Capri, Pompeii, Rome

So it's been a while since I last filled you all in on my adventures. The past 10 days have been jam packed with so much stuff I don't even know where to begin! I left on Friday morning for Sorento. We took the train through Rome and Naples (which is quite possibly the dirtiest city I have ever seen), and then we switched trains to get to Sorento. It was a good 5 hour trip, and then we checked into out hostel, which was horrible...We crammed six people into a room that would comfortably fit two. The bathroom was so small you could literally take a shower while brushing your teeth on the toilet. How fun! Oh, and you had to ask for hot water (which didn't even really get hot and only lasted for 15 minutes at a time). Then once you turned on the water in the shower, the bottom would fill up so quickly that you could really only have the water running for three minutes before the entire bathroom would start flooding. So it was interesting, to say the least. But, in the end it worked out, and we only really slept in there because there was so much stuff to do. Sorento was such a great little town. There were so many shops, and the city is right on the water, so the views were just marvelous! I went running while we were there one day...which apparently is a rare sight because so many people gave me the strangest looks like they had never seen anything like it before. I even had a police officer walk across the street, pull out his camera phone, and take a picture of me while I was running! I'm sure that was a nice shot...my face bright red and all sweaty...attractive.

The night scene was quite entertaining in Sorento. Of course, we managed to find the only Irish pub there. The bartenders were from Ireland and the whole place was packed with Irish people that were there for a wedding. It was so much fun! All these old Irish men were doing a jig and singing horribly to American songs. It was quite a sight. Later we found a disco dance place, and I got to go behind the bar! I met the owner, and he took me back there and taught me how to make some drinks...so I was bartender for a few minutes! Everyone was pretty jealous...but it was so crowded in there I just got stressed out from all the people. So that was Sorento.

Saturday morning we all got up early and took the train to Pompeii. We just happened to show up on the one day when admission was free....how lucky! So we got those super sweet nerdy audio guides, and we walked around all day looking like we were talking on play phones. So fun! We got to see Mt. Vesuvius, the only active volcano in Europe today. And the ruins were magnificent. I didn't think Pompeii would be that big, but it seriously was a good sized city. It's incredible to think that people started building that city over 2100 years ago! What amazes me even more is that it was totally covered up when Mt. Vesuvius erupted, so it was all discovered underground and there are so many things in tact! We saw a bunch of embalmed bodies...which was cool, but also kinda creepy. We even saw an embalmed dog! The positions that all those bodies were preserved in were so strange, too. I just can't believe that there are actually bones of people preserved from so long ago. But then again, I guess we do have bones of dinosaurs...and they are really really old. So Pompeii was amazing, but so was CAPRI!

On Sunday morning 18 of us took a ferry to Capri, and we took a cruise around the island in a tiny little authentic wooden Italian boat. It was incredible. I have never seen water that clear and bluish turquoise. There were places where the water was so clear you could see the bottom...it looked like it was only about 10 feet deep, but really it was 60 feet deep! The best part about the whole thing: we got to go swimming! We jumped off cliffs...well, sorta. I jumped off some rocks that were maybe 10 feet up, but some of the guys dove off the rocks a good 60 feet up! The water was so warm, but very salty, and very painful in my eyes. Lauren got stung by a jellyfish while we were swimming and then her arm swelled up. But she wouldn't let anyone pee on it. I wonder if that really works...? Ooo, I also got to be the captain for a while. Our boat captain man let me take control and drive around--that was super exciting until the giant waves started coming. I definietly was not feelin' that! We got to see all the grottos (cave like things), and there was one, called the Blue grotto, that you had to take a mini boat into. Only three people in each boat, and you had to duck down to get through this tiny space to enter the cave. But o my gosh...the water inside glowed in the dark. It was such a bright flourescent blue, and the only thing you could see was the water, other than that it was pitch black. It kinda reminded me of the pirate ride at Disneyland. WOW. I'm gonna post a bunch of pictures so you can see how amazing it was. The whole time all I could think about was how all my friends at school are probably studying right now, and here I am, living the tough life on my cruise around Capri.

So after one of the most movie-esque weekends I will ever have, I headed off to spend the week in Roma. The train was 2 hours, and we went straght to the Colosseum when we got there. WOAH talk about old. That structure is the most incredible man-made thing I have ever seen. It amazes me that wayyyy back in the second century there was enough technology to build such a thing. It was HUGE. But really, there wasn't a whole lot to do except just look at it, so we were only there for about 20 minutes. Then we moved on to the ancient Roman forum. I saw a bunch of the ruins of the palaces and buildings that Caesar constructed. The ruins were kept in tact very well, and it was interesting to see the way cities were set up way back then. Every church and temple had a specific purpose, and there were like 40 of them! We then went on a walking tour of the rest of Rome. We went to the Pantheon (which is NOT to be confused with the PARTHENON) We also stopped at the Spanish Steps and Trevie Fountain, and threw in our three coins each for good luck! That fountain is so ginormous and sooooo pretty. And sooooo crowded. I have never seen so many tourists in one place! For once...I was one of them!

I had my cultural history class on Tuesday morning on Futurism and Fascism in Italy, and we went to the modern art museum to see a bunch of stuff from the 18th and 19th century. It's funny to me that the 18th and 19th centuries are considered modern...but I guess compared to how old the city of Rome actually is, that is pretty comtemporary. I personally am not a big fan of modern art, but there was one artist, Giacomo Bella, that I really liked. His earlier stuff was pretty impressionistic, almost like Seurat style, but his pointillism was made up of dots that were all patterned in different ways. His paintings were beautiful, and then it was really cool to see how his style drastically changed when Fascism came around. Looked like two completely different artists. Later that afternoon we went to the Borghese gallery. That's where all the famous Bernini scultures are, including his version of the David. I could have looked at those sculptures for hours. It's been really fun going to all these museums with people who know a lot about the work because it makes such a difference when you understand the stories behind them. Usually I wouldn't really pay a whole lot of attention to sculpture, but taking this drawing class has totally changed my perspective on absolutely everything!

Speaking of sculptures, we had a class trip to the Vatican and St. Peter's on Thursday. There are sooooo many phenomenal pieces in the Vatican museums. I got to see the Pieta, Laocoon and Torso Belvedere sculptures there, which are truly the most intricate, incredible displays of human anatomy I have seen. The way the muscles are sculpted are so realistic...I was in awe! But then...the Sistine Chapel...I could have spent a lifetime in there just staring at all the frescoes. It is so incredible to me that Michelangelo painted the entire ceiling in just 2 years. The thing is so immense it made me dizzy to look up for that long. But wow! I have never felt so small. And then we went into St. Peter's...which is the most incredible cathedral I have ever seen. (And I can say I have been to some very amazing cathedrals). It was giant...just like everything seems to be that I am describing here...ha ha. But it was so cool to think that I was in the same place where the pope lives and works! Everything was so perfectly placed, and the lighting in the whole place was so calm and quiet. It was like a dream. I don't think there is any way for me to really describe how incredible all of these places are, except for WOW WOW WOW!

So that's what I did for the past week, and now I am back to Florence with no plans for the next few weekends. I'm looking forward to relaxing. Not having to walk 5 miles a day will be a big relief. I really appreciate how small Florence is in comparison to Rome after having to walk at least 5 miles everyday. It wears you out! So I will be sure to post some pictures up in the next few days...even the illegal ones that some of my friends snuck inside the Sistine Chapel. Maybe then it will be just a little easier to imagine the incredible-ness. Ciao for now!