelli. It's hard to explain them, but they're basically pastries that were wrapped up a whole bunch in very thin dough and at its center tastes like red hots. They were very good and filling, but very much random.
After that, we continued walking for awhile, the most exciting thing being we had a stray dog follow our teacher, barking at him most of the time. Interesting. And then after a few extra detours, we were back at the train station, waiting to get on the next train to Sorrento! Hooray! There were a few mix-ups with which train to take, since when the first train came in the station, we all jumped on it, thinking this was it. Well. One of our teachers then came knocking at the windows and signalling us to get out, so we ran out as fast as we could. Unfortunately, a few girls did not get the message and got stuck on the wrong train. Good thing one of them had a phone though, so it was all settled pretty quickly. It just took them a little extra time.
The train ride to Sorrento was pretty uneventful other than that. I gazed out the window listening to my iPod most of the time. And I watched a couple videos too. The countryside was pretty wonderful to space to and I loved one area which after coming back on the same train, sitting on the same side, I still don't know what it was called. The buildings were a strange color that I can't entirely remember, but I do remember a woman hanging up a lot of white sheets on her balcony, which happened to be the highest point of the building, before the roof. It was a beautiful scene for me, although I'm sure it sounds pretty mediocre to you. Ach, well, hopefully you can believe me. It was wonderful.
Arriving in Sorrento allowed me to see another side of Italy for the first time; Rome is very much a city area, which makes it similar to home but still different because of the older architecture and its layout. Naples is the same way, only the people have more edge to them and there's a little more rubbish about. Sorrento however, it completely different. For one thing, there is a shortage of grass and plants in Rome, which is difficult for me, since I never realized how much I love green. I mean, knew I loved parks, but I didn't realize I would miss them so easily. So from now on, I will never take parks, or green grass for that matter, for granted.
But moving back on topic, Sorrento is a smaller sort of town, that has much more greenery to it and much more flowers. In a word, it's beautiful. I wish we had had more time there, since it really was a great place to explore. Upon arrival, we were shown the way to the center of town, where we learned how to get to Capri (which I will go into later) and then after a little confusion, we were lead to our hotel. We got to stay at a really adorable place, that had names of flowers/plants on its doors instead of numbers, and had kiwis above the walkway to the actual entrance. Also, our room was cool; you had to go downstairs to get to our bathroom. I loved it.
We had a few hours to explore before our delicious dinner, which is a tradition for the ISU Rome Program, at The Lemon Tree Restaurant. Our exploring was mostly shopping, which is when I picked up a few postcards and Alice got a sweet sweatshirt that I think looks more like a jacket. But we'll not get into that debate here. Moving on, we met up with the rest of the group and once everyone was there, we headed to the place. The best way for me to describe it, would be charming. It had vines all tangled in the ceiling and lots of glass, making the place very open and feel as if you were just sitting outside your house, having this amazing meal. And it was amazing, I'm not kidding. I still think the appetizers (antipasti, in Italian) were my favorite:
I can't tell you all that was on it (I know there was bruschetta!), but it was super crazy delicious. The courses were too, but this one was so much fun for me. Oh, and yes, I did eat that leaf thing in its entirety. It was mint-like.
After dinner we had the choice of either going back/exploring what was open at that time of the night, or going across the street to the discotheque with our teachers, for a flat fee of so many euros but you also got a free drink. It was a bit expensive and I was honestly pretty exhausted, so I didn't think it would ultimately be a good idea. Plus, I had a lot of wine at dinner (the table wine was very good, I did not mention that, did I?), which had made me just a tad dizzy, so sleep seemed like the best option; more alcohol, ah, no thanks, I think I filled my quota for the night. Although it was hard to turn down the offer of seeing my teachers bust-a-move, especially since one, who also happens to be the director of the program, wanted to get Francesco (he's the teacher for my section) to dance on a table. And he apparently kept saying, all confused, "What are you saying??" That may have been worth the money, but instead I got to go back and relax in my bed while talking with friends for an hour or two. Good conversations or awkward dance party? Yeah, I like my decision.
NEXT DAY!
Today we got up and had breakfast at our hotel before heading out the way we came the day before, to get back on the same train and this time, stop at Herculaneum. Good-bye beautiful Sorrento! I'll see you again before the day ends though.
Until that happens, it's time to discuss the homework we had! So, we were supposed to be ready to present a 20 minute speech in our groups of 3 people to our sections, about a particular part of Herculaneum. Of course, my friends and I had not even thought about it or read what we needed to for this assignment, since there had not been a lot of time between other projects, packing, and now exploring, so we all took parts of the reading and went at it on the train. I learned about random things, but what I mostly remember was early plumbing. It was riveting. Anyways, since we ended up a packed train, many of us were sitting in the standing compartment, hoping not too many people would get on. Dumb thought; of course people will get on, it's a Friday morning. Which meant we eventually had to stand up and attempt to read our articles on a moving train. It doesn't sound difficult, but when you try to underline the important things with a pencil in these circumstances, it gets interesting. Eeks.
In the end, we all got through our sections one way or another to have something to present or rattle about, so we could give a good speech and hopefully teach our classmates something. And by that time, we were in Herculaneum.
And wow. That was, sorry to day, kinda a dump.
People complain about trash on the streets in some areas of town, or say that Paris is dirty and smells (false, just so you know) and may have said Naples was kinda dirty (which would be correct, since they do have a few corners of filth every so often). HOWEVER, they have not been to Herculaneum, which is apparently not ready for the tourists, despite its wonderfully preserved ruins, since they do little to tidy up the place. There were trash on corners, on streets, all over the place. And I was only on one street. It was a bit weird, going from Sorrento, which was gorgeous, to this hole-in-the-wall called Herculaneum. Regardless of whether or not Vesuvius is an active volcano (which it is, I just don't remember when it will erupt), some tidying-up would be a nice idea.
To the point of our trippin' to Herculaneum - to see the ruins after Vesuvius erupted back in the day, the same time when it destroyed Pompeii, which is about 79 AD I think. We didn't go to Pompeii, even though it would've been very cool to see it, because Herculaneum was better preserved than Pompeii. And that makes a difference, when you're a bunch of design kids. Sad.
It was pretty cool though, I have to admit. I think it's strange to think about though, walking through it and knowing that so many years ago, people used to live their lives among these streets, up until they probably ran through the town trying to escape. It's surreal. And it's so easy to treat it as just another stop on your trip, that you can take it entirely for granted. I would recommend seeing them, or any ruins as well preserved if you ever have the chance, since it really was an experience. It's like walking in a piece of history.
To stop being heavy, in the words of Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, you may wonder how our presentation went. Well, hmmm, it wasn't really a presentation after all; we basically just had to read about our assigned houses, straight from the one piece of paper we got, in addition to that other stack which we had read on the train. I did not see that piece of paper, since it wasn't in my divided section, so I didn't even know for awhile. It was a bit confusing, and while it was nice to read on the train, I would have appreciated not having to read it in a frenzy. Oh well. In any case, this was my favorite room in Herculaneum. It's the House of the Black Room, and it gets its name simply because it has a black room. It was most likely their dining room, I think. It was a nice layout too, which is what drew me to it. This photo shows the view looking from the entrance into the peristyle, which is another way of saying garden:
After finishing up in Herculaneum, it was time to either go back to Rome, or do some more individual travelling. Well, my roommates and I decided we should go check out Capri, since it was just off the coast near Sorrento. And it was supposed to be beautiful. So, we ended up heading that way. Which meant hopping back on the train to get to Sorrento in order to then catch the ferry to Capri. And of course, we would have to take a taxi to get to our hotel, which happened to be on the west side of Capri and was actually called Anacapri. So, off we went, on another adventure, which I will continue soon.
Again, sorry I'm so behind. And to my parents, I hope you know I'm kidding about the beginning; I have to get a little teasing in when I have the opportunity. :c) Love to you both!!
No comments:
Post a Comment