So we’re back from Napoli! It was such a fantastic weekend. We left bright and early on Friday morning, at 5:45 am and took a coach bus to Napoli. When we got there, around 11 am, we met up with a tour guide, and toured around Napoli looking at a bunch of churches until about 4 in the afternoon. We were able to see the famous sculpture of Jesus that is carved from one piece of marble, that looks like he is wrapped in a veil. It was gorgeous and must have required so much skill. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures, so it just exists in my memory. After the tour, we went to the hotel to check in. I hadn’t really eaten since 8 am, but we all took long naps (Mira, Jen, Allie, and I) and then woke up around 7 pm to go to dinner. After dinner we walked around the area, which was actually kind of sketchy. I wouldn’t ever walk around by myself. And the area was surprisingly quiet for a Friday night. But the place we went to dinner was fantastic. A pizzeria called Pellone’s a couple blocks from our hotel. I got the Mais pizza: prosciutto, panna, basele, fior di latte, e mais (prosciutto, cream, basil, white sauce, and corn). It was really good- and the pizza was so big I only ate half! I brought the rest home and had it yesterday and today. On Saturday after breakfast (included in our hotel!!) we left for the Amalfi coast. It took about an hour and a half to two hours to get to the first stop. The road is a single two lane road that hugs the coast- very narrow and full of blind curves. And in a bus- I can’t believe the drivers here. They have skill. The first town was called Positano- very beautiful, but we spent 45 minutes walking down from our bus to get to the water because it was so steep in elevation. The streets weaved back and forth, and there were a bunch of stairs we needed to go down. The water felt great though. And the drive was so picturesque- such blue, almost turquoise, water and steep jagged mountain peaks on the other side.
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| this is looking up at a facade of a church in Napoli |
We hopped back on the bus and drove about half an hour to the actual town of Amalfi, which was also gorgeous. There are only two main streets that intersect at one point. After a bite to eat, we shopped around and then sketched. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw some guys getting ready to play this game in the water that involved kayaks and a volleyball. It looked like immense fun, and I wish we would’ve been able to see them play. After we got back, a small group of us went down to the historical district of Napoli where all the churches were to do some souvenir shopping, and then got some dinner -from a pizzeria nearby. We also swung by a bakery on the way home- I got a cannolo- mmmmm.
And this morning, after another free breakfast, we took out bus to Pompei!!! Let me just take a minute to describe the breakfast. Usually in Rome, all they eat for breakfast is a café and a cornetto (espresso and a croissant). I get a cappuccino occasionally, along with a cornetto. But if I’m eating at home I’ll have cereal with yogurt or fruit. Something small. This was a huge affair. Two types of cereal, cornetti (plural of cornetto), fruit salad (like the kind you get in plastic fruit cups to take to school when you’re ten), bread with butter for spreading and ham and cheese, small sausages (which are actually hotdogs), jogurt (yogurt), hard-boiled eggs, toast, and three different types of jams and a nutella off-brand spread. And finally the drinks. A juice machine AND a coffee machine. The day couldn’t start better. I got a latte macchiato the first day, a cappuccino the second, and I tried the cioccalato caldo (hot chocolate), and blood-orange juice. YUM.
So anyway...Pompei!! A very, very awesome place to go to. I am constantly fascinated by ruins- I absolutely love them. The roads were large cobblestones, with large stepping stones for crossing to keep their feet out of the street when it rained because they didn’t have a sewer system, and when it rained, all the “mud” flowed down the street. Gross, huh? You can see the ruts from the chariots, and also the ruts in the stones in front of the stores, where they had the big wooden doors slide open and shut. We walked inside a very large house- you could tell how wealthy a person/family was based on how large/ornate the entry/threshold of their house was. Kind of like in New Orleans, where the wealthy like to plaster their house number everywhere, as if they’ll forget their identity, these people had tall columns and frescos in the entry hall. Arches and columns are the symbols of POWER. We had a tour guide with us from 11 until about 1:15, and she took us around to see the forum and baths, along with other sights, where we were able to see the victims of the ash in a market off the forum, and check out the mosaics in the baths. After she left, we were given drawing assignments by our professors and so we split up, some to eat lunch, and some to go draw. I was in the second group, and we headed to the Villa de Misteri. I loved this villa. We actually saw a couple getting wedding photos done. Cute, no? It had garden that wrapped around the sides, and two interior courtyards. I have no idea what they used all the extra rooms for in the front of the house- maybe it was just a lot of sitting rooms. But in this house, and the one we had seen earlier, there was a central portico that surrounded a courtyard with trees or bushes. And the house was kept cool because of all the shade, thick walls, and breezes flowing through all the open windows. And of course, the view of Mt. Vesuvius is constantly in the background, a reminder of what happened. After sketching out a diagram of the house, Kristy, Allie and I went to the Forum to go diagram/sketch, and then quickly headed to the Baths to sketch. I was a little bummed we didn’t have enough time to do the assignments and go back to places we had seen earlier, but I guess that was ok because my camera died before the Villa de Misteri, so I’m glad I sketched it.
A good vacation- didn’t work on studio at all, because none of us brought our computers (as requested by Marcella). Although we've had some long days this week- Monday we had class starting at 8:30 instead of 9, and then Marcella had a lecture for her class after studio at 5:30 to make up for the one we missed from the Sicily trip. That’s almost eleven hours of class. And ten on Tuesday and ten on Thursday.
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