Salted Bread and the Sea

The past week was full of warm weather, sunshine, salted breads (northern Italy doesn’t use salt in their bread), and the Mediterranean Sea. We spent Tuesday-Thursday in Rome, Friday in Pompeii, and the weekend in Sorrento/Capri. It was an expensive week as we had to buy all of our meals but the sights that we saw were worth it. It was great to come back to freshly prepared meals at the study center with fruits and vegetables (never thought I would say that). We mostly ate either pizza or a pasta dish. We spent countless hours rushing behind a tour guide while wearing matching blue headsets and we stepped more stairs in one week than I could have ever imagined possible. The warm weather and blue skies were present throughout the week, it was perfect weather. I was able to only wear my trench coat instead of an under coat + a pea coat combination over multiple layers of clothing.  I felt so free!Plus, there were palm trees and tropical plants which I am always happy to see. Over the course of a week, I took 1,044 pictures..

Tuesday 2.21.12
We left for Rome on a 7:55 train. We arrived two hours and 45 minutes later and were met by a bus to take us to our hotel. Our hotel, Albergo del Sole, was in the location where Julius Cesear was allegedly stabbed to death. After settling in and grabbing lunch, we went on a walking city tour with a tour guide named Ava. We all wore matching blue headsets and followed Ava around who was holding an umbrella stick with a scarf on the end. The tour lasted about 3.5 hours and I thought my feet hurt after that. Little did I know what the rest of the week would hold for us… A small group of us ate dinner in a heated outdoor tent where I had tagliatelle with ham, mushrooms, and peas. After dinner, we went on a walk and window shopped.  Tuesday was the last day of “carnival” or fat Tuesday. Their celebration consisted of children dressed up similar to Halloween and people doing ‘stunts’ or wearing outfits for money in the piazzas.

the pantheon

ceiling of the pantheon

in front of the Trevi Fountain

characters performing tricks for Carnival

Wednesday 2.22.12

To prepare for a long day of touring, we went to a café by our hotel where we were able to get a cappuccino and pastry for a really good price. This was especially exciting after searching for a while and finding expensive menu items. I was able to get a blackberry jelly filled pastry which is one of my favorite types of pastries so far, next to custard and chocolate filled. We then met our tour guide, Michael, a fast paced older gentleman with a backpack, small framed spectacles, and a love roman water fountain stops.  He did not have a scarf stick to follow and we speed through a large portion of Rome seeing all sorts of Roman ruins in the Roman Forum and at the Coliseum where the tour ended. After that we raced to go find lunch before we had to meet back up and catch the metro to another part of town. Finding food in Italy seems like an easy task but we have found it to be rather tricky when you are looking for fast food. My first subway experience was interesting and kind of smelly. I used a pretty hefty dose of hand sanitizer after that one. Our professor took us to a drastically modern museum, the Maxxi by Zaha Hadid, to contrast what we have been seeing so far in Italy. Inside, there was a recycling exhibit and a camera obscura exhibit that demonstrated how your eyes work. We walked into the room holding onto a railing that guided us through a progressively darker space until we reached a screen with a live camera shot reflecting onto a pool of water.  The image in the pool of water portrayed the image that your brain interprets. It was interesting to see in real life. After dinner, we revisited the Trevi fountain that we saw on the first day to throw in a coin for good luck. You are supposed to stand facing away from the fountain and throw the coin over your shoulder. As I threw mine backwards over my shoulder, the coin definitely went forwards instead of backwards and I had to run after it. Luckily, the whole thing was recorded on video… I recovered with some kinder bar flavored gelato, always a treat

outside the colliseum

inside the colliseum

Zaha Hadid's Maxxi Museum

Thursday 2.23.12

Our last day in Rome was reserved for visiting the St. Peter’s Basilica. We met our tour guide and “unusually large lines”. There was so. many. people. We decided to wait in the museum line because it was shorter. The museum portion was full of people and it was very difficult to follow our tour guide. I didn’t think there could possibly be more people in one room..and then we entered the Sistine Chapel.  We could hardly move and guards were yelling at everyone to not take pictures or sit down. It was kind of crazy. Once we got to the St. Peter’s Basilica portion we were able to breathe a lot more and enjoy it. After this was all over, we were we ate a sketchy sandwich in a piazza and took the metro to see the Quattro Formaggio.  We had free time the rest of the afternoon. We went shopping and I tried on a watch only to find out that it was 18,400 euro. You read that right. That was a shocking moment.  We continued window shopping and enjoyed a nice leisurely day outside.

St. Peter's Basilica

Quattro Formaggio

this gate reminded me of alice and wonderland

Friday 2.24.12

Our trip to Pompeii started on a 7am three hour bus ride. We ate lunch and I had the best pizza I have had so far in Italy. It was just a margherita pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella but the ingredients were so fresh and the dough had salt in it. The restaurant was a little sketch with random dogs running through its open doors and the owners having to chase them away.  We then spent the remainder of the day exploring the ruins of Pompeii with our history professor Giovanni. We started off visiting the research laboratory of Pompeii which is not open to the public. Here, we saw human skulls, fruits, bread, nuts, and linen remains from the volcanic ashes. It was incredibly interesting to see molten remains that are thousands of years old. From there, we toured the ruins of Pompeii. We saw parts of homes and overall the framework of the town. The streets were difficult to walk on with uneven rocks but luckily I wore my tennis shoes. After the tour, 13 of us took a short train ride down to Sorrento for the weekend. This was so exciting! Upon arrival at our hostel, they informed Chloe, Carissa, Kanishka and I that unfortunately they had to upgrade our room to the apartment because of overbooking..obviously we did not complain. We were greeted with a spacious apartment complete with a spiral staircase leading to a loft, couches, a kitchen, and even a bathroom with a towel warmer..We got really lucky on that one. We ventured down to the beach and touched the Mediterranean Sea before dinner. At dinner, I ordered ghinochetti  verde with salmon and cream. They were potato/spinach dumplings with salmon and cream sauce, very yummy!

bread loaf (circular)

giovanni our professor

where gladiators fought in the amphitheatres

real human still in protective position from the volcanic eruption

Saturday 2.25.12

We woke early to catch a ferry to the isle of Capri. It was a beautiful ride across the sea. The ferry had passenger seating inside like an oversized airplane but we stood on the deck to see everything. After getting off the ferry in Capri, we were able to get a private group boat ride around the island. This was my favorite memory of the weekend trip. We were divided onto two separate boats and had the best time riding around the rocks of Capri and went inside the Green Grotto. It was the clearest water I have ever seen! After lunch, we went to hike up the island on what was supposed to be a 3 hour hike that took us to a bus ride back to the ferry. The last ferry leaving for Sorrento was at 6:45pm. We hiked up some pretty steep inclines and literally hundreds of steps…we counted them. One flight up the hillside had 178 steps. The steps consisted of stones placed into the hillside. I definitely felt the burn in my legs. We were not able to find the trail in time to make it back to the ferry. We took some alternate trails not entirely sure of where we were going. The girls in the group decided to turn around and start back. We then climbed the steepest of hills and stairs to reach some streets where a bus may or may not be. It was challenging but I think I got some sun in the process at least. We returned back to Sorrento exhausted and found the Italian version of Chipotle called “Kabob”. They have lamb meat sandwich wraps and you choose a sauce or all of the sauces and toppings such as corn, sauerkraut, lettuce, and onions. You also get fries with it. It was soooo good and a nice taste of some semi-American foods. They also had cheeseburgers and hotdogs on the menu. As we were walking back to our hostel, a lot of locals were taking an evening stroll through the main course. This was very interesting and something that you wouldn’t see in America. They didn’t appear to be out shopping/running errands or out for any particular reason other than just to enjoy the night and relax.

Sunday 2.26.12

Sunday was a long day of traveling back to Castiglion Fiorentino. Always exciting and nerve wracking! It is good to be back and sleeping in a familiar bed with regular meals.