l'Italia

Italy, as you can probably tell from the pictures, was fantastic. I feel like I did too much and yet didn't see enough at all. I would love to go back, especially to the Naples area, but there is always another time and so many other countries to visit in the mean time. It's funny, I did realize how much I enjoy not traveling as well. Just the same, I also love it, and the Thursday night before our break actually started, Cate, Amy and I took the night bus to Florence and arrived with enough time for an afternoon of sight seeing. The Duomo of Florence was really beautiful, famous for its red, green and white marble. I also peered through the window at the David at the Galleria dell'Accademia, which I could see quite clearly. He's absolutely huge!

We stopped in Pisa in the morning to look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and then flew to Sardinia. We spent two nights in Alghero, a cute touristy town that was nearly empty due to the season. We rented mopeds (which was outrageously fun) and zipped all over the North Western part of the island checking out pre-historic ruins and an impressive grotto opening into the Mediterranean. We spent an afternoon in Cagliari before catching an evening ferry to Sicily. After seeing what there was to see of the town we stopped in a little café to play cards and kill some time. We had been playing for a while when the shopkeeper noticed us and came over in a tizzy. We didn't understand a word of his Italian but he very obviously grabbed the cards and shoved them back into the box. He didn't seem to want us to leave though, so we sat in puzzlement until an elderly man came over and started to explain the bizarre behavior. That's when we learned it's illegal to play cards in public places without a license. That's right, we were actually breaking the law with a friendly game of hearts. Turns out the shopkeeper as well as ourselves could be heavily fined or arrested for playing cards in public. We didn't ask but couldn't help but draw obviously mafia connections with the law. Apparently it's legal to play in parks though because we saw plenty of old men sitting around playing cards among the pidgins in Sicily.

In Sicily we spent two nights in the Capital of Palermo. It was overwhelming, but full of tasty food and history. It was a cool experience, but not my favorite city. I felt a bit like I was in Africa again, but a richer Africa. We did finally learn how to cross an Italian street here though, and by the time I left Naples I was quite good at it.

How to Cross an Italian Street
Step One: Ignore the steady stem of traffic in both directions.
Step Two: Step off the curb into traffic and pretend you aren't afraid to die.
Step Three: Keep walking. Don't stop. Don't look. (Even if you are suddenly in front of an enormous bus).

Somehow the cars just avoid you, no one gets mad and you are suddenly on the other side of the street. Not recommended in France.


We took a night train out of Sicily and our connection in Messina was two hours late at 2 in the morning. Fantastic. Even more exciting was when we got on the train only to realize that our car was the only one that was still locked, so we huddled for another several hours in the tiny hallway in fold down seats while staring forlornly through the window into our empty compartment. We finally snuck into a half filled compartment in another car during the night for a few hours of uncomfortable and patchy sleep.

I went into Naples in the morning to see about booking a room from Saturday night, while Amy and Cate went for a quick look at Pompeii before heading north to see Venice. It was pouring in Naples. After booking my room I headed to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale to dry off, which houses most of the mosaics and sculptures taken from Pompeii and surrounding sites in Italy. It was incredible, certainly one of the best museums I've ever visited and a great way to prepare for actually seeing Pompeii. I decided to grab a legendary pizza, pictured in my previous post, on the way out of town and then headed for Pompeii itself. Pompeii was disappointing. Perhaps too much build-up, maybe it was just the wind and the rain, but I felt it was lacking. I guess they've had worse days in Pompeii. For the most part, anything of interest had been striped and put in the museum; the ruins all looked nearly the same and one street just seems to bleed into the next. It was pretty in its own way though and it's still, ya know, Pompeii. I'm glad I went.

I continued on the train to Sorrento, a little tourist trap of a town, on the coast where I had snagged a really cheap hostel. In retrospect think it was cheap because it was on top of a mountain a bus ride away from the center of town. Of course I didn't figure that out until I got to town. Having managed the bus on my own, I stopped in a little bakery to ask for directions as I headed up the mountain in the dark and the rain. The whole family was working and the very Italian father, huge and covered in flour drew me the worst map I'd ever seen and sent me on my way. Ten minutes later a little car honked at me coming up the hill and the baker drove me the rest of the way to the hostel. It was really sweet, though I couldn't do much except say Grazie.

In the morning I headed down the famous Amalfi coast, terracotta houses and lemon trees clinging to the steep cliffs above the bluest water I've ever seen. I sat, nose to window, the whole three hours in the bus along the coast and then continued on to see the ruins at Paestum of three huge Greek Temples. Some of the best persevered in Italy. On Saturday, headed back into Naples, I stopped at Herculaneum. I enjoyed this site the most of all, and loved wandering through its well persevered shops and house while taking in its mosaics, pottery and remaining sculptures. In Naples, I bee-lined it to the pizzeria I had eaten at on Thursday for a pizza lunch only to find over forty people crowding the door, hoping for a table. How I had happened to stumble into the restaurant while it was almost empty two days before is beyond me. I did, however, manage to snag a pizza to go in about 15 minutes and enjoyed every last bite in the park across the street. I took at break during the afternoon and rested at the coolest hostel I've been yet in Europe. It was a flat on the fourth floor in down town Naples. It was full of character, three tidy cot filled rooms, a warm overstocked kitchen and a family room crowded with comfy colorful couches, tons of DVDs, an excellent music collection and an incredible library of guidebooks and novels. I felt right at home. I ventured out in the evening for a quick trip up the hill to walk the ramparts of the St. Elmo fortress where I watched the sun sink over Naples before heading for a recommended bite at a tiny vegetarian and organic restaurant. It was one of the better meals I had in Italy and the warm, bubbling atmosphere was reminiscence of home. I lingered over my food, scribbled in my journal and chatted with the couple that sat to share my table. The gentle man just happened to be the Archeologist and Professor who was apparently featured in the 2007 September edition of National Geographic for his work at Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Sunday morning I ran to the train station to catch my early train, which I had been assured by the ticket agent the night before was the last available ticket out of Naples for the day. It's a good thing I missed it. By four minutes. Insert slight panic here, and me frantically trying to explain to the ticket lady in a muddle of Italian, French and English that I had to be in Florence before 5 that night to catch my bus home. Luckily the lady the day before had been wrong and I was given a new ticket leaving three hours later. In the end it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I wandered down to the Teator San Carol, the oldest Opera House in Europe, which I hadn't had time to see the day before. It also turned out to the anniversary of it's opening, so they were in preparations for a big ceremony. I arrived 10 minutes before the first English tour of the day and was joined only by a friendly American couple (she was from Oregon) on leave from the Navy and enjoyed a rather intimate and personal tour of the theater. It was jaw dropping. I had just enough time to check out the cathedral of the Palazzo Reale, the formal residence of the Bourbon and Savoy kings, before actually checking my train out of Naples, finally on my way home.