I Feel Like Produce in a Fruit Truck...

That's what my friend Lydie said when we got in a taxi on the island of Ischia in the bay of Naples.

This last weekend was SOOO amazing! I had the best time ever and it really made me realize why I am going to miss Italy. Let's begin.

So my friends Lee, Lydie, Kelsey, and Breanna decided to go to Naples and Ischia for Friday and Saturday and then I met my friend Dani in Naples on Saturday night and we went to Pompeii and the Museum of Archeology in Naples.

The 5 of us woke up hella early on Friday (5:30 to be precise) and I met them at 6:30 and we all walked/metroed to the train station. At Termini we boarded a train headed for Napoli (Naples) and we got there after 2.5 hours of fun-filled/sleepy chatting and joke-making. It was great fun!

When we got close to Naples Centrale we saw the remnants of a trash strike that the mafia staged (because the mafia controls trash pick-up in Naples) and we saw images like these several times:



We explored Naples for a little while, but just made our way to the docks where we would board our ferry for Ischia. By 13:55 we were on board the ferry and on our way!

That is Mt. Vesuvius, the still-active volcano that buried ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum in ashes and poisonous gas in AD 79.


Also notice the beautiful cliffs and blue water of the Bay of Naples!


We eventually docked into Ischia city:


And, because the taxi driver lied to us that a bus didn't run from the docks, we took a taxi. Or...more like a fruit truck... See it for yourself:


Somehow we fit 5 people and the driver in this TINY car. PS that is Lee and Kelsey in the above picture. It could barely get up the hills (there were times we all literally feared for our lives) and it was just completely ridiculous...

He dropped us off and, after trying to cheat us out of 5 euros, we left him and his little truck to go drag some more tourists up a mountain.


We got into our HOTEL (!!) and the owner's son, Giuseppe, told us that his "mommy" who can't speak english would be glad to cook us dinner that night. He showed us to our rooms and to our utter amazement this is what we saw:


And outside on the balcony:


After freaking out at how amazing our place was, we decided to explore the town a bit (we were now in Foria). We walked through the little streets, some of the only tourists on the entire island. We got some stares, but for the most part felt very comfortable. People were SO nice (a lot nicer than anyone in Rome) and it was a lot of fun just to walk around (in short sleeves too!).

We got to the beach eventually and immediately we walked down it.


After picking up some peaches at a fruit stand we made our way back up the mountain (getting lost I might add). By the time we got there the sun was beginning to set!




After watching the sunset and sipping on some wine we went down to dinner where we were absolutely ecstatic to discover that on the menu was pesto gnocchi with yummy bread and salad with buffalo mozzarella. YUM! It was probably one of the best dishes I have had so far in Italy.

We went to sleep satisfied and woke up to none other than THIS view:


Saturday was the day reserved SOLELY to finding the beach and subsequent sunbathing. And we did just that. We got on the bus and it took us around the island a bit. We were trying to find these hot springs that we heard about. We found them, with a lot of help from two older Italians on the bus and one man sitting and sipping on a Peroni on a sidestreet. Also on our way an ancient, short lady dressed in sweaters and a gown saw us and greeted us with a loud "Biongiorno!" We all replied, "Biongiorno" and then she looked up, waved her hands around and said, "Sole! Sole!" (Sun! Sun!) We laughed a lot and agreed that this is the best place in the world.

The hike down to the hot springs was REALLY intense! Lots of steeps hills and stairs, but we made it eventually:




And it was beautiful....


We goofed off, played in the hot springs, reclined on the rocks and sunbathed ALL day (I got a bit sunburned, but not as bad as Breanna who forgot to turn onto her back). It was absolutely perfect and I was so content it was ridiculous....

Then we began the climb back up and, THANK GOD, got picked up by this guy who saw us struggling. We fit the 5 of us in a car almost as small as the fruit truck (ridiculous again!) and it actually turned out that the guy is a musician who knows the dean of Temple Rome and he's coming to Rome on 8 April for a concert. NUTS! Such a small world....

He took us to a bus stop and we picked up a bus back to Foria and eventually found the pizzeria that the guy recommended to us. Here is our meal:


I got my usual (tonno e cipolli! or, tuna and onions) and it was absolutely amazing. After pizza we got gelato (I got kiwi, frutti di boca, and limone which translates to, well, kiwi, raspberry, and lemon). It hit the spot and we caught another bus back to the port and another ferry back to Naples. Our short ferry ride ended with another sunset....





A great end to a great day and a half on Ischia...absolutely amazing!

Now comes part 2!

I said good-bye to those four and called up Dani (who had been exploring Naples for the day). We met up at the hostel, went and got dinner, and went to sleep cause we were gonna have a big day tomorrow!

We got up early and set off for no other place other than POMPEII!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, it took us like 2 hours to get there cause some Neapolitan told us to get on the completely wrong train, but we set it right eventually and got to Pompeii in okay time. We got in free (cause it's cultural week in Italy) and began to explore the city....

That's the Vesuv (Mt. Vesuvius) in the back!


Ancient amphitheatre (with a bunch of tourists!)


an amazingly beautiful street:


This is an old lunch vendor. In every hole was a different dish and, because Romans hardly ever ate lunch at home, they would come here and try out all the foods!


There were some beautiful villas...


And here are the plaster casts of the people who died in AD 79:




It's amazing to me that some of these paintings still survive. Absolutely amazing. This is about 2000 years old:


The baths of Pompeii:


And Dani and I on our way out of Pompeii, tired and hungry.


Next stop, after taking the right train back to Naples, was the Archeology Museum of Naples which houses most of the artifact from Pompeii and also the Farnese statue collection.

Marcus Aurilleus, a great emperor of Rome and the old emperor who is murdered in Gladiator


Crazy eyes:


This painting I saw every day during Latin class cause it's on front of Wheelock's Latin:


A painting of what life in Pompeii used to be like:


A super-elaborate mosaic found in Pompeii:


And the Farnese Bull, a gigantic statue:


Anyway, this was definitely one of the best weekends and, although I came out of it sunburned, sleep-deprived, feet-hurting, hand-sliced (I cut it on a rock, no biggie), and smelly (I didn't shower at all), it was absolutely worth it and it's put me back in my groove! Wooo!

Italy rocks man and I am crossing my fingers that Spring is finally here!