23-Feb-2006

Yay for vacations! Well, this could be a very long entry since my recollections have been sparse till now. I will do my best to recap the past week…

Unfortunately, moments after I last wrote, Al received news that his grandpa had been hospitalized. Al decided that it would probably be a wise choice to head home in case something worse should happen. I haven’t heard from him since I’ve been back, but I’m going to assume that no news is good news.

So Casey, Jeff and I departed for Naples last Saturday at 10pm. We rode in a six-person car with two other American students who were studying in Rome. They were kind of grumpy, so we did the best we could. Everyone pretty much tried to sleep. The two guys got off in Rome (at 6am) and we had the car to ourselves until some stupid vender opened our car door, turned on our light and got us up from a semi enjoyable sleep to throw pastries and juice at us and then charge us six euros. Had I fully been able to process what was going on, we would have kicked him out of our car, but he was so pushy that we weren’t able to comprehend what was actually happening until it was too late. Just one time I’m going to figure these stupid shenanigans out and actually cut them off before I owe them money.

We arrived in Napoli (Naples) at 9:30am. It was a nice sunny day, which was a welcome change from the winter weather of Torino. We did discover that there is a dirtier city than Torino, and it is by a long shot that Napoli won. It was almost scary when we entered the square outside of the train station into a open market type atmosphere where peddlers were selling fake Gucci, prada, and dolce & gabbana. My handy dandy Italian day book guide (thanks Rose) helped us find a more interesting side of town that was much cleaner and a little bit more to see. The seaside was absolutely gorgeous and we saw a castle, the palace in the square, another castle that was practically in the ocean and the port where ferries and hydrofoil boats left for the islands of Capri and Ischia.

Since the most attractive part about Naples was that it was the birthplace of pizza, we decided that it might be in our best interest to head out of town and search for a nicer city to explore. We made it back to the train station and caught a different train to Sorrento. Sorrento is about an hour south of Naples and on the way we passed Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum and Pompeii. In Sorrento we hunted around for a cheap hotel and found one for 90 euro a night. After settling in, we toured the town that was surprisingly small but still had enough to keep us entertained. There were a surprising amount of English speaking tourists. I can’t imagine how it would be during the high tourist season.

Back at the hotel we decided that seeing Mount Vesuvius and the ruins would be a great event for the next day. However, the weather person didn’t seem to agree because when we woke up it was gray skies and a wee bit chilly. Still determined to be tourists, we took off for Herculaneum, which has ruins like Pompeii but also has shuttles to the top of Mount Vesuvius. Upon getting there we made the bad decision of deciding to see Mount Vesuvius first. We paid ten euro to get to the top of the mountain, another 6.50 to enter the park area and hiked toward the top of the crater. On the way we met the real rain, some hail, and more grumpy weather. Once we made it, the tour guides at the top told us there was nothing to see today. A girl we were with really wanted to see the crater so we went up to the edge where you can typically see the entire thing and were disappointed when the fog and rain left lots for us to imagine and little for us to actually see.

After that disappointing adventure and with the rain clouds still hanging around, we decided it would be best to head back to our hotel for some dry clothes and a nap. Of course during the nap it got sunny out so we headed back out to explore some more and grab some dinner. We meandered our way through the town and found a seafood restaurant that looked like it would be a good choice. We’d been trying to find a decent seafood restaurant since we’d arrived because all the information about the area just raved about the seafood so we figured we would have to give it a shot. Casey and I ordered salmon and Jeff ordered prawns. We would have liked to be a bit more adventurous with our choices, but our budgets did not quite fit the high prices of this establishment. Jeff did manage to get a surprise when his prawns came fully shelled and with eyes. It was quite exciting to see him contemplate how exactly he was supposed to deal with this meal. He did a good job and we took pictures so we’d remember. He worked to persuade us to give him some money to eat the eyes, but that just wasn’t something we really wanted to see.

Since our first attempt at visiting Pompeii, the partially reconstructed city that Mount Vesuvius covered in rubble and ash in 79 AD, didn’t work out so well, we decided another go was in order. The weather was much better on Tuesday and we met an older couple that was off to do the same thing. Unbeknownst to them, we called them Mom and Dad since they reminded us of nice parents and we planned to split the cost of a guide with them at Pompeii. The guide people turned out to be kind of scary so we decided to go with audio guides instead. They were interesting contraptions that worked like a phone. You received a map and once you got to a certain location, you dialed the corresponding number from the map and listened to the history that went with it. It turned out to be highly educational and a good way to learn about history. I highly recommend it if a tour book just won’t do the trick.

We toured Pompeii for about three hours, saw all the important things that we came to see and even ran into some friends in our program from Torino. They mentioned that they were headed to the island of Capri later on in the day and we decided to do the same.

When we finished up, we bid farewell to Mom and Dad and we headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff before trying to catch a ferry or hydrofoil from Sorrento to Capri. Wouldn’t you know that the moment we had our big bags, the rain started again. We made it down to the port in Sorrento and bought tickets for Capri. We were slightly concerned about heading to and island without a hotel reservation. Especially an island that all but closed down in the off season but we had a few hours before the last ferry headed back so we figured we’d be alright.

Once on the island we made a failed attempt at finding a hotel close to the water and then discovered that we’d have better luck in the center of town, high atop a hill. As luck would have it, we did find a decently priced place and went to find some dinner. Capri is a known vacation destination for big name movie stars like Nicholas Cage, Uma Thurman, Mariah Carey, Keanu Reeves J, and more. All of the restaurants proudly displayed pictures of the owners and the movie stars that had visited. Once we got to the restaurant that had hosted Keeanu Reeves, we knew we’d found our dining establishment. Well, after we ate probably the best meal of our entire trip, we got the bill and realized why it was the best meal of our entire trip. That aside, it was a really good restaurant experience.

The next day we pretty much just started walking with a few sights that we wanted to see in mind. Capri is famous for a tourist trap called the Azzuri Grotto (Blue Grotto) that requires a boat trip into a cave on the island. The light refracted in the cave makes the whole thing turn blue. Since we were visiting in the off-season, the tours weren’t running. Capri was absolutely gorgeous. It was easy to see why the movie stars make it their hang out. We were kind of bummed that everything was closed but it was still worth the trip. We’ll make it back next year. ;) We headed to the East side of the island to witness the Natural Arch which is very similar to the one on Mackinac Island BUT the island of Capri is also the world’s only home to a small blue lizard. The lizards weren’t quite blue yet because of the temperature but there were lizards everywhere. So Jeff and I made it our mission to catch a stupid lizard. I found a big rock where there seemed to be quite a few and made that my home base for awhile. After an exhausting and unsuccessful game of cat and mouse, I decided to head back to where Jeff and Casey were. When I spoke of the lizard rock, Jeff was intrigued, since his mission had been unsuccessful as well. We probably tried to catch lizards for about an hour before Jeff got a hold of a tiny one. I was scrambling for the camera when the thing bit him and he let it go. So we had to catch another one, which he did and I did get pictures of it – viewable in the blog. Sadly the stupid lizards wouldn’t let me catch them, but that’s probably for the better cause I totally would have tried to make one my pet.

At this time we decided it might be in our best interest to make our way back towards Napoli. Our train left at 9:30am the next day and we didn’t want to have to try and find a hotel in Napoli at night. So we left and had little trouble finding a hotel close to the scary train station. Before we could get too comfortable we were off again to visit the Natural Archeological Museum in Napoli. We read that it contained a lot of artifacts removed from Pompeii and Herculaneum and even a gabinetto segreto (secret room) with Roman “art” also retrieved from the excavated cities. Jeff took pictures, we laughed.

We made the train in the early morning and arrived back in Torino at 7pm. Nine hours on the train made us a happy crew and way too tired for words. But overall, a very good time.

When we got back from the train station, we found our house full of people. I had forgotten, but it was Seth’s birthday and there were some people coming over to celebrate. Well, after the train ride, I was needless to say a bit grumpy. There were about thirty people in the apartment and I found out somewhere along the line that while I was touring the country, my bed was being lent out to drunks who couldn’t make it home. Oh yay for roommates. Needless to say, that night wasn’t a good time. There was definitely some crankiness and less than kind words exchanged with the drunken housemates whose names I will not mention (Brad and Seth). Probably not the best time to release the anger, but it was uncontainable. grrrarrr