Italy Volume V

Okay, so Monday was a full day. I went to Ercolano (Herculaneum in
English I think) which is close to Pompeii and has similar excavation
things to see. It is a much smaller city than Pompeii, but it was
also buried by the same volcano, so it's all done up in similar
fashion. I'll send pictures. I only spent the morning there. I had
lunch and went to Caserta to see La Reggia (the Palace). There was a
huge palace built there in the 1800s or something like that and it's
got this backyard fit for a king. It's about 3 or 4 km deep and about
goes from 200 m to nearly a km wide in some places. It's got this
great big fountain at the very top of the hill (which is at the very
end of the back yard, so the furthest from the palace). And then it
had this running manmade river/fountain/pond thing straight down the
middle of the yard with little fishies and waterfalls to make it look
beautiful. I've taken some pictures, but my battery died before I got
to the top. You'll have to look it up online. I headed home to see
my friend Marco at the gelateria and then go to bed. It was a great
day :-)
Tuesday I went to the Amalfi coast, and I can't wait to tell all of
you what a great time I had!
I woke up early enough to pack up things because I had to change rooms
in my hostel. I left all of my luggage in the luggage room for
safekeeping and brought with me a towel, my camera, and some food. I
took the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento where I got on a bus for
Amalfi. It stopped in Positano along the way. For those of you who
have never experienced the bus ride in the mountains, here is a
detailed explanation. You get on this rather comfortable bus, the
kind that have cushioned chairs for long-distance travel. You're
supposed to purchase the ticket before you get on the bus, or you
can't get on. I'm fortunate to catch the bus immediately as it is
about to depart and we are off...two Italian ragazzacci on the bus ask
him to stop 2 meters after departure to let two girls on the bus. The
girls are British and haven't purchased a ticket yet. The way the
boys said it, I thought they were friends with them, but really, they
just saw them rushing to the bus and thought they were hot, so he
asked to let them get on too. I figured this out because I could hear
their entire conversation all the way to Positano. So, the bus
finally goes and it's literally like a roller coaster ride. We're
riding up the mountain and down the mountain twisting and turning the
whole way. My eyes are glued in front of me as I get very sick very
easily from this type of uncontrolled motion. Now this seems crazy
enough as it is, but most of you are pucturing large spacious roads
that we're driving on becuse you're in America where they exist. No.
These roads are probably as big as an alley-way one-way road in
America, but there are cars parked on at least one side or sometimes
both and there are cars going both ways. So the bus got stuck a
million times and honked its horn the whole way to warn others that it
was coming around a tight corner and of course the bus has to take
wide turns...when the wide turn doesn't exist, you fear you'll just go
over the edge. nearly 2 hours later I arrive in Amalfi and kiss the
ground upon exit from the vehicle. I immediately head for the beach
as I am very excited to start catchin some rays and swim around with
my under-water capable camera. :-)
So, I'm on the beach and it's SO full of people...I've got pictures,
don't worry. I walk all the way to the other side of the beach to
climb on the rocks and swim around to a rocky grotto around a bend.
There I meet this guy from Holland with a mask and snorkel that he
lets me borrow because he is intrigued by my camera. :-) So, I have a
blast for about an hour swimming around taking underwater pictures and
just above the water pictures (I'll share soon). Anyway, so this guy
tells me that I should take the metro del mare (metro of the sea) to
get back instead of the crazy bus because the trip back is worse. So,
I do. And what a beautiful trip that was! All along the Amalfi coast
I was on a boat and I got front-row seats right by the edge. My
camera's battery ran out before I could get all the pictures that I
wanted, but it was beautiful just the same. I got home close to 10
because my travels ended in a long walk to the train station because I
went the wrong way (oops) and walked to a whole new town to catch the
train. So, I was definitely tired by the end of the day.
The next day I went to Vico Erquense to find a beach there.
Apparently it's called Turtle Beach (like Myrtle Beach only different)
or something like that (spiaggia della tortaruga in Italian). But I
don't think I found it...I just found a beach nearby and enjoyed the
sun and surf...well, no surfing for me...I don't know where the
surfing beaches are in Italy if there are any, so I'm content with my
little swimming beach coves. I'm getting much needed sun and enjoying
the relaxation that it offers me. In the evening I went to my
favorite gelateria and Marco and I planned an afternoon/evening in
Naples eating a pizza and checking out lungomare and other sights in
downtown Naples.
Thursday, I went to the beach in the morning (just the one near the
hostel) to catch some rays and then in the afternoon I met Marco and
we went to his house where I met his mother and had some fresh
squeezed lemonade from their garden. They are the coolest people!
Marco's sister is visiting Japan right now, but they offered to let me
stay with them any time I ever come back to Italy...for free! I love
napoletani! Anyway, then we went to Napoli Centro to see lungomare
and eat a pizza. We had a blast chatting about all kinds of crazy
things. I couldn't get enough Italian. I felt Italian. I was
walking around chatting in Italian for the first time I didn't feel
like everyone was looking at me thinking I don't speak Italian. It
was very cool. We were out until close to midnight and had to take
the late buses home which took nearly 45 minutes to actually come.
Marco's took longer. He called me at 1:00 to tell me that the bus
finally came.
So, I got to bed late, and even later in the night this crazy drunk
guy comes into our room being all loud and obnoxious the ENTIRE night!
He wouldn't stop grumbling to himself and making noise with all his
stuff. Then he left the room and came back about 20 minutes later
with some people that had to lead him back to his room. I was very
groggy because I just about fell asleep again. Anyway, I was up most
of the night from his grumbling and snoring louder than anyone Iàve
ever met in my life! (even people in my family...so that's pretty
bad!) Now I'm off to nap on the beach and catch more rays.
Hope you all are having fun in your parts of the world!
Ciao for now,