My Last Weekend

My last weekend here in Italy was a perfect end to my travels while staying at the Villa. On Friday morning I left with a group of 14 other people to go to Pompeii. First we climbed up Mt. Vesuvius. There are a few pictures below of the view. Also, something very interesting (to me at least) was that we had a little tour once we reached the top and the tour guide showed us a mineral originally found on the volcano, and therefore it's called Vesuvianite. For those materials geeks like me (Mike this for you), feel free to google for further information.

View from the top of Mt. Vesuvius

More view.

My friend Erica and me on the top of Mt. Vesuvius.

Looking down into the volcanic ash.

After hiking up Mt. Vesuvius, we went exploring through the ruins of Pompeii. The ruins were nothing what I expected, and I don't mean this in a bad way. There was so much to see! We only spent about two hours there, but I think I could be there for a whole day. It was amazing because the first recorded eruption of the volcano happened in AD 79 but we could still see frescoes on the insides of some of the houses. The volcano has erupted quite a few times since then, the most recent in 1944. Our tour guide said that there are many predictions regarding when it will erupt again.

Ruins of Pompeii.

More of the ruins. I love the trees. I'm not sure what kind they are, but they're all over Italy.

Sitting on an ancient Pompeian street.

More of Pompeii.

Fresco inside a Pompeian house.

Peeking through a window in Pompeii. It's interesting to think of the history right in the spot I'm standing. How many Pompeians looked through this window before AD 79?

After Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii, we headed over to our hostel in Sorrento. We ended up having a later dinner (around 10:30) at an amazing restaurant. I had one of the best meals I've had on my whole trip. It was a risotto with seafood- oysters, mussels, scallops, squid, and shrimp. It was to die for! We also had a white wine with peaches in it, and this was delicious! We all enjoyed the restaurant so much that we went back the next night (but more on that later).

Saturday morning we had an early start to head to the island of Capri. Once we arrived we took a boat tour around the island, stopping by each of its grottos. The most fascinating was the blue grotto. We actually got to take little canoes full of 4 people into the grotto. My pictures from this didn't turn out very well, but hopefully you can also look up online to see what it really looks like. And I also lucked out big time! The rower for my boat was one of the "cool rowers" and he let the girls in my boat swim inside the blue grotto! I admit I was a little scared because it was dark, but as soon as he told us we could swim, I was the first to jump in the water! A lot of other rowers don't even offer to let the passengers swim or they make them pay money. But not ours! It was such a crazy and exciting experience!

On the way to Capri.

Grotto Verde (the Green Grotto).

A lighthouse for Mrs. Bartlett :-)

Kate and me on our way to Capri.

Kate and Courtney and Me.

Inside the Blue Grotto.

This is also inside the Blue Grotto. I know that it is pretty blurry, but the coloring captures what it looked like! It was so amazing to swim inside!


The rest of the day we laid out on the rocky beaches of Capri before heading back to our hostel. And yes, we went back to the same restaurant as the night before. My meal was again great (pasta with seafood this time). However, half of the table ordered pizzas for dinner that night and for some reason there was a backup on making pizzas. So half of us got our food a long time before the rest of the table. In the meantime everyone was chatting and having a good time, when all of the sudden my friend Courtney started to cry. She was just so happy that it made her cry. But our waiter thought that she was crying because it took them so long to get our food, so he brought everyone at the table a free shot of Limoncello! It was the first time I had it, and thank goodness some of the people at the table knew that you were supposed to sip it instead of taking it all in one gulp. It was very refreshing, but very strong.

Free shots of Limoncello wiped away Courtney's tears. My friends (from left to right)- Allie, Suzy, Cory, Kate, Me, Erica, Mike, and Courtney.

On Sunday we went to the beach in Sorrento and I swam and swam and swam. Nothing beats swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. After a while though, everyone was pretty tired, so we just wandered around town and ate some food and relaxed until it was time to go to the train station. We took a train from Sorrento to Naples, and then Naples to Florence. However, one of the coolest things happened while we were at the train station in Naples. I don't know if I had previously mentioned this, but my roommate Kate is deaf. And I remember one of the first things she said to me when I met her was how cool it would be if she could meet deaf Italians. Well, her wish came true- we ran into 5 deaf Italians in the train station! There was another girl traveling with us whose brother is deaf, and so she knows sign language as well. So she and Kate were signing with the 5 Italians. It was one of the coolest things that I've ever seen. American Sign Language is different than Italian Sign Language, so it was still a little bit difficult for them to understand each other. But they were able to pick up each other's signing pretty quickly. Having been a part of this experience just sealed the deal for me in making this the best weekend I've had on my trip here. And I am so happy for Kate because she just couldn't stop smiling the whole time!

Our new Italian friends! On the far left is Allie, whose brother is deaf and in the middle is Kate. The rest of the group are the deaf Italians that we met. This is going to be one of my most favorite memories of the trip.

After about an hour in the train station we left on our night train back to Florence, and didn't get back until around 2a.m. We didn't realize that our seats could be rolled down into beds, so it was a little bit uncomfortable. But I'm glad I got to experience a night train ride.

Now a little reflection- I can't believe I have been here for 5 weeks, and only have one week left in the Villa (and two total left in Europe)! I have been on so many adventures and seen such amazing things that I never could have dreamed. I have already written up a post on the things I've seen in Florence, but I need to upload pictures to go with it so please keep a lookout for that in the next couple of days. As for after leaving the Villa, I plan on going into Switzerland and France for a few days each before heading back home (but I will let you know more about my plans in another post). I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to read my posts and leaving comments, emailing me or even calling me- I really appreciate it. It's been great to see all of these wonderful things but still feel close to home.