adventures!

June 11, 2010

Boy am I so glad we had a relaxing sp day the night before! We got up early to start our very own planned trip to Sorrento, Capri Island, and Pompeii. This was a very big deal and an exciting one because we wouldn't be going with our API director for once - just me, Gabrielle, Emily and Josh off on a wild adventure of our own! Irene, our awesome API director helped us so much with booking the train tickets and the hotel for us (for which we are eternally grateful!) but other than that, we were on our own! So, I got up and had a good breakfast - oh! Maria Carla loves making preserves and I tried her kiwi preserves…absolutely delightful! It's even better with nutella on freshly made bread!

Anyway, our bus to Tarquina left at 7:30 so I made sure to meet everyone at the bus station by 7:15. Our route is as follows: bus from Tuscania to Tarquinia, train from Tarquina to Rome Central Station, transfer train from Rome to Naples, Naples local train (the Circumvesuviana) to Pompeii/Sorrento. The bus arrived on schedule and more importantly, WE were on time for the bus! We found the train station and started our epic trek across the country!

What an adventure! We had to run through Rome Central Station TWICE to make our train in time! we only had 15 minutes from one train stop to the other and Josh forgot to buy the tickets so we literally had to buy tickets and then FIND where our train left from...man at one point, there was the huge line for tickets and i was doing all the leading and talking in the group and omg daddy would have been so proud - i just saw the line, looked at the clock and was like, there is literally 5 MINUTES until this train leaves and i just walked right up to the counter, and i was like, "mi dispiace peroh, io bisognio un billiete a napoli, ADESSO!" which means, lady i'm sorry but i need a ticket to naples, NOW" and some Americans from like florida or something (accent) were like, "no, you can't cut in front!" and i'm like "well, you should have learned italian before being late for your train lady" (just kidding, I didn't say that but I thought it) but the ticket lady was a centimeter from giving us the ticket but then she said "wait in cue, wait in cue" and i'm like, 'GAHHH!" and we had to RUN to the other side of the train station (this is like running through an airport by the way) and we found a self service ticket thing, bought the ticket, hopped on train and we were like "ok ok, at least we're in the train, not the right car, but at least the right train" so we were just going through the compartments within the train but then a train worker guy saw us and were like "you cannot just walk through the train, you're disrupting everyone" and i'm like "no we're not" but he made us GET OUT. and i'm like, "holy goodness, we have literally 60 SECONDS before this train leaves and we have to GET OUT NOW???!!!" so we got out and SPRINTED (with our bags and everything) from compartment 4 all the way to compartment 9!!!! we jumped in the train and it took off! man, it was an adventure! i should be on the Amazing Race or something!!!

I made sure to say a prayer of thanks when we stepped off the treno and onto the village of Pompeii - we made it! We made it (all of us) safely and we hadn't been robbed in shady Naples!

Although we packed very lightly for the week end it was such a relief to be able to keep our bags in lockers at the Pompeii entrance. I mean, the heat and sun were RELENTLESS and the village is HUGE! I never expected it to be that big! It sure was pretty breathtaking - a lot to wrap my mind around though. I mean, Mt. Vesuvius loomed up in the near distance and I couldn’t' believe that this city was once covered in ash! Incredible! I mean, we walked along it's dusty streets through a maze of ruined corridors adorned with faded painting and marble Latin inscriptions as if they were just Roman ruins or something. I think Pompeii really hit home for me when I saw the preserved bodies of the people buried beneath the ash - completely and tragically frozen in time. The pregnant woman that had fallen in an attempt to flee really made me think and ponder what life must have been like at that exact moment 1800 years ago. I mean, at least 2000 people died when Mt. Vesuvius erupted - standing right there in the middle of a street made it very real to me. in the chaos of the moment, I don't think I'd be able to make it out of the web of streets and actually come out of  the disaster alive! Yet, as incredible as the city was, after spending the entire afternoon under the hot Italian sun, we were all dehydrated, hungry, and ready for shade. We hoped back on the Circumvesuviana and gratefully and finally rested our feet, excited for Sorrento.

lots and lots of pictures coming up soon!