southern trip... 5 days later

so im sorry ive been such a bad blogger lately, ive just been really busy... we got back from the southern trip on sunday night... and now that ive spent a few days drying out, i feel like i can write about it

our trip started in paestum, which is the site of an archeological excavation where the temples of Hera I and II are located... a large portion of italy is an excavation, so we've seen a lot of these types of things... the temples are actually greek and not roman, and are very well preserved... it was also a gorgeous day when we were there, which was a great way to start the trip!
from there we traveled on to matera... which is this crazy city that up until like the 1970s or something people were literally living in caves! and then the president of italy at the time was like this is not working, we need to move these people into real houses and preserve the amazing city that they created... sooo now its protected by UNESCO... and its uneblieveable... unfortunately it was damp and drizzly the whole time we were there... but we stayed in a hotel that is actually renovated housing in the original part of Matera, called the sassi... pretty awesome... we also got to see a reconstruction of a typical home, and some rock chapels... literally churches carved out of the rock... unlike anything we've ever seen before... while we were there we had a HUGE dinner, paid for by RPI (or really by us, but who's counting) where we stuffed ourselves so full of delicious food that i seriously almost busted out of my shirt! it was amazing! before we left, we popped inside a new hotel that is being built in the sassi, and it is gorgeous... we literally fit our entire class inside one of the bathrooms! gorgeous! this is my new "when i get rich" vacation destination... of course ill plan to go when its warm and dry... haha

we left matera midafternoon and headed on to the amalfi coast... our hotel was accessed by the longest windy road ever, navigated without a hitch by our trusty bus driver Fabio (brother of Carlo, our other amazing bus driver)... did i mention it was pouring rain? The next morning, the sun came out in amalfi, which was fabulous, and we took a bunch of gorgeous pictures of the blue sky and the sun breaking through the clouds... we visited the duomo and the cloister of paradise, which were unimpressive but pretty, and then we jumped on a bus to head up up up the hill to Ravello... we then visited another church, grabbed some lunch (mmm salami and fresh mozz on a huge roll) and headed into the garden of the villa cimbrone to do some sketching... which i did, in between scarfing down my delicious sandwich and being completely awestruck by the view... after this, we WALKED down the mountain... which took like an hour, and took a serious beating on my knees and ankles... and we literally walked all the way down, under the main road, to the beach! the water was so warm that jenna went swimming! i chose to stay dry and walk around the little village of amalfi, which was really very pretty, but very small... then it was time for some desk crits (yes, i said desk crits... and yes, we were on vacation) and then we were back out again for dinner in a pretty restaurant on the beach... mmm mussels and linguini! (grandma, if you are reading this, i cannot wait to get home for christmas and stuff my face with mussels! i think of you every time i get them in a restaurant here!) early the next morning we headed out to vetri, to some crazy ceramics factory that i cant remember the name of and i also cant remember who designed it! oh well... it was cool... they make ceramic everything in this crazy building designed specifically to be their workshop... there are even clay pots on the outside of the building that act as a layer of insulation for the shop! too bad it poured rain the whole time we were there, and when we got back on the bus we were soaking wet... gross!

from there we headed to Pompei, the ancient city buried in ash by the eruption of Mt.Vesuvious and discovered in the early 1900s... theyre actually still in the process of excavating it... its absolutely huge and pretty amazing... minus the fact that it looks like every other excavation we've seen so far... we went to the Villa of Miracles... or something like that... where there is a fresco called "The Miracle of Life" which tells the story of a girl becoming a woman through getting married... interesting concept... i had no idea i had to get married to become a woman (haha, i know they were pretty old fashioned back in ancient times)... its really a beautiful fresco, and the colors are still really vivid even today... the frescos in Pompei are really well preserved and for the most part really beautiful... as are the mosaics... after freezing half to death in rainy, windy pompei, mike and i found a cheap pizza place and warmed up to some delicious pizza and some hot chocolate before jumping back on the bus to head to Naples...
We started our visit to Naples by going to the national museum there, which really looks like its in need of some serious renovations... not to mention some paint... we checked out some of the stuff they have there from pompei, and also some things they have from the Farnese collection and the Baths of Caracalla, both things we have pretty close contact with in Roma... the Farnese gem collection is in Naples, and consists mostly of teeny tiny cameos... which were really pretty... luckily after this we were finally able to check into our hotel and get warm and dry before going out to a crazy Napolitano dinner... we went to this restaurant called Nenella or something like that... and they basically come to your table and shout out dishes and you raise your hand if thats what you want and they just count up how many they need to bring out... and the food was delicious... after a while once we were all riled up we were getting really into the crazy atmosphere and that got the server pretty hyped up too... apparently hyped enough to start throwing plated and empty water bottles... which was pretty hilarious... and we got all the amazing dinner we wanted for 11 euro... perfetto! The next day we began by walking all around naples to see the main architectural junk... so we saw the galleria and some piazzas and i think a palace... but the coolest was that we saw the National Post Office designed by Giuseppe Vaccaro (i kid you not!) during the fascist period... so its a very minimalist building, but the attention to details and materials is pretty amazing, and im not just saying this because the guy who designed it might be family... it was a cool buiding... seriously! after that we went and did some window shopping... i found nothing of excitement... so saved my money, and went back to the crazy restaurant from the night before... yum.
In the morning, we checked out of the hotel early and headed to the docks to get on the boat for Capri, which is not "in season" right now, since its not summer anymore obviously... but its still a gorgeous place even tho it was damp and rainy the whole day... we had dinner in a restaurant with a beautiful view, and it also had all their plates and things made by the ceramic place we visited in vetri! pretty cool how it all comes together like that... they also had the most amazing calzones... did i mention italians are the most amazing cooks ever? because yea, they are... i love italian food... then we visited a perfume brewery... ill call it a brewery because it literally had those metal vats like they brew beer in... and the perfume was really pretty, but not my style... so i settled for buying a few presents and then we headed out to visit the garden (beautiful, and with an amazing view) and then to eventually head back down to the docks to get on the boat that took us back to Naples... where we got back on the bus and headed back to rome... end of trips for Roma fall 07.

That was a much longer post than i initially anticipated, so i think now ill start doing some of the other things i really need to do, and maybe later ill throw down a post about thanksgiving here in roma... ive posted all the pictures from the trip so take a look at those, theyre really beautiful!

aaand Chris gets here tomorrow! im super duper excited!