Napoli, Vesuvio, Pompei, Eracleo, and Pisa (oh my!)

This weekend was absolutely insane. This is how it started:

Laura and I caught a train after studio on Thursday night to Naples. It took only about three hours on a EuroStar train, and once we arrived we managed to find our hostel for the weekend: Hotel Zara. We quickly discovered that Naples is NOT a nice city. It's almost as if it was built to be temporary, since it is sitting in the shadow of an active volcano, and noone has bothered to try and upgrade it since the last catastrophy. While walking around to find food that night Laura and I were constantly on guard...we here harassed, followed, and called after constantly throughout our entire stay. Needless to say I didn't feel safe until I was back on the train to Florence. We did, however, manage to find a nice pizzaria close to the hostel which had absolutely amazing Pizza! We took our time over dinner and desert, and took the remainder of our wine back to hostel where we quickly fell asleep.

Friday morning we were up and going in time to catch the first train at 9am to the Heraclium Ruins stop, which was also where we needed to catch the taxi to the checkpoint at Mt. Vesuvius! We bought bread, cheese and water at the nearby market to bring on our hike, packed up our sketchbooks and were ready to go! We met a lady traveling with her daughter, and her cousin who lived in Rome. She was born in Italy, but now lives in Austrailia so was easily able to translate for us, and argue ticket prices when needed....We were taken most of the way up the volcano, and then told that our driver would wait for us for 1 hour, and to get hiking! So...we did!!! Laura and I made it to the top of the mountain and even had time for a few sketches before we had to run back down to catch our taxi. It was very cold, and very windy up there, but absolutely gorgeous. Anyone who visits the area when the volcano is open HAS to make the trip!


We then decided that since we were already at the Heraclium ruins stop on the train, we might as well explore them then, instead of on Saturday when we had origionally planned. We both weren't too eager to go back to Naples until we needed to meet Karen off her train from Florence. :) I've decided that being a EU citizen ROCKS especially when you are trying to get into these amazing places! Half price tickets for meeeeeee!!! Laura wasn't as lucky, but I think even she agrees that it was worth the money we paid to see the ruins! This picture is taken of us in the Heraclium ruins, where we decided to stop for lunch. The camera is perched on top of the remains of a column, and set on a timer setting. We were amazed that there wasn't anyone around, like in the United States checking that we weren't climbing on things, or eating in the ruins....Which worked out to our advantage actually. Even the barriers they had put up weren't much of a detterant. They actually came in a couple stages. There was the 2x4-wedged-in-an-opening variety which seemed to say please don't go in here, but if you do just be careful. Then there was the half-hazard-metal-fence variety which was a little more serious, and then the bolted-padlocked-welded-in-place-metal-door variety which said don't even THINK about trying to get in here....All in all we had a fantastic time clambering through the city, sketching and exploring! We were SUCH architects! It was a dream come true to be able to come here!

After we'd got our fill, and the sun had gone down Laura and I caught the train back to Pompei....also another experience...The ticket booth was closed for some reason, but there was a man inside. The sign said that if the booth was closed we should go to another 'vendor' for our ticket back home....Yeah that helps....So i knocked on the door and explained our situation to the man inside. He laughed at us, pinched my cheek and then ushered us up the stairs towards the train???? So...i'm pretty sure we were illegal passengers for that ride! Both Laura and I were much happier when we got OUT of the train station!!!

When we got back to Naples we decided to explore a little bit before Karen's train got in, so we set off to find some major sites. Mainly the Castle, and the Duomo. The Castle was interesting from an architectural standpoint simply because it had been sectioned off, had streets laid through it, and had been turned into (very run down) housing. We got out of there as quickly as possible and decided to again give Naples the benefit of the doubt, and started off down a very large, well lit street. Didn't do much better on that one, but we did eventually find the Duomo. That pretty much cemented our decision NOT to go into Naples again, and so when we met Karen off the train we took her straight to the Hostel, and then to a restaurant around the corner we had seen the first night. We called it an early night again, and quickly fell asleep.

Saturday also started off relatively early (for us!!) and we again caught the 9am train, this time headed towards the Pompei ruins!!!!! I was so excited I was practically bouncing! It took about twice as long to get there this time, but still only was about a half and hours train ride. We were in the ruins and exploring by 10am, where Laura and I quickly got separated from Karen....still not quite sure how that happened....We spent the next 7 hours or so wandering around seeing as much as we could. It was actually a good thing we had been to Heraclium the day before, because it meant we could gloss over the things we had kind of seen, and focus on the parts unique to Pompei. Even then we didn't have enough time to see everything and we had to save about 3 buildings for the next trip. :) We ate lunch at one of the ampitheaters, and got some sketching in before we again had to rush to catch the train back in order to grab a quick dinner at the pizzaria from the first night. On that train ride we were serenaded by a clarinet wielding Italian man! First time for everything I suppose....Since it was Valentines day, the pizzaria had laid out Bacio for each of us! Bacio are little 'kisses' kind of like Ferro Rochers, that Italians give to each other (mainly just their significant other) on Valentines Day. We grabbed our bags from the hostel, and RAN to catch the train! We got there with 2 minutes to spare, and then realised that our train was 20 minutes delayed....It took about 5 hours to get back to Florence, since we were on a slower, cheaper train and so we got into town about 1:45am on Sunday morning. We then had to walk the hour back home. None of us had thought to bring a map with us of Florence, so it was quite an adventure finding our way back to the center from a strange train station!!! It just goes to show how much better of a town that florence is, however, that we didn't get harrassed even once during that whole walk. :)


On Sunday Laelle organized an Abroadco outting, which is so happened that only Mitch and I were able to go to. I quite liked the smaller group, however, and Laelle's boyfriend Antonio was able to join us. We had quite the task actually GETTING to Pisa, as our train was stopped at the station, as the local police forcibly evicted Florentine football fans from the train after it was found out that they didn't have tickets. Apparently there was a game between Genoa and Florence being played in Genoa, which meant that all the trains were stopped, and police were patrolling up and down doing crowd control....Quite the experience....Finally the train did start moving, and we did managed to get to Pisa around noon...only an hour and a half late. We were met my Laelle and Antonio's friend Tonino, who drove us to a beautiful national park where we had lunch at a famous 'catch-of-the-day' restaurant. We met two more friends of Laelle and Antonio, and here is what we had:



Appetizer: Bread topped with a vegetable spread, or with lard(!), and an assortment of thinly sliced meats all made fresh there from the wild boar they had caught....Fresh bread, and Foccatia.
First Course: Pasta with both wild boar, and ...fat pig? Apparently there was a difference, but I don't think it quite translated. :) Either way it was surprisingly good....
Second Course: ...this doesn't translate either, but I was told to imagine a small version of a deer with small horns? and Roasted Potatos!!!!
Dessert: Gelato with Carmel. :) Mmmmmmm
Expresso.

And of courses we had amazing wine along with all of this...I am STILL full!!! Quite the experience....Mum and Dad should be proud of me, I tried a little bit of everything! ;)

We went straight from this to horseback riding. My horse was called Marchellina, and was very easy, thankfully. You can see her up above! Especially since all the directions in Italian, and I had to rely on what I remembered from horseback riding in Napa this summer. I must have done something right, however, since Laelle said that the guide said I looked like a natural. HA. At least I *looked* like I knew what I was doing! We had a really fun ride though, through a few different types of forests, and past lots of field, and along the river. Very, very pretty!!!!

From there we headed back into Pisa, and to the Tower, which Mitch had not seen yet. Once we got back to Florence, which thankfully took nowhere near as long as getting TO Pisa, Mitch and I got Gelato at my new favorite Gelateria and I headed home.

That was my weekend! Midterms are next week, so this weekend is going to be spent staying in Florence, working on everything that has to get done! However! As soon as those are done, I will be headed to Viareggio on Sunday for the end of Carnivale, and then to Athens and Berlin for Spring Break! All I have to do is get through my presentations.......