Trip to Italy

Today is MLK Day in the States, but you would never know that here. I would never have realized it if it wasnt for Spencer mentioning it. No vacation for me. I have school today, but I get plenty of other days off, so Im not complaining.

Jenna left on Saturday after being here for 2 weeks. With Spencer and Jenna both visiting I had a month with visitors. How lucky I am

The day Jenna arrived was the day Spencer left. That same day, Jenna and I flew to Rome, Italy. We got to our hostel at 11pm, and were very exhausted, especially Jenna after the flight and jet lag. The next morning we walked around Rome. We went to the coliseum and Roman forum and then went to the Trevi fountian and then to that small island in the middle of the river... that was kind of lackluster after it took us awhile to walk there. We did discover some more ruins along the way. That afternoon we caught a train to Naples and got to our hostel by 6:30 or 7ish. We were pretty excited about this hostel because it had a 99% rating on hostel world, and I have never seen a rating that high. And I have to say– it did not disappoint. When we first arrived the hostel owner sat down with us and told us all about Naples (Napoli in italian) and the good places to go, etc etc. He talked with us for an hour and a half. In the midst he asked if we had eaten (and we hadn’t) so he told us he was going to cook for us. How kind He made us pasta with home-made pesto sauce– delicious

The next day we went sitseeing around Napoli. The best part of the day was going up to the Castle of St. Elmo. It had amazing views of all around Napoli (360 view). We got up there right before sunset so we got to see Napoli in the 3 lights- daylight, sunset, and night. It was wonderful.

The next day we went to Mt. Vesuvio and Pompeii. We joined up with 3 guys from our hostel, and thus, with such a large group it took us awhile to get started. We caught a shuttle up to a parking lot and then we had to climb up to the summit. It was really cold. Jenna did not like the climbing too much, but I kinda liked it. It was straight-up but it wasnt too awful far. However, the summit was absolutely freezing. It was windy and then it began to snow. We were lucky we got there when we did because when we started to climb back down all these clouds moved in and you couldnt see anything. Whew Just in time

Once we got back down the mountain, we set off for Pompeii.

Pompeii was amazing, but it cost. 11 euros for entrance. Thats like $16.50. And somehow none of the 5 of us spotted the free maps that were given out at the ticket office. So here we were wondering around this massive town of ruins with no map and no idea our direction. We eventually borrowed someone’s map to see what we had seen and what parts we still hadnt seen yet. I think we eventually made it to everything major, but im sure we missed a few sights. It was absoutely incredible to see an entire city preserved like that– streets and houses, temples, and theatres. We spent like 2.5 hours. They say the norm is 4. I think the lack of map and the freezing, rainy weather cut our time short.

Even though we were not there long, we were exhausted by the end of the day. Luckily when we got back to the hostel Giovanni (our hostel owner) was making lasagna for dinner for everyone. Made with homemade noodles. He was cooking for hours. He told us that morning that we were going to have dinner at 8:30.... however it was 11pm by the time we actually started eating. But I must say it was worth the wait. It was delicious

The next day Jenna and I went to Capri (island off of the coast of Napoli). It was a beautiful day. We took the ferry there and then walked all around the island.

We hiked up to a roman palace that had fantastic views all around the island. AAAnnddd it actually did not rain. It was amazing since it had rained and was horrible weather the day before.

That night we ate at the most famous and best pizza restaurant in Naples (Gino Sorbillo), and since Naples has the world’s best pizza, then it was clearly the best pizza in the world. Yummmmm

So, the following day we were planning on going to Dubrovnik, but we realized that the ferry times would not permit us to go, so we added another night in Naples and added an extra night in Rome. So, with our extra day in Naples we went to a town called Casera and visited the Royal Palace there. The say the palace is bigger than Versailles with gardens that rival Versailles’ as well. However, I do not think that the gardens were as spectacular as Versailles, but the palace was nicer I would say.

That night Giovanni cooked another meal. Homemade pasta with chickpeas. Delicious

The next morning we went to a few churches in Napoles we hadn’t visited yet and then we did a little shopping at a store jenna wanted to go to.

That afternooon we caught a train to Rome. We got to our hostel around 6 or 7 and then decided to go explore Rome by night. We went to the Pantheon and got there right before it closed. We ate at a restaurant right next to the Pantheon in their outdoor patio. Then we walked over to Piazzo Navona. Then we walked back to our hostel but went thru the Roman Forum section. It was so different at night– all the ruins were lit-up and it was silent, because none of the tourists were around. I am glad we got to see the ruins that way.

The next day we decided to do the catacombs tour. It required a little bit of travel– metro and city bus. A little difficult since we don’t speak italian, but we made it alright. Our tour guide was a little difficult to understand, but it was ery interesting over all. He said essentially that we were exploring the ruins of the very first Christian church in Rome. Paul had been there and everything. That was pretty amazing.

After the catacombs we decided to hunt down this hot air balloon. I read in a otur book that there were hot air balloon rides in the biggest hot air balloon in the world (holds 35 people). I looked it up online too to make sure it existed. It cost 15 euros– not bad for a balloon ride. So we hunted the location down and as luck would have it the company is out of buisness.... sad. We got to walk thru a new part of Rome, so it was okay.

We then went to Vatican City. We got into St. Peter’s basilica right before it started pouring. And we decided to stay until the rain calmed down. It really didnt take long and St. Peters was pretty empty compared to how it was when I was there 3 years ago.

That night we had free dinner at our hostel and then went out for some gelati :) Yummmm

The next day, our last day in Rome, our last day in italy, was not good. The weather was terrible. It just rained all day. And it was cold. We walked around some. We went to this church, where the crypt is decorated with bones. Super creepy. Like there are floral designs on the ceiling and walls that are made out of vertebrae. Bizarre. Me and Jenna were not keen on staying there long. What we read was that the decorations were intended to celebrate death, etc.... but I didnt really get that.

We did a little shopping, well mainly Jenna, I don’t think I bought anything and then we were off to the airport.

We got to Madrid by 11:45 and to our hostel by 1 am. That was a miserbale night. It was freezing in Madrid and our hostel had no heat. We barely slept because of the temperature. For once, we were actually happy to get up early and go to the bus station. We caught the 8:30 bus and were back in Don Benito by 12:30.

When we got back to don Benito it was freezing My piso was so cold Because it takes time to heat up my room with my little heater. It was Sunday so we had to take a little walk to this small store to buy some vegetables and bread to help us make some lunch (all the supermarkets are closed on Sundays. Well pretty much everything is closed on Sundays). But on the way home— it started snowing Now I know this isnt a crazy thing for most people, but it is extremely rare in Don Benito. By 8:00pm that night there was like 4 inches on the ground. And they said it hadnt snowed like that since 1983. And it was three years ago that flurrys just fell out of the sky.

The people were really funny about it. They had snowball fights and people brought out their nice cameras to take photos.

I was kinda hoping that I didnt have to go to school the next day, but as my luck goes, all the snow had washed away by the morning.

The first day back was fine. The students werent as crazy as I thought they would be.

Jenna seemed to enjoy the week in Don Benito. It was definitely a lot more laid back than our trip in Italy. We went shopping on Tuesday (I don’t work on Tuesdays except for a private lesson). But Jenna’s debit card had been blocked so we spent a good amount of time trying to call her bank on skype, etc, etc. Finally we got it all worked out and were able to go shopping. Lucky for Jenna it is “rebajas” time in Spain. This is essentially a nation-wide sale in Spain to encourage people to go shopping. This goes from the beginning of January to the beginning of March. I have not done much shopping at all since I have been here, so it was definitely fun to be able to with Jenna. On Friday morning, we left for Madrid. It actually wasn’t too cold in Madrid and we spent the afternoon walking around and site seeing and little bit of shopping. I was actually pretty impressed that Jenna was able to fit everything into her luggage when all her shopping was complete. On Saturday I saw Jenna off at the airport and I spent the afternoon wandering around Madrid a little bit. I went to a music store to see what kinda of music they sell. And I was kinda surprised at the breadth it had. One thing that I thougt was funny/interesting was that Weezer’s pinkerton album was on the “ofertas” rack (on sale). I almost bought just because it was a good deal and I liked that it was there. But my reasonable side kicked in and reminded me that I already have that CD and I did not need it.

After a few hours I wandered onto the bus station and then eventually I made it back to Don Benito. I was pretty warn out from all my travels so I slept like 12 hours that night.

Well, if you made it all the way thru that post, I am very impressed. I know I should write shorter, more frequent posts... I will try that.

Thanks for reading.

Un beso