Turning 21 abroad is pointless. I'm so old.

And that was when I realized that being legal actually does make drinking less exciting. I turned 21, did what all Americans do on their 21st birthdays and then got some overpriced food that is delicious while drunk. Went home, passed out, woke up and kept living my life. Nothing changed.

The End.

The Days are Just Packed

Rome is a huge city. I saw all of it in 24 hours. It was exhausting. Luckily, Rome is also an AMAZING city, so walking around it from 12 to 3 in the morning was more than breathtaking. We left our bags at the hostel and ripped a couple pages out of Rick Steves and followed his "Rome at Night" guided walk. Truly incredible. We saw the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and more, completely empty. I didn't truly appreciate Trevi Fountain until I saw it at 2 am and could hear the thundering fountains from 2 blocks away. Trevi during the day and Trevi at night are entirely different experiences. Here's some pictures from our late night ramble around the Eternal City.

Amazing lighting on the Colosseum at night

Piazza Venezia/Garibaldi Monument

Pantheon

Trevi Fountain, AMAZING

The next day Deanna and I made our way over to the Vatican Museums, stopping at Piazza Navona, home of la Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers), which depicts the largest rivers from each continent to which Papal Authority had spread at the time in river god form, those rivers being the Danube (Europe), Nile (Africa), Rio de la Plata (Americas) and the Ganges (Asia), and the Piazza Campo de' Fiori, which houses a daily market, on the way.

When we got to the Vatican Museums I found out that Madonna and Child could actually get more monotonous. What a feat. Luckily there was a Faberge Egg exhibit to liven things up a little,

And we saw the Sistine Chapel (no photos allowed. people do it anyway, but the guards were being pretty tough the day we went). We spent a good 2 or 3 hours there, then left the city and got some amazingly cheap and delicious gelato (much better priced than Milan, and more flavors too!). Then we kept walking. We saw the rest of the sights in Rome, like the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Piazza del Popolo, the Ara Pacis, and so much more. It added up to a lot of walking. We stopped back in the hostel around 6 to grab our bags then went to the station and got our tickets home, sat down on the train and r e l a x e d. Felt great. Rome in a Day: Doable, bordering on suicidal. 

P.S. For the Calvin and Hobbes book referenced in the title, go here: http://www.amazon.com/Days-are-Just-Packed-Collection/dp/0836217357

Where Gods Walk

And all of a sudden it was our last day in Sorrento. We headed down in to the city nice and early to grab a bus down the Amalfi Coast, to the town of Amalfi. The views were incredible, and we saw the islands where Homer’s Sirens lived along the way (which is why Sorrento is named Sorrento. See, there was a reason to me calling it our Southern Italy Odyssey!) Here are a few choice pictures from the ride:

Vesuvio!

The Siren's Islands

Positano, Port of Amalfi

After an hour and a half of twists and turns and a bit of nausea, we arrived in Amalfi, the town the coast is named after. We walked around the town a bit and saw some interesting stuff, such as

Duomo of Amalfi

And

Not the Duomo of Amalfi

After wandering around for a bit we grabbed the bus up to Bomerano, where the hike we had researched, the Sentiero degli Dei (Path of the Gods) begins. Aptly named. Incredible views, beautiful hike. Take a look:

It was also all downhill, so that made it even better.

When we reached the town at the end of the trail, Nocelle, we stopped and ate picnic lunch in the main square and watched Italian life go by. We weren’t quite back in Positano yet, however, and had

Remember how I mentioned those 300 up in Capri just being the beginning? Well this was our end. My knees have never hurt so much as they did after we got down all 1700. It was ridiculous. At least I got a good workout, seeing as I hardly worked out at all my whole time in Italy.

We got back to Positano and had to wait about 40 minutes for the bus back to Sorrento, but our bodies appreciated the long break. We got back to Sorrento, grabbed our bags from the hostel, got the train back to Naples and hopped on the next train to Rome, where our story continues in my next post!

Come for the Blue Grotto, Stay for the Blue Grotto: The One Trick Pony Island

Capri was amazing. We got there around 10 am and promptly hiked up from Capri (the main, lower town) to Anacapri (the other town, closer to the Blue Grotto and with a chairlift up to the summit of the mountain, which is supposed to have amazing views of the island). We walked up around 300 or more stairs to get to the town (just the beginning of all the staircases we conquered this trip) and were greeted with another street lined with Limoncello stores! 2There was a Czech tour group wandering down the street so we acted Czech and got tons of free samples (rather than the bunch of free samples we would have gotten if we hadn’t acted Czech). After gorging on sweet liquors and candy (at least as much as you can gorge when you get one piece and move on) we grabbed the chairlift up to the top of the mountain. This was the view going up:

The view from the stairs

From the chairlift

And we took no pictures at the top, so obviously it wasn’t a great day to go. At least we tried. We hiked back down the mountain after, and stopped at a couple of those limoncello stores one more time before starting our walk down to the Blue Grotto. According to the maps we got there was a simple to follow trail going from Anacapri to the Grotto. Our maps lied. The streets in Anacapri are the most confusing things ever (they number the intersections as well as the alleyways, but the map did not) so we got lost in that maze for a bit. Finally we escaped on to the path to the Grotto, which about halfway through was washed out. We kept going anyway, despite there being no clear trail, and then finally made it to the grotto after about an hour.

View on the way down the mountain

We grabbed a boat in and ducked as we went in to the tiny opening (about 10 inches of clearance?) and were greeted with this amazing blue light

The light gets in to the grotto because, while there are rocks covering the opening, there are no rocks in the water itself. Sunlight streams right in through the water and diffuses in to that incredible blue. So worth the 12.50€. We wandered around the area a bit and found another rocky beach just next door. The water was freezing again, but it felt great. I brought my goggles this time too, so I looked underwater and saw this enormous dropoff about five feet from the shore. Slightly terrifying. I didn’t know I was afraid of deep water until then. It was weird. But incredibly deep! I think I was mostly afraid of the fact that I had NO IDEA what was down at the bottom, and so got all panicky about deadly things. After marveling at the depth, Deanna and I decided to do a bit of cliff jumping, and so we did. After going canyoning two weeks before I thought it would be no big deal, but I totally froze at the edge for like five minutes, until I got Deanna and the kids we met from Chicago to count me down. I got trained pretty well by Graziano (our canyoning guide) to go on “1”, so it worked. Here, look:

We hung out on the beach a bit longer then made our way back to Capri to grab the next ferry back to Sorrento. We got there a little early (had around 45 minutes to kill) so we browsed the tourist shops and just sat by the water, resting our exhausted feet/bodies. And reflecting on our amazing trip in to the Grotto. It was amazing. Like, incredible. I hope you all understand just how amazing I thought it was. I think it should be obvious, it is one of my favorite places in the world. Along with everywhere else I went this semester. Except Naples.

When we got back to Sorrento we got to climb another 100 stairs from the port up to the town itself, and then got some groceries, got on the bus and went HOME. Watched the Social Network, such a great movie. Slept. Next post, Amalfi.

In Sorrento, land of Limoncello and more Limoncello

The morning after our boring yet also riveting day in Naples, Deanna and I got up early and grabbed the Circumvesuviana (Campania’s regional rail service) to Sorrento, our next stop on our Southern Italy Odyssey. We arrived in Sorrento an hour later, and after figuring out which bus would get us to our hostel (it took longer than you would expect) we promptly got lost. The bus stop was only about 10 minutes outside of Sorrento, while we took the bus all the way to the Capolinea, to the Point of Sorrento. It was a nice place but walking around with a full suitcase in the heat and sun of southern Italy isn’t very fun. We went in to the Tourist Info nearby and figured out just how far from the hostel we were (pretty damn far) and grabbed the next bus back, luckily seeing the HUGE sign for our campsite this time. Not sure how I missed it the first time. Whoops. (that word comes up a lot in this blog, doesn’t it)

Got checked in, put our bags away. First stop? The beach at the campsite, which was nothing like any beach I’d been to before. No sand. Just rocks.

And some freezing water too.

After relaxing on the beach for a bit, Deanna and I headed down in to town to see the sights. The ones mentioned in Rick Steves were “Strolling”, a lemon and orange grove, and free alcohol. Strolling was nice. The Lemon and Orange grove was pretty awesome, the lemon trees had orange branches grafted on to them so the two fruits grew on the same tree (about half the trees in the whole grove are like this, according to the lady who gave us free alcohol). They also had a stand set up with a ton of different liquors, distilled from lemons, oranges, honeydew, licorice, blueberry, some kind of nut and a bunch of other things too.

Lemons and Oranges growing together... Mass Histeria!

The stand you can't really see clearly in this picture had tons of free samples

Next we went to walk down the main street in the town, which was lined with stores selling Limoncello (Sorrento’s famous lemon liquor), Arancello, Meloncello and every other kind of cello possible. All of these stores also gave out free samples, and they were sooo gooood. Too bad they only gave you a little taste, rather than a full shot or something like that. In other words, I thought store owners would be getting me drunk for free but all they did was make me want to buy their delicious product. So I did.

Also, there were lemons the size of your head

And bigger

We spent quite a bit of time there and then headed back to the hostel to rest up for our trip to Capri the next day!

Italy Intensifies

Southern Italy, according to Rick Steves, is Italy at its most Italian. If that’s true, then Italy is the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen, as well as the sketchiest. The last weekend in May I went down south to Naples, Sorrento, the Island of Capri and the Amalfi Coast for some whirlwind traveling with Deanna. She headed down a day before I did to see Pompeii, while I took the night train down to wake up in the city where Pizza was invented. I had taken one night train before, to Germany, and learned to reserve a bed instead of a really uncomfortable seat if I planned to sleep the whole night. I got a bed in a room of four; there were two Milanese (a couple) and a Swiss lady sharing the compartment. We had a three-language conversation going, between Italian, German and English (the only common language between all of us, and that’s stretching it). The Italians made a few jokes about Naples that only someone from Italy would get, so I fake laughed and moved on. Eventually the conversation died down and we all got ready for bed. The next morning we arrived in Naples, albeit about 30 minutes late. I met Deanna at the station and we went to check in to the hostel, walking through the trash strewn Piazza Garibaldi right outside the station. Welcome to Naples!

Got checked in at the hostel and moved out, to do the grand one-day tour of Naples. We walked from the hostel down to the water and saw some more trash:

A few cruise ships:

One of many

And the Castel dell’Ovo (Egg Castle in Napolitano)

After, we made our way to Piazza del Plebiscito, Naples’s huge square with the old Duke’s Palace and a long curved white building which probably has a name.

Duke's Palace

And then saw Naples’s Opera House (second in Italy to La Scala) and went in to Naples’s Galleria (which was smaller but also way brighter than Vittorio Emmanuele II in Milan).

Next stop was the Archaeological Museum, pretty much the last thing worth seeing in Naples (besides the pizza). We made our way slowly up to the Museum, stopping at a couple really old churches and walking down Naples’s oldest shopping corridor along the way. The whole time I was not nearly as charmed by the city as I had been by most other Italian cities; it was dirty and overall ugly (some nice buildings but they didn’t make up for the abundance of ugly old apartment buildings and the trash strewn on the streets. Thanks, Casa Nostra) but at least the people were really friendly. It almost reminded me of Greece, the hospitality people showed at times. Of course that hospitality would later get overshadowed, but I still need to bore you with another (yes, ANOTHER) museum visit. Honestly, my traveling orbits around museums and I’m tired of them. Especially as I write this coming back from Paris. I think it’s a perfect time to get museumed out, I’m leaving Italy in three days. (Time to start packing!) Anyway we got to the museum and started searching for Pompeii stuff because we thought that they had some. We were wrong. We saw a ton of statues though, and I even got to be the head of one:

Il Toro Farinese, Famous

But that’s pretty much all the museum had to offer. And a couple friezes from Pompeii (nothing quite like we were expecting, though a few that were unexpected, to say the least)

Famous, apparently

Painting materials

Pompeii...

Yes, porn in a museum. It’s history!

After getting our fill of all that… we headed back out in to the beautiful city of Naples and stumbled upon its equally beautiful Duomo!

Classtastic

I think the Duomo is really a reflection of Naples, however. It is obviously a place with an incredible history and a façade marred by vandalism and criminal syndicates, but if you go deeper (which we didn’t. the Duomo was closed and we left Naples after 24 hours) you find something to love, which shows the true potential and strength of the most important city in the southern half of the country. Now that I’m done being all poetic and stuff, we left the Duomo and went back to the hostel, where we were greeted with chilled Crema di Limoncello, the most delicious alcohol known to Southern Italy (and just the beginning of at least 5 different Cremas we had this trip. Mmmm alcohol). We rested our tired feet for a while then headed out for dinner (I got lunch at some point earlier in the day, a hot dog in a pretzel. So Italian!) at one of the most famous/most well regarded pizzerie in Naples, Trianon. First thing we see as we walk in the door? The wood fired stove and three really Italian cooks spinning, rolling and baking the dough. Good start. Second thing we see? A waiter, who takes us to our table. Third thing? The menu.

Look at those prices! Five euro for the best pizza in the whole wide world. Needless to say, it was the best five euro I spent the whole time I’ve been abroad. Actually seven. I got the Pizza Sostanziosa:

I LOVE PIZZA

Prosciutto, Mozzarella, Pomodoro, Uovo, Basilico.

Ham, Mozzarella, Tomato, Egg, Basil.

So good. SOO GOOD. When we finished our amazing meals, we headed to the gelateria recommended by our hostelier/my best friend Rick Steves and were further blown away by the food in Naples. Best meal for under 10 euro of my life.

Pizza was obviously the capper to our day in Naples, and so we started making our way back to the hostel to get some sleep before our going to Sorrento the next day. There was one thing we had left to do in Naples, though, and neither of us planned it. As we were walking back to the hostel I was, of course, absorbed in Rick Steves planning for the rest of the weekend while we crossed a street. Tried to run me over so Deanna grabbed me to avoid an accident, and keep her tour guide alive. No good deed goes unpunished, however, so the guy reached out and grabbed Deanna’s wallet (on a lanyard around her neck) and tried to drive away. Thanks to the lanyard the guy didn’t get her wallet (which at that point had less than five euro and a metro card. Worth it) and ended up breaking the clasp. Bastard. With that, we were definitely ready to leave Naples. See ya, smell ya later. Our odyssey through Southern Italy continues in my next post, with Sorrento and Capri!