In Napoli

A few weekends ago, Stephanie, Chris, Alex and myself, took a trip with a student travel agency to the Amalfi Coast. We left Thursday night at about 7:30pm and arrived in Sorrento at about 2:30am. After watching several movies, including “Under the Tuscan Sun,” I was ready to go to sleep. It was the three guys plus an umm, interesting roommate. But we won’t get into that.

Friday morning came quick, after only four hours of sleep. We had to be at breakfast at 7am and leave at 7:10 in order to catch the fairy to Capri. All 150 students from Florence, to Rome, and Barcelona to London and Paris boarded the hydrofoil that would take us to the Isle of Capri. After the half hour boat ride was over, we split up into smaller boats of about 20 and begun an island tour that started with a trip in the Blue Grotto. Smaller rowboats that tagged onto our boats were the only way to get inside this small place. In groups of five, we crammed in the tiny boat and had to lie flat on our backs on top of each other. Our captain laid right on top of us as we squeezed through the tiny hole, hoping a wave wouldn’t come making it even smaller or even crushing us. The blue light that radiated from the water was unbelievable. Our captain paddled us through to the back of the cave and came back, all while his voice echoed throughout the small space, singing a song in Italian. After almost getting crushed on the way out, we climbed back onboard our bigger boat and continued on around the entire island. The cliff faces were massive and we stopped at a few other smaller grottos and saw a few natural arches before docking in Marina Grande.

We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, so we walked up to the town of Capri and enjoyed some lemon granita and the amazing view of the marina and Vesuvius in the distance. Our tour group provided transportation to the hilltop town of Anacapri where we spent the hot afternoon walking around the various limoncello shops and working on our tans. After buying a bottle of limoncello to take home, and a couple of lemons to take back to Florence to cook with, we took a convertible taxi back to Marina Grande to catch the hydrofoil back to Sorrento. We had a few hours before our bus took us out to a bar, so we ate at an all you can eat pasta buffet at one of the hostels that some other friends were staying at.

The next day was beach day in Positano, on the beautiful Amalfi Coast. Thankfully, we could sleep in a little longer this morning, and boarded the bus to drive along the winding roads hanging on the edges of the cliff. After a 40-minute drive, we arrived at the top of the city and walked all the way down to the black sand beach. We stopped at an amazing panino shop called Vini & Panini where you can build your own sandwich. I got salami, fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, pesto and lettuce on foccacia bread. It was so big, he had to cut it in half, and I could have eaten half for lunch and half for dinner. We took our panini with our towels to the beach and had a little picnic. It was the most amazing sandwich I have ever eaten. I usually cannot stand tomatoes –but he put them on without me asking- they were amazing!

We had a few hours to relax and catch up on the sun before another boat tour started. The boat, holding about 40 people, took us around the bend where it dropped us off on a private beach, unreachable by other tourists. The water was crystal clear several yards out into the open water. The whole purpose of this little side voyage, was cliff jumping. I had been waiting for this part of the trip for weeks and it was finally time! There were three different levels to jump from, a 10-foot jump, a 20-foot jump, and a 40-foot jump. We had to start out on one of the two smaller ones before jumping 40 feet off the cliff. Scaling the rock face to the outcropping of rock, I got to the edge of the nature-made platform and realized it was a little higher than it looks from below. But I realized that it was because the water was so clear, I could see the bottom and it looked much further than it really was. I put any little fear aside and jumped out away from the rock and hit the water with a much more surprising force than I thought I would. The water was ice cold since the afternoon sun hadn’t heated the water yet. I swam back to shore and was ready for the next step. I climbed up along the higher path to the 40-foot jump where I ran into a long line of girls waiting to jump. Well, I thought they were waiting to jump, but it turned out they were all arguing who would go first and whether or not they should go at all. I finally realized it wasn’t a line, so I cut to the front. Umm, it was a little higher than I thought it was, even with being able to see the ocean floor. I myself had to take a moment before I went for the jump to what could be a pretty painful impact. I wasn’t worried about the height or the water; it was how I was going to land. A girl who went a few jumps before me, landed partly on her back and a group leader had to help her back to shore because it went numb for a few seconds. This is one jump where you don’t want to do a cannon ball or a belly flop. I planned my jump before making the leap; I would hold my arms down at my side and enter straight as a pencil. I jumped and the force of the air made it surprisingly difficult to hold my arms down. I felt no control over my body as I was free falling into the water and entered with my legs apart, my arms out, and my body slightly tilted back. I hit the water with such a force, I could tell my body didn’t go in straight. My lower back felt numb from the sting for a few seconds before I started swimming back and got the feeling back. I swam back to shore feeling like I had accomplished a lot in the last two seconds.

We got back on the boat and it took us down the coast a few miles and turned around. The rest of my afternoon consisted of staying out of the Mediterranean sun that had scorched my skin throughout the day. I visited the town’s church and bought a fresh orange and gelato and sat under a palm tree people watching until it was time to meet back up for the bus ride back to the hotel. We ate the pasta buffet again and enjoyed the rest of the night at the rooftop bar that the hostel had.

I had an early morning on Sunday, but by my choice. I got up at 7:45, went to breakfast, and then walked around Sorrento looking for a mass at 9am. After accomplishing this very important aspect of my Sunday, I walked about a half hour to the train station to catch a train to Mt. Vesuvius. While the rest of the 150 kids were going to Pompeii that day, I decided I had seen it once already and really wanted to climb the volcano that destroyed the city. The rest of my friends had never visited the remarkably preserved town, so they opted to stay with the rest of the tour. It was pretty chilly that day and I was hoping it would warm up. After arriving at my stop on the train, I hopped in a large van with three couples to take us to the starting point of the hike. This is where I met Joanne and Tom, a retired couple from Philly who were visiting Italy for the first time. They saw my CCM shirt and had to strike up a conversation with me. When we got to the parking lot, I bought my ticket and went to the gate, only to be greeted by a waiting Joanne and Tom. They waited for me to be their ‘guide’ up a mountain I had never climbed and take their picture every few hundred yards. I realized this little hike was about to take me twice as long as I planned. From where we were dropped off, it was about 800 meters to the rim. While it was overcast and chilly in the city below, we were literally above the clouds and could see nothing but open blue sky and the heat of the sun pounding on my already sunburned skin. The path was more of a dirt road, especially since we had to move at one point for a 4x4 SUV to come down. It was much more crowded than I thought it would be too, with families, joggers, and the retirees behind me. There was a souvenir stand half way up, and another two at the top, selling post cards, water, and wine that they make from the grapes they grow at the base of the volcano. I bought a small bottle of Lacrime Christo on the way down.

The view from the top was spectacular! The crater was massive and it was hard to believe it used to be bigger before massive pieces of rock the size of school buses were blown off from the force of countless explosions. It was naturally filled in with dirt and no remnants of molten lava were visible except for the cooled lava flow outside of the volcano from an eruption in 1944. I felt like I was on a floating island in the clouds because the overcast sky was now below me as far as the eye could see. It looked like I could just walk out on the carpet of clouds and walk over to one of the nearby mountains.

The three of us made our way down back to the bus where we were dropped off at the train station. Joanne and Tom asked me if I would like to grab lunch before meeting up with the rest of my tour, and I said yes. We walked over to a nearby cafè where I recommended the pizza margherita, which was created in Naples. I spent the rest of the lunchtime giving them tips and advice about traveling around Italy. They asked me whether they are supposed to tip if there is a cover charge at restaurants and I informed them that there is no tipping in Italy. They were shocked and wished I had been with them during their whole trip! They kept telling me how my mom would never believe that I spent my afternoon with a couple of old retirees. I told them that she absolutely would.

I said goodbye to Joanne and Tom and made my way to the Pompeii ruins to find my friends. Luckily I ran into them on the way out because my phone died! We drove the seven hours back to Florence where after another long weekend, passed out to rest up for the next weekend.

La Gita in Sicilia

Okay so I’ve been really bad about writing lately because I’ve just been so busy traveling all over the place. I’ll give a little peak of what is to come in the following blogs. This one is going to be about my Sicily trip I went on with my class a few weeks ago, then the following will be about my weekend in Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. Then this upcoming weekend, I’m actually flying back to the US for the weekend for my brother’s wedding. During that week, my high school Italian teacher will be in town with a group of students from my alma mater, so I’ll get to go around with them some. The weekend after that is Easter and I’ll have plenty to write about there. I’m planning on going to Rome for the first few days of the Tridium, but I’ll be in Florence for Easter Sunday because I was asked to do a reading in English at the Duomo! I am so honored I’ll be reading at the Duomo on Easter Sunday in front of thousands of people and the Archbishop. Florence has a history with the Duomo and Easter. Check it out on the Duomo’s website and this video.

Just like my trip to Rome with my class, the school also planned our trip to Sicily. We arrived at the train station at 8am to take the hour and a half bus to Pisa to take our hour and a half flight to Palermo. When we got to the airport, my flat-mate Dray, realized he had forgotten his passport at our apartment –and hour and a half away in Florence. Luckily, he was able to use his driver’s license, but our return trip was with another airline that doesn’t accept anything but a passport. Needless to say, it all worked out; he took an early train back to Palermo to catch another earlier flight on the same airline that accepted his driver’s license.

We were greeted by our tour guide, Steven at the Palermo airport, and our driver Antonio drove us to our first stop. It was a memorial to Falcone, a judge involved in the crackdown against the mafia in the 1980’s. The road from the airport to Palermo was rigged with thousands of pounds of explosives and detonated as he and his wife and security team crossed unknowingly into the trap. Pictures of the road post explosion, looks as if a large plane had crashed into the highway. We made a couple of other quick stops at random memorials to different mafia related events before being dropped off at the Palermo Cathedral for a quick tour. We took a short walk around the rest of the city including a stop at a Dominican church that I had visited four years ago when I was in Sicily.

After checking into our hotel, we had a little free time to explore before meeting back at the hotel to walk to dinner. We had dinner at a local restaurant that is guarded 24/7 by the police because a few years ago, its owner refused to pay his protection fee to the mafia and is one of the very few businesses in Palermo that has no ties with the mafia. More than 90% of businesses in Palermo to this day pay security fees to the mafia or are tied to them in one way or another.

The next morning, we were taken to a small hilltop top above Palermo called Monreale, known for its basilica, mosaics, and ceramics. We had about an hour of free time here until our bus took us to Portale della Patria, an open field in the mountains outside of Palermo where a May day picnic was taking place with hundreds of people, and a member of the mafia opened fire from the above rocks, killing dozens of innocent people. To lighten the atmosphere, we brought our lunches here to eat!

Our drive continued on to Corleone, a town renowned for its ties to the mafia. We arrived to almost a ghost town with only a few locals peeking their heads out their windows and balconies seeing who it is. We took a very dry tour of the Anti-mafia museum, which consisted of old black and white photographs on the walls of former mafia bosses. We left Corleone for our hotel stay in an old train station about 12 km outside of the city. We drove for what seemed like a long time along the winding roads in and around the mountains until we went down a small road leading to a building with hammocks hanging in trees outside. We had no idea we were venturing into agricultourism. Remnants of the old track were visible everywhere including the now gravel running path that winds in and out of the valley below, looking down onto a peaceful lake. It was the most relaxing hotel stays I had ever been to. A group of us took a hike up the hill to the small town that the old station serviced about 10 minutes away. A hunting lodge the size of the White House stood front and center in the town square, now turned into a museum. Signs for all sorts of walking paths, horse paths and bike paths leading up and around the mountain, dotted the street corners.

Dinner was provided to us that night and we certainly felt underdressed for the occasion. Apparently, the hotel is known all over Corleone for having the best food ever. The fifteen of us, including our teacher, Steven and Antonio, were seated at a large L shaped table. We were first served champagne and then endless bottles of wine. Literally. Once we finished a bottle, which only took 10 minutes, they brought out a new one. I sat next to Antonio our driver who doesn’t speak a word of English. I knew with a little wine, I could spill my Italian out without even thinking about it. I literally spoke in Italian the rest of the night. Dinner started at 8pm and I got to my room at about 12am. We had so much fun that night and Antonio was very impressed with my language skills.

Sadly the next morning, we had to leave our paradise in the Sicilian mountains and continued on our long drive to Cefalù, a beautiful beach town about an hour east of Palermo. We arrived from above the city and had an amazing view of the bright blue water. Just like Cinque Terre, the horizon blended together seamlessly like a monochromatic painting. We checked into our beachfront hotel with a balcony and met up with Steven for a quick walking tour of the town. Our first stop was the town’s focal point, the Cathedral. Stephanie and I had been itching to find somewhere to go to mass all day and we could hear a pipe organ playing inside. We quickly ditched the group and ran up the steps of the church just in time to catch the beginning of mass.

After mass, we were split up from the rest of the group and she decided to go shopping, while I decided to climb a mountain. Yep, the town is built at the base of a mountain, which hoists the ruins of an old fortress and ruins of a temple. Now, the only inhabitants that I ran into were sheep and goats. There was a set of stairs that led up to the first defensive wall that surrounded the fortress. A man that looked like he lived on the mountain sits there and records what country and city you are from. I climbed a little rougher path up to a false summit where there were magnificent views of the town and bay that the city in nestled into. This level was surrounded by a newer wall that offered terraces looking out over the bay and the ruins of a former Greek temple. The rest of the way up was steep, loose rock sheep and goat trails spotted with fresh presents from the nearby flock. The trail was hot and sweaty which didn’t help the smell. Finally after what seemed like hours, I finally reached the top. It actually did take me about three hours to complete this small feat, but all the sweat was well worth it. Climbing on top of the highest point of the ruins offered me unobstructed 360-degree views of the surrounding area. It was absolutely gorgeous! Off in the distance, I could see two of the Eioli Islands off of the coast. The sun was beating down on me and I wasn’t getting any less thirsty, so I made my way down relatively quickly. After only a few minutes, I ran into the flock of sheep and goats completely blocking my path down. I was telling them ‘excuse me’ in Italian and it seemed to work. It was so precious to see a couple of baby lambs running after each other. I did almost have a run in with a couple of aggressive goats that were in my way. One of them turned around to get out of my way and as he did so, head butted another goat, making both of their front legs fly in the air. I was a little freaked out at first because they both had horns and I knew one head butt into me meant me being impaled on a tree! I cautiously made my way past them to safety and continued onward.

After a few hours rest in my hotel room, we met up with Steven and Antonio to take us to a wine tasting. We drove about 25 minutes up into the mountains to an old convent, which was converted into a winery. We got a private tour of the facility and saw how the grapes went from being grapes on the vine, to wine with dinner. The process was amazingly long and very risky. One small mistake and entire barrels have to be dumped. We had dinner at their restaurant and tried some of the wine that they made from grapes that grew on site.

We went to bed that night absolutely exhausted! Me from climbing the mountain, and the rest from lying on the beach –so tiring, isn’t it? We got up early the next morning for our drive back to the Palermo airport where we flew into Bologna. We took the train back to Florence and I passed out. It was such a memorable weekend, but so exhausting!

Pictures will be posted later! I leave for the US in a few hours and I have a ton to do!

Cinque Terre

The other day, I said San Gimignano became my favorite town in Italy, well I think I just topped that. Cinque Terre, five lands, is an area of the region of Liguria that has been declared a National Park of some sorts. It is made up of five paesini or little towns, that are built one on top of the other on the cliffs along the bright blue Ligurian Sea.

My Italian Politics teacher, Adriano, took our class and the rest of our group for a field trip, instead of having class that day. We were up at the crack of dawn to meet him at the train station at 6:45am and just barely made it on. The long three-hour train ride took us from Florence to Pisa, then to La Spezia, then Corniglia, one of the five villages. During our stop in La Spezia, we bought panini, snacks and drinks to take with us. We were planning on doing the coastal walk, but we found out that mudslides ruined all but one of them in the fall. Luckily, there is the mountain trail that we ended up taking, and was totally worth the extra effort.

We were fortunate enough to have perfect weather for the hike. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and there was a slight breeze coming off the sea to cool us down. We hiked about two miles up steep rocky trails and along vineyards and olive orchards until we got to the highest point of the trail. The view from the top was indescribable. All around on the hillside are tiers and tiers of grape vineyards planted on terraces all the way up the mountainside. I can’t reiterate how blue the water was and how beautiful it looked in contrast to the green mountainside and the brightly colored towns perched on hillsides. It was impossible to distinguish where the sea ended and the sky started.

We made our way down along the walls of the terraces, teetering on the edge of a long fall down. After what seemed like a million steps down adjusting my legs from feeling like rubber bands, we finally arrived at the next town of Vernazza. It is a beautiful little town that has become overrun with attracting tourists. Adriano was telling us how the restaurants place boats outside their doors to make it seem like they just went fishing that morning for the day’s catch. Despite knowing it was all a ploy, several pictures were taken. The town, like most of the towns in Cinque Terre, is built on the cliff side with one building on top of the other. It was a little after noon, so we had about an hour to eat our lunches. I look the opportunity to climb out on the bright marble rocks in the middle of the cove, find a bird poop-free spot, and eat my panino right there. It was so warm I took off my socks and shoes and rolled up my pant legs. It was such a gorgeous view looking up at the town and the vertical cliff faces with the bright blue sea behind me.

We next made our way on the famous, Via dell’Amore, the road of love, that winds its way along the coast, the one path not washed out my the landslides. This path was much more manageable since it was paved with flat stone and could practically be driven on. All along the way were messages and names spray painted on the rock face of lovers who had previously made the journey. Love Locks, a very popular hobby of young couples, covered every lockable surface along the way. After only about 30 minutes, we arrived in our final destination of Riomaggiore to catch the train back to Florence. A gelato was definitely in order to cool down after the long, but beautiful hike along the most famous coast in the world. 

Posts coming soon!

I have soooo much to write about, but no time to write! Wednesday I went hiking in Cinque Terre and this weekend, I've been on a class trip in Sicily! It's been an amazing weekend and I can't wait to write all about it.

Expect something on Wednesday night! Ciao!