Under the Volcano

This weekend I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii and Capri. This trip was led by LdM and paid for  by St. Lawrence, for which I am very grateful! Lately it has been extremely rainy and everyone I know(especially me) has been getting homesick. My weekend trip was exactly what I needed to pull me out of my rut.

After a 6AM departure from Florence, we arrived in Naples around midday. First stop: pizza. Naples pizza is legendary, and after a very long bus-ride we were all ravenous. One of the things I love about Italy is that it is more than acceptable to eat an entire pizza on your own. However, Italian pizza is not like anything I have ever tasted in America. The dough is extremely thin, but the perfect combination of soft and crispy. There are NEVER disgusting pools of grease that run down your hands. Everything is fresh and simple, but delicious and amazing!

Saturday afternoon was spent touring the archaeological site at ancient Pompeii. As an anthropologist, you can probably imagine my excitement. I have dreamed of seeing the ruins of Pompeii since I learned about the eruption of Vesuvius in middle school. Now I can add that to the list of lifelong dreams fulfilled! The weather was absolutely terrible, but I was completely okay with it. It was pouring rain for most of the day, but that also meant that there were not very many tourists at the site. I was on an anthropology high that could not be dampened by any amount of rain. My favorite things at pompeii were the remains of the fresco paintings, ancient bathhouses and the disturbing/fascinating plaster-casts of the victims of the 79AD eruption. I learned that it was actually extreme heat from the volcano that killed the people of Pompeii rather than suffocation from volcanic ash. The city was not discovered until the late 1500s, and not properly excavated for several hundred additional years. Archaeologists discovered cavities underneath layers of stone and volcanic ash that contained perfect imprints in the exact position in which people died. Bodies were buried, and after time everything but the bones would decompose and leave a cavity. They poured plaster into these cavities and excavated them to reveal very life-like figures that make Pompeii horrifyingly real. 

At the amphitheater 

ancient frescoes! 

On a lighter note, one of the best things about this trip was Sheila's umbrella. She found this little black umbrella abandoned by its previous owner in her bedroom at her host-house. As the trip progressed, the pathetic and broken umbrella become more and more destroyed. I cannot describe to you the amount of laughs that resulted from that abysmal excuse for an umbrella. By the time we got to Capri, the wind and rain had just about finished the poor thing. The handle even broke off, and Sheila considered fashioning it into a hat. We joked about tying it to a stick, and then the perfect stick-specimen fell out of the sky, as if fate was also laughing at us. For one last laugh we did actually mount the remains of the umbrella onto that stick, and Sheila confidently walked through the main streets of Capri. I cannot remember ever laughing harder at anything in my life. SO STUPID but SO AMUSING!

This was me during the entire trip-Sheila in the background with her...um-brella?

Me and Riley cuddling under my umbrella!

thanks to my host dad for lending me a rain-coat that was big enough to house me, my bag and my camera!

Another highlight of the adventure was the ferry ride from Sorrento to the island of Capri. The weather was becoming more and more temperamental as we set sail. Half of the sky was a menacing black and the other was a beautiful blue. It was beginning to rain as we boarded the ship, so everyone sat below-deck for shelter. Sheila, Riley and I(because we weren't scared) sat up on top of the deck. We weren't going to let some rain stop us from enjoying the view of the coast. Once we got out onto the open sea, the waves grew in size and force. I have NEVER seen waves so large or terrifying. I was quite literally holding on for dear life. It was hilarious and exhilarating to be thrown about on the sea, and I admit I was thinking about what happened to that other cruise ship off the coast of Italy...

A menacing sky

Windblown!

I think Sorrento and Capri are coming in first on my list of beautiful places I have seen during my travels (even with mostly terrible weather). I did get some fantastic shots when the sky cleared a bit! 

During the boat-tour around the island!

Such a wonderful weekend! I am so grateful I got to see so many beautiful places! My last trip is to Switzerland and Como Lake in northern Italy on April 28-29! I am so lucky!

I will bring back chocolate.