OW. I’m burned! I spent the weekend in Pompeii touring and climbing volcanoes, ya know, the everyday stuff and I came back bright red. It’s quickly fading to a great tan so I can’t complain but for now… ow.
I made it!
Friday morning we boarded our bus to Pompeii and got to Mount Vesuvius around noon. From there, we hiked our asses up to the top, took way too many ridiculous pictures, then slid our way down to the bottom again. The walk itself took about 30 minutes which really isn’t much, but our bus drove us up the crazy winding roads and we had to finish the steepest parts on foot. It was beautiful, not as high up as I was expecting, but still gorgeous. P.S. Mount Vesuvius is the volcano that erupted and petrified the ancient city of Pompeii. It’s still an active volcano, be glad I’m alive 🙂
After that, we drove for another hour and a half to our hotel just outside of Pompeii. Spent the afternoon catching up on sleep and showering, then had an amazing Italian dinner at the hotel. They served fish, not my fav, but the pasta, potatoes, salad, and naturally, GELATO, were all fantastic. Afterwards, we trekked through the trees/forest across from our hotel to the Mediterranean Sea beach. Spent some time running through the warm salty water lit only by moonlight and had a blast.
Saturday morning we took a tour of the ruins of Pompeii and then did a little market shopping. I’m still struggling with your souveniurs so any help would be greatly appreciated. Pompeii was fascinating, but again, not what I was expecting. As morbid as it may sound, I wanted to see more bodies that were petrified and I was expecting to see a layer of volcanic ash still covering things. Wrong. There were 3 replicas of bodies, not the real things, and everything was cleaned and in great condition. Again, very interesting, different from what I was expecting.
Another great dinner Saturday night and another trip to the beach at night. Some of our group went to a creepy disco party in the basement of the hotel while I tried (and failed) to find a good English television channel.
Wrapping up our trip, we spent the morning at the beach, had lunch at the hotel, and laid out by the pool until 5p.m. when we got on our bus to go back to Rome. We must have been going the wrong way because our bus arrived 2 hours late and we were all pretty crabby.
Overall, the weekend was a nice RELAXING break from classes everyday and the sun only made it that much better. However, lesson of the weekend? I really hate bus rides and I’m not sure how I’m going to survive the 10 hour trip to Cannes, France in a few weeks.
Key things to note about this weekend:
- Bus drivers are creepy
- Italians eat too much for my stomach to handle
- Stealing food from hotels is fun
- Debating with them when they overcharge you at dinner just makes them treat you more like shit than anything else in Italy
- Climbing a volcano is fun and gives you a great sense of accomplishment
- And as always, gelato still rocks my world
Miss you as always! And in case you didn’t know:
Out of Curiosity 