Southern Italy: Campania

Over the weekend I stayed in Sorrento. It was about a 4 hour bus ride from Rome. I knew I had arrived once the sea came into sight, and the bus was struggling down the windy path of the Amalfi Drive. It was absolutely breathtaking, not only due to its beauty, but I was also unsure of the stability of the bus on the tiny road. The fear brushed off though when I let myself take in the sights. The green mountains were populated with brightly colored houses: pink, green, orange, blue, purple, and the gardens flowing with cantaloupe-sized lemons, oranges, and other fruits and of course flowers. The houses were lined across the mountains from the very top to bundles in the low valleys. After settling in my hotel room for a few minutes, I wanted to explore and perhaps find the closest beach. I walked near the hotel and found the oddest set of stairs that led to a downhill road that I had just learned led to a pier. After arriving at the seaport I got a view of not only the hills of Sorrento from its coast, but across the water was Mount Vesuvius. I sat along the pier, my feet dangling over the boulder rocks and the water gracefully brushing against them. Two hours later, when the sun was setting, a light rain came through. I went back to my hotel. It was on Italia Del Corso, the main shopping street in Sorrento. Here there were designer stores to local shops where they sold hand made woman's leather sandals. I didn't buy them, at 75 euro a pair, I decided against it. But I do regret it now. They carved the leather in the store, so you could basically sit and watch them make your sandals, it was really cool. I also ran into a few Limoncello liquor stores. Here they sold a variety of sizes of limoncello. It's an Italian drink used as a digestive. It's basically lemon rinds mixed with alcohol, water and sugar. Not my favorite, but the Italians love it and it's produced primarily along the Amalfi coast so I had to give it a go. They also found at least 15 other different ways to incorporate lemon into other foods like jams, chocolates, cookies, and cakes. I was not a stranger to the sample tray. I ended that night with a homemade bowl of ravioli from a nearby restaurant. The seafood in Sorrento is known to be spectacular. Unfortunately, I can't verify that because I don't like seafood. A lot of the other students said it was the best they've had though.

The next day, I took a 20 minute ferry ride to the Isle of Capri. This place is probably the closest thing to paradise I've ever been. As soon as the ferry pulled in, well, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. After lying on the rocky beach for a few hours, I went on to take a tour of the Blue Grotto. I took a small boat with about 10 other people, and after about 10 minutes we arrived at the entrance of the cave. We were then transferred to a smaller row boat. Upon entering the cave, we had to lie down to duck our heads to prevent hitting them from the ceiling of the cave, it was high tide. The glowing neon blue water lit up the cave from underneath. If you could imagine a pool of Gatorade glowing in the dark, you can get an idea of what it was like. Except, this was all natural and one of the coolest things I've seen!

The next day I went to Pompeii and took a guided tour of the city that was once covered in ash from the explosions of Mount Vesuvius. I saw a lot of houses, and market streets, and the tour guide even made an effort to walk us over to the red light district. You know what kind of shady stuff goes on there… And of course I saw body casts of two victims of the eruption. It was a little disturbing. They were both literally in mid action, curled up with their hands trying to protect them selves. As you can see….

Well, this was my last trip in Italy. It really was one of the best. I saw things that I never thought I’d see. I loved every second of it!

The first picture is a body cast in Pompeii, sorry its blurry, there were a lot of tourists shoving and whatnot. The second is the Amalfi Coast taken from the Amalfi Drive, you can see the windyness of it on the left, and the steep cliff its on. The third picture is inside of the Blue Grotto! It was also hard to get a non blurry picture because I was on a row boat. You can see the opening of the cave on the right. The next picture is of Capri, that I took when just arriving from the ferry. The next is of Sorrento during sunset, taken from a parking lot actually. Next is obviously all the limoncello. Mind you, that was only 1 shelf. And lastly, the pier in Sorrento with Mt. Vesuvius in the background. :)

Meanwhile, in Rome....

Just a few pictures to look at... starting with me at the Colosseum, a fruit market, Trevi Fountain, a gelataria, The Vatican on Easter, and the Sisteen Chapel...

Barcellona

Barcelona was probably my favorite city visited outside of Italy. The weather wasn’t the best, but it had a beauty that London and Paris did not. I stayed in the Gothic area of the city, near the Cathedral. It was really close to everything. The Cathedral was beautiful, with a huge square where there were tango dancers, a nice market that sold antiques, and hundreds of people. Four blocks over brought me to La Rambla where day or night there were crowds of people. The street itself had bars and restaurants and in the middle there was a walkway where there were stands and men selling, not rip-off LV, Gucci, or Prada bags, but individual beers from their six packs. I’m not sure if there was some kind of celebration during my stay, but there were a lot of groups of people in costumes, screaming, blowing whistles, like a parade or something. Even during the day while I was walking to the beach down an avenue, there were two people pushing a dragon on a board down the street. It was really strange. The beach was ok considering there was no sun, but it still allowed time for some R&R. All in all, the people were very friendly and helpful. I had some good tapas and delicious paella; it all made for an enjoyable weekend getaway in Spain!! Absolutely visiting again...

Parigi e Londra

For Spring Break I traveled to Paris and London. I felt like I had to see at least two of the major cities in Europe.
Paris was a beautiful city. I’ve never seen so many castle-like buildings, they were truly breathtaking. I saw all the major tourists’ sights, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, L'Opéra, Les Invalides, and shopped along Champs-Élysées, and how could I forget the Lourve!!
It was absolutely freezing during our stay in Paris, but we still managed to stay walking around for at least 6-8 hours a day, eating frequently of course. We didn’t get a chance to try authentic French food unfortunately. But, they serve a hell of a lot of French Fries
The Eiffel Tower was really quite shocking to me for some reason. I guess seeing it so much in my life in photos and on television. I was really excited to see it for myself. Sahra and I were both hesitant about going all the way up top in the elevator. Instead we tortured ourselves for being babies and climbed up like 1000, knees shaking and getting weak as we looked to see how high we were at each level. Once we got to the 1^st level and my heart was working properly again, we took in the sights and it was so neat; parks, some amazing architecture from surrounding buildings and houses, the river..it was really quite a view. The Lourve was really huge and it came upon us that we could have probably spent our entire stay in Paris at the Lourve. It was huge and there was so much to see! We spent a little over 3 hours there, and saw Mona of course. It was a lot smaller than I imagined, but still really spectacular, and a little creepy.
The most exciting thing about London was finally not having a language barrier! ENGLISH! I could finally ask for directions and order food without getting yelled at! It was relieving. London was a lot like New York, no skyscrapers or anything but just as busy. For the most part, we were sick of being tourists and tried to do as much relaxing as possible and saved the sights for the last day. It was really a great time though. The city had good character, a fun nightlife, and really good shopping! Still, it was really great to see it all. Big Ben was really beautiful at night, nicely lit and all, as was the Tower Bridge. All in all, it was a good trip. Got to see everything I wanted to see, with good friends, and it was probably the coolest spring break I’ll ever have.
By the end, I was ready to be back in Roma :)

Colosseo and Palatine Hill

Yesterday I took a trip with my study abroad group to the Colossum and Palatine Hill, where the emperors had their living arrangements. It was a huuge hill to climb and not much structure of any buildings left, but it was a beautiful area with gardens and a really neat view of the surrounding city.

The first picture is the view of the surrounding city from Palatine Hill. The second is an area of Palatine Hill where the living room area would have been, you can see the marble floor in some spots. The next photo is a view of Palatine Hill from the Colosseum, it doesn't look like much of a hill but it was a tough climb!
The next of course is the Colosseo itself, it was a gorgeous day! And after that is a picture from inside the Colosseum taken from the 1st floor where you can see what used to be the underground area where they kept the gladiators and animals and such. There was a platform set up recently above a small area of the cells to try and give a complete image of the stage area where the fighting took place. Lastly, a few men dressed up as Gladiators in front of the Colosseum, but they kind of look like chariot racers to me?

That's all for now, enjoy!

Firenze & Fiesole

I went to Florence this past weekend with my program. It was a really lively place. Good shopping, probably the best food I've had while in Italy (their steaks are supposedly the best), and a good atmosphere. On day one, we had a guided tour of some squares (or piazza's) near our hotel and such. We also saw the Duomo which was done by Brunelleschi, and went inside as well. The Duomo was so detailed on the outside, the ceiling of the actual dome was amazing too. There were stairs, over 400 I believe to climb to the top of the Duomo and get a view of the city. I didn't do it, but I heard it was a struggle, worth it of course however. After that I believe we went to see the David. A lot bigger than I imagined, it was an amazing statue. Then it was time for my siesta nap and after that a delicious dinner. The next day we had another guided walking tour where we saw the Ponte Vecchio bridge that crosses the River Arno. It had several jewelry shops. Next we headed over to the Uffizi Gallery where I saw some da Vinci and Botticelli, including the Birth of Venus. Can you guess what I did next? Siesta? Almost... I needed food first. Had some delicious spaghetti and the napped. Then of course I had to experience Florentine shopping, it was satisfying to say the least.
The next day we were to head back to Roma, but first spent a few hours in a hilltown near Florence called Fiesole. It was really hilly and not much around except a Roman theatre and a park that you had to climb to get to, but gave a magnificent view of alll of Florence. I think I had the best lasagna while in this town (other than my mom's of course). It was oh so good.
Florence was a really amazing place, I had a great time and would love to go back and spend more time there.

The top picture is of Elyse and myself in Fiesole, the hilltown, with a great view of Florence in the background.
The second is of the Arno River in Florence, a view from the Ponte Vecchio bridge. The third from the top is the ceiling of the Duomo, and lastly the Duomo itself.
Ciao!

Venezia

Last weekend I was in Venice for the annual Carnevale celebration. The celebration was not strictly in Venice, though it was where most of the maddness happened. I was wondering why there were so many costume shops here in Rome... and it was because everyone needed costumes for Carnevale but it was mostly young children who wore costumes. We stayed in Mestre-Venice, which was on the mainland and only about a 15 minute bus ride onto the island. As soon as we got there everyone had masks and costumes on, there was music playing everywhere.. it was literally Carnevale! Well, we needed to fit so we bought masks too! We took a boat to get to St. Mark's Sqaure. It was like a water taxi. St. Mark's Square was packed with people in costume, there was a huge stage where there was a concert later on in the afternoon. St. Mark's Basilica was really pretty, but I didn't get a chance to go inside due to the massive amounts of people. After we took in the beautiful sights of the square and the view of the water, we decided to get lost in the alleys and ran into a gandola lot. Of course we had to take a ride on the gondola! It was very relaxing and we rode through the Grand Canal and under the Rialto Bridge. It was probably my favorite part of the trip to Venice.
When night time rolled around, practically any square we went to there was a party. Live music, people dancing on stage still wearing their masks. It was so odd but fun!
Venice was a beautiful city, and I'll probably go back to see it just as a city without the maddness of Carnevale. Great weekend!

The first picture one of the several costumes I saw while walking around the square, they were dressed up as sunflowers.
The next picture is a view of San Marco's Sqaure from the boat taxi thing.
The third picture is of St. Mark's Basilica, and next is Derick, Me, and Elyse in our Venetian Masks!
Lastly is a photo of the Rialto Bridge that I captured while on the gondola riding through the Grand Canal, beautiful!