south trip: four cities in three days

we had one of our two longer trips of the semester about a week ago. this one was in southern italy and we all go to northern italy mid march. our grueling school schedule consisted of class monday and tuesday then we all left for our trip on wednesday. we had to get up early and meet the bus down in the piazza cahen. this was the first day of actual bad weather we have been very lucky and thankfully what was supposed to be rain for 3 days was only 1. the bus ride was about 4 hours before our first stop in herculaneum. herculaneum, like pompeii, was destroyed by the eruption of mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and was buried with ash and debris. they have slowly been excavating the site and expanding. however herculaneum is much smaller than pompeii and thanks to that and the rain we didn't spend to much time there. we then drove to pompeii where we checked into our hotel, the villa of mysteries, which was located across the street from the ruins of the ancient city. the day was done and some of us went to explore the modern city of pompeii which was a major let down. due to it being a tourist city not in tourist season the town was dirty and didn't have much to do other than hang out with the stray dogs ( at the end of our walk we managed to attract about 7 stray dogs ). they followed us everywhere and even when we would go into a building they would wait outside for us. after we got back to the hotel ( an made sure no dogs followed us in ) we had a nice catered dinner in the hotel with everyone. the next morning we had breakfast in the hotel and left to explore pompeii. which was awesome. we got there pretty early and it was still relatively empty. the size of pompeii was incredible. the had two amphitheaters, a stadium, countless gardens, and even fast food. besides sanitation ( and the whole volcano thing ) the inhabitants of the city seemed to have a basic form of every luxury we have now. after seeing everything I could in pompeii I grabbed some lunch and a bunch of us took a train to sorrento ( made famous by the kia sorrento ). Sorrento was on the coast and was amazingly gorgeous. we looked onto the ocean overlooking orange and lemon groves to see the island of capri in the distance. we then caught the train back to pompeii and returned to the hotel. the next day we went to the palace of casserta. this palace was constructed for the king of naples. it is far away from the city to be safe from mount Vesuvius. the palace and garden were huge and took over 45 min just to walk to the end of the garden that once seemed so close. we had a quick tour of the palace which began and ended at an amazing staircase that was the set for a couple of the starwars movies. in episode one when the queen is being escorted out of her palace they are walking down the stairs in the palace of casserta ( look for the lion statue ).

after the palace we headed back to orvieto and got up early saturday to get to the market.

more on pisa, lucca, and flourence take 2 later

caio!

Pompeii basilica

more pompeii with Vesuvius in back ground

one of the many bodies preserved under the ash

large 

amphitheater

smaller 

amphitheater

pompeii house

pompeii staduim

Vesuvius and ruins

coast in sorrento with Vesuvius on the left

sorrento

the water was incredibly clear

palace of caserta

fountain in garden ( about half way up )

steps at caserta

flourence

even though we missed the early bus to the train station we still managed to make it with plenty of time to spare. one of our professors got on the train to rome ( the opposite direction from flourence ) and to make matters worse the ticket was to flourence and if you are caught without a ticket you are kicked off the train at the next stop and have to pay a pretty large fine. lucky she wasn't checked for her ticket and once she got to rome she got on an express train and almost beat us to flourence. once we got to flourence the train was extremely full of commuters. we all regrouped at the station and set off to meet marco at the cathedral of santa maria del fiore ( this is the main church of flourence and is famous for the dome designed and built by filippo brunelleschi. after a quick introduction of the cathedral and of the baptistery of st. john ( directly in front of the church ) we left for the basilica of santa croce. in the square in front of santa croce they were having a chocolate festival. most of the girls seemed to disappear at this point. inside santa croce many of the most important florentines and italians are buried. among the funeral monuments we saw were michelangelo and galileo. once we left the church i found a cannoli in the chocolate festival which was amazing. the tour then released and a few of us left to climb to the top of brunelleschi's dome. this was a major highlight of my trip so far. the climb involved 456 or so steps and offered and amazing view of the entire city and beyond. the experience of moving from the narrow passages inside the double shell of the dome to emerging on top of the highest point of flourence was amazing. we stayed up here for about half an hour before going down and getting food at a restaurant next to the cathedral call astor. one of nicks friends from high school ( leo ) moved to flourence 6 months ago and works at astor so we met up with him and he showed us around. after this we found our first hostel owned by a cute old couple and was surprisingly cheep and comfortable. after we dropped off our stuff and left to see palazzo vecchio and the ponte vecchio. outside of the palazzo vecchio we saw a replica of michelangelo's david ( which was much larger than i was expecting ). the real one is inside of a museum in flourence that i plan to visit on our next trip next weekend. the ponte vecchio ( the oldest bridge in flourence ) crosses over the arno and is lined with jewelry dealers. after we were done seeing everything we wanted we met back up with leo and he took us to a local club called twice. we left at around 3 but leo told us the next day that he left at around 7. the next morning we spent more time walking around and got a train back to orvieto.

tomorrow morning with leave for pompeii. it is supposed to rain but i hope it holds out. some of us are planning to climb mount vesuvius but more on that soon.

caio

cathedral and baptistery 

ghiberti's doors of paradise

santa croce

monument of galileo

monument of michelangelo

inside of the dome

kind of blurry but view from the drum of the dome down

passage way up to dome

view from top with giotto's bell tower on the left

copy of the statue of david

ponte vecchio

perugia

after our assisi trip on friday we had the rest of the weekend free so craig, nick, and i decided to go the the train station in the morning and figure out a place to go for the day. since we missed the morning train to rome and we are going to flourence this weekend so we decided to take the train to perugia, the capital city of the umbria region. we really didn't know what we were getting into at the time but we met up with 5 more people who were planning to go there. when we arrived at the perugia train station we immediately thought the trip was a bust and the perugia was a mistake. we couldn't have been more wrong. the train station was at the bottom of the hill and ( like always ) the best part of the city was at the top. the trek up was the steepest of any city and once we got to the top we learned that the city offers free escalators to take you to the top. luckly we remembered for the trip down.

perugia is a city of activity. the streets were five times wider than orvieto and seemed to always be packed almost shoulder to shoulder. our first stop the the tourist information center where we found a map that helped us put together important things to see while there. we managed to go to almost every point of interest of the map and still had time to sit in the sunlight in perugia's main square piazza IV novembre. this piazza is made up of the palazzo dei priori, fontanna maggiore, and cattedrale s. lorenzo. all of the streets leading to this piazza are lined with shops and full of people. toward the end of the night the three of us got our first cuban cigar, sat on the steps of the cathedral of st. lorenzo and watched the people. toward the end of the night hundreds of people gathered at the piazza italia ( on the western edge of the cliff ) to watch the sun set over the mountains. afterward we all got chocolate ( perugia is famous for chocolate and is actually having a chocolate festival next week ) and decided to begin our decent back down to the train. we all decided that we have to visit perugia again.


flourence on friday ( and maybe back to perugia for chocolate )

top of hill

piazza iv novembre ( on steps of the cathedral of st. lorenzo )

sweet stairs and old aqueduct paved over to be a path

inside the temple of st. angelo ( my favorite church in perguia )

ancient etruscan gateway and defensive turret

assisi

our second field trip of the semester took us to assisi. assisi is a small town about an hour and a half north east of orvieto. for this trip we were taking a coach bus and had to meet the driver at the piazza cahen at 7:45 am and left at 8. the piazza cahen is the first piazza once you get on top of the cliff. all of the big buses stop here since navigating the narrow streets is near impossible. we have been very lucky with the weather as it has been around 55 and sunny all week and looks like that wont be changing for at least another 10 days (knock on wood). the drive to assisi was very scenic and most everyone stayed awake to look around.

like most towns in Italy, assisi is located on top of a hill and the bus had to drop us off at the bottom. assisi is marco's home town so we ended up meeting him at the basilica di s. francesco ( st. francis of assisi ). despite st. francesco's wishes, the church was build soon after his death as a monument and tomb. this part however was underground and constructed in a way to prevent  people from raiding his grave. this church was the first of 3 total churches that make up the basilica ( one built on top of the previous church ). the total complex was the tomb, the lower church, and the grandest of all the upper church. unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures inside any of the three churches ( with exception to a very famous nativity scene made of puppets dating back to the 1700's in the lower church ). since the church is home to many monks we were instructed to be completely silent while in the church. however, marco was able to apply for a permit to talk very quietly but could only do this for an hour. on our trips we all have whisper units. marco has a small microphone he can talk into and each of us have a radio receiver and headphones so we can listen while at a distance.

after touring the basilica we walked around a little longer then the 'official' part of the field trip ended and we were released to further explore the city. the historic part of the assisi was once a walled city and, at the higest point, was an medieval castle that the majority of us went to explore. it was full of narrow passage ways and spiral staircases which we all ran through like kids in a playground. the highest tower offered incredible views of assis and beyond. some of us left to meet marco and go through a informal tour of his home town. marco seemed to know literally everyone in the town, we would stop in every shop to say hi and everyone we passed on the road stopped to talk to us. we then visited the last trade carpenter working out of the ground floor of his house. the town was the most picturesque we have visited yet and an amazing place.


_caio

basilica di s. francesco

nativity scene inside lower church

awesome castle

view of s. francesco from top of tower

sweet street suite.

sweet street suite is the name we have adopted for our apartment since we live on via dei dolci ( sweet street ). its a pretty nice place and is extremely close to centro studi. nick, craig, and i live on the third floor of an apartment building. it is a fairly compact space but has everything we need. due to the size of the rooms it was hard to get a lot in each picture. again, due to size, all of the doors in our apartment are accordion fold to save space when they are open. we have a washing machine but no dryer. we have to hang our clothes outside on a clothes line or indoors on a hanger to dry. 

last night we had a potluck dinner for all of us in orvieto. one of the girl's apartments was big enough to hold all 30 or so of us and we had a huge dinner. our house only had to bring bread and i made a olive oil / cheese/ balsamic dip for it. rick ( one of our teachers ) and penny ( his wife ) brought the salad with extremely good dressing. Jim ( our other teacher ) and his wife judith brought a very good pork roast. another house brought mini cheeseburgers which was a nice taste of home. the main course was gnoochi in a 4 cheese sauce, it was extremely good. and we finished dinner with 3 different cakes that another girls apartment made. this was all accompanied by plenty of wine. 

last night we all left the girls house and moved to a local bar call beer house. they only serve german beer but no one was complaining. we met alessandro and christian who both live in orvieto and we met up today to play some soccer at a local field on top of a parking garage. it doesn't have goals but we just use shirts and it works out pretty well.

tomorrow morning we leave for assisi for a day trip. pictures to follow.

_caio

our street - via dei dolci

front door to our apartment complex

entry way

living room ( and craig )

view out of living room window

kitchen

view out kitchen window. the building with the green blinds is the back of centro studi

bedroom 1 - nick and i share this room. my bed is the second bed with the blue blanket

bedroom 2 - craigs room

panorama of living room on left kitchen on right and entry way 

bathroom complete with bidet. the shower is hidden by the door but it is extremely small 

example of our accordion fold doors

soccer field