This was my initial thought when we emerged from the underground of Lepanto station yesterday afternoon. Many of us couldn't wait to get a slice of €3 pizza or a riceball from Mondo Arancina, while others just wanted to lay in bed and sleep. I personally missed the seagulls perched on the rooftops of St. Johns that laugh all hours of the night. It's funny what you notice about your environment once you've been removed from it for a certain amount of time.
Day Sixteen - Pompei
7:00 wake up, 7:30 meet up time. 8:00 arrival to the Termini, 9:00 departure from Rome. Nothing about that morning was simplified. After staying up until 3am with Kylee reading about Pompei and cramming three days of necessities into my tote bag (Navy Seal Swag), Jacob's iPod lulled me to sleep on the train ride to Napoli, which was surprisingly a lot shorter than we anticipated. I missed my Daft Punk! Between them and Aesop I was good to go.
The Napoli Termini was a beast, but the buses were something else. The defenses I usually have up in Rome went in to overdrive the moment we left the train, and for good reason. Within minutes of boarding the train poor Dr. Bednarz caught a hand creeping in her purse. Thankfully nothing was stolen. After 45 minutes or so of exploring - that's the word I'll choose for our journey to the hotel - we arrived to Hotel Toledo. We dropped off our bags and headed back to the Termini to meet with the archaeologist, Rosario, for our walking tour of Pompei. By that time most of us were starving and raged on the McDonald's at the entrance. I haven't felt much separation anxiety from American food, but I have to admit having a small piece of home was nice. A few chicken nuggets, fries and an orange Fanta later and we were headed back out of the Termini. Change of plans. We explored some more until we found the archaeologist and boarded the train to Pompei, where I napped again. It was fantastic.
Rosario had a nice surprise for us. We were granted the opportunity to visit a Scavi her students were working on. Their site was a mansion that belonged to a wealthy family that lived on the outskirts of Pompei. Their house was reconstructed several times due to earth quakes, but survived its original construction date that's estimated to 62 BC, predating the life of Christ. This blew my mind. The frescoes were so well preserved and the rooms were enormous. I was in shock. Some of the rooms had bodies on display that were preserved from the volcanic eruption. Rosario compared the eruptions to the bursting of a champagne bottle, which was amusing, but painted the perfect picture.
Her students showed us some of their projects, piecing together relics from the house. I respect them for doing work that's so tedious, more so for their determination and pride every step of the way. It definitely showed.
After our tour of the villa we finally saw Pompei. Rosario and Domenica gave us information on the bath houses, the soup kitchens, the traditional Roman house and, my personal favorite, the Villa of Mysteries. I took too many pictures to name:
After a long day of exploring, we had a group dinner at a family owned pizza place by the hotel. I didn't realize how much I missed the mom and pop places that we have in Jersey until I walked inside and sat down. In my neighborhood you know the families that own the restaurants and they're usually pretty friendly people. For me, it was a little slice of home...with the exception of the Italian soap operas that our table watched during dinner. Imagine Jack Bauer meets General Hospital. Sounds weird, but very entertaining. MiRau was surprised with cake and champagne for her birthday, which I thought was adorable. After some well deserved group time, we were off to bed to rest up for our day on the island.
I guess some of us were more tired than others. Sorry Sebastian, I couldn't resist. Muahahaha.
Day Seventeen - Capri!
My day didn't start out the way I planned, mainly because I had been under the weather since we left for Napoli. Most people didn't realize there was anything wrong because I have a mean poker face, but it got to the point where I felt overwhelmed. I didn't like removing myself from the group, but I disliked the idea of being anyone's burden even more, so I thought at the time it would be best to keep to myself and try to get some rest. Fortunately, between Jacob's iPod (shout out to Jacob for having a great selection of music, by the way, I missed my Daft Punk!), the waves - ironically a rocking boat soothes me - and some medicine thanks to Dr. Sebastian I was back to my old self in no time. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Capri is easily one of the most beautiful islands I've ever seen. It was nice to be by the water again. Astrologically, I'm an air sign, but I'm convinced I was supposed to be a water sign. It's my element. I swam to the other side of the rocks that had a castle built in to the mountain, which was gorgeous, and chilled on the beach with a frozen strawberry lemonade courtesy of Rebecca's recommendation. Michelle B. and I gave Lauren a lesson on Shakira and did a photo shoot with the group when the sun wasn't so harsh. It may not seem like it, but I live for these moments with our group. Having a chance to sit back, relax and appreciate everything God has given me in this trip with a bunch of great people has been a daily occurrence for me.
I'm not sure what else to say about this beautiful place, except being there was so soothing. I didn't want to leave, but the sun was setting so we decided to go to dinner before catching the ferry back. I loved the restaurant they picked. Our waitress was bubbly and charismatic and her sons had a great music selection - anyone who can name a Justin Timberlake or Bruno Mars song gets automatic brownie points in my book. I'm hoping that when I come back - which I will, revisiting this island has officially made my list of non-negotiables - I hope to eat there again.
Our evening didn't go as smoothly as the day did, which resulted in an early departure. I've decided that I won't recant the events of the night out of respect for my friends, but I think we all learned valuable lessons about safety and became closer as a result of what occurred in Napoli. I have so much respect for every person in our group for the way we conducted ourselves and, more so, the fact that we were willing to carry each other without question. I especially respect my professors for the way they handled the situation. They offered their services and actively sought help from others to make sure we were okay. I commend all of you.
Day Eighteen - And then we rested
Sleep. Breakfast. Taxi fleet to the Termini. More sleep. Roma. It honestly wasn't a bad morning at all. Upon walking into St. John's I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders. I was happy to have left everything behind - with the exception of Capri, I would go back there any day - and focus on what comes next.
After Napoli, we all needed a little Home Sweet Rome.
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