This past weekend (Sat-Mon) was incredible. The program took us on a trip to the Bay of Naples, where you can find the Amalfi Coast and where the Limoncello always flows.
The first day we went to the Archaeological Museum of Napoli. That was pretty cool because we got to see up close and personal all the sculptures and mosaics we saw in text books. We also got to walk into the "Secret Room", where only men were allowed to enter during ancient times because it is a room filled with erotic art. Sex was a big part of ancient Roman society; it was not tabboo for them as it is for us. There was a lot of sexual humor. Afterwards we explored the ruins of Pompeii. It is such an interesting story. For those of you who don't know it, I will summarize:
The Bay of Naples was, and is, so beautiful that it was once for the ancient Romans what the Hamptons are to us. A lot of the towns on the Bay were filled with resorts and villas, it was a get-away from the city. However, Pompeii was a working city, highly populated with middle and lower class citizens. When Mt. Vesuvius errupted in 79 a.d. it was one of the biggest blasts in history, and the mountain literally blew its top off, which is why it now seems to have two peaks. Pompeii was pretty much right next to the mountain when this happened. The ash and pumus rained over the city for about 6 days and destroyed everything. Luckily, 90% of the 20,0000 population managed to escape.
After Pompeii we went to Sorrento, which was where we slept. We went out and partied that night, got Dr. Dawson, the program director, drunk and it was all around a successful night. The next morning, my friend, Katherine, and I took a trip to Capri, an island off the coast of Sorrento. We woke up early, had a filling breakfast, and took the ferry to Capri. We could not have asked for a more gorgeous day. We did not have a set plan except for that we wanted to get to a nice beach spot and just relax under the sun. This little idea took us through an adventure: On our way to find a relaxing beach spot, we stumbled upon a local soccer game. We felt like the locals and stayed there and watched for about 20min. I cheered for the underdogs as usual.
The first day we went to the Archaeological Museum of Napoli. That was pretty cool because we got to see up close and personal all the sculptures and mosaics we saw in text books. We also got to walk into the "Secret Room", where only men were allowed to enter during ancient times because it is a room filled with erotic art. Sex was a big part of ancient Roman society; it was not tabboo for them as it is for us. There was a lot of sexual humor. Afterwards we explored the ruins of Pompeii. It is such an interesting story. For those of you who don't know it, I will summarize:
The Bay of Naples was, and is, so beautiful that it was once for the ancient Romans what the Hamptons are to us. A lot of the towns on the Bay were filled with resorts and villas, it was a get-away from the city. However, Pompeii was a working city, highly populated with middle and lower class citizens. When Mt. Vesuvius errupted in 79 a.d. it was one of the biggest blasts in history, and the mountain literally blew its top off, which is why it now seems to have two peaks. Pompeii was pretty much right next to the mountain when this happened. The ash and pumus rained over the city for about 6 days and destroyed everything. Luckily, 90% of the 20,0000 population managed to escape.
After Pompeii we went to Sorrento, which was where we slept. We went out and partied that night, got Dr. Dawson, the program director, drunk and it was all around a successful night. The next morning, my friend, Katherine, and I took a trip to Capri, an island off the coast of Sorrento. We woke up early, had a filling breakfast, and took the ferry to Capri. We could not have asked for a more gorgeous day. We did not have a set plan except for that we wanted to get to a nice beach spot and just relax under the sun. This little idea took us through an adventure: On our way to find a relaxing beach spot, we stumbled upon a local soccer game. We felt like the locals and stayed there and watched for about 20min. I cheered for the underdogs as usual.
Next we walked through a vineyard resting just underneath a cliff, and after many winding turn finally made it to the "beach". I use quotation marks because the beach has no sand, but rather pebbles, and instead of being a large expanse of sand and water, there was really almost no place to sit or lay except on this little dock. It was really cool though. We were the only ones there except for this old man making a net. We layed under the sun for about an hour and a half. I dipped my toe in the water, yes just my toe, not my foot, because the water was freezing!Afterwards we got hungry. We took the bus up to Capri, the actual center of the island, and had lunch, while overlooking the island. We then ventured off and found a garden, which was on a cliff, where we sat for about two hours talking and overlooking the ocean. From the cliff we could actually see the spot where we sat at the beach haha. We took the ferry back at 6pm after magical, relaxing day. We had dinner that night and just stayed up talking.
The next morning, Monday, we were off to Naples. The city is so eclectic and it is actually very New York in feeling. Naples is really a city as we know a city to be. It was condensed with buildings, kind of dirty and random shops. Rome is more clean, and although it is a city it is very green. Naples is not green. It was charming though and I would like to go back and really get to know it. The people in Naples are the stereotypical Italians we see in the movies...it was so cute lol. And I think the guys in Naples are probably better looking the guys in Rome...hard to believe.
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