Pompei, Napoli, Capri

This weekend I made my first trip south of Rome in Italy. Hard to believe since it is the end of my time here, but I’d say it was the perfect time to do so. The weather is getting warmer, and down in Naples and Capri it sure felt like Spring, if not Summer.

Pompei on Friday:

I jumped on a train around eleven in Rome towards Naples. Coincidentally (okay it was planned) it was the same train that Becky and her friends were on coming from Florence. They had a great time in Northern Italy, and we are all looking forward to some warm weather on the coast.

We got to Naples around noon and headed to our hostel. The area around the train station is not necessarily the nicest area I’ve seen, though Naples in general didn’t impress me (more on that later). After we checked in we headed to the bus station to take us to Pompei. About an hour later, and only getting mixed up on the bus once (overshot the stop for the Pompei excavations, who knew Pompei was more than ruins?) we were at the Pompei scavi site. Walking through the ruins was pretty incredible, you can just imagine what it was like before it was completely drowned out by a volcanic eruption. The preservation and excavations are pretty impressive. We stayed for a couple hours, until the park was closing, and then headed back towards Naples to find some dinner. Dinner tonight was at a restaurant called Il pomodorino, which has some awesome Napolean style pizza.

Pizza in Naples:

Pizza in Naples is much different than the Roman pizza I’ve become accustomed to. To explain it easiest, Pizza in Naples is similar to Pizza in New Jersey, in that it is round, has a thick crust on the outside, with thin base for the rest of the pizza. That’s where the similarities end. The pizza has a distinct fresh taste, and it was consistently good. I had a couple different types, including a Calzone style with prosuito inside it, which was fantastic.

Saturday in Capri:

We woke up early Satuday to catch a Ferry to Capri. The ferry takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get to the Island, and once we were close the view was breathtaking. When we docked, we just sat on the beach right there and took it in for a while. The Island of Capri has two major areas of population: Capri town and Anacapri. Both are at higher elevations above sea level, so you have to take a bus or cable car to either. Anacapri was further away, so we opted for Capri town. The cable car up the hill was a nice 5 minute ride, and we were in the center of the town. The view from the main street down upon the beach and cliff houses was incredible. We walked the street snapping photos of every single angle we came upon. We got more pizza, some gelato, and were on our way up to a peak of Capri town.



This is what we saw when we got to the top of the peak, which looked the opposite direction of the port and Naples. From here, we headed down a long winding path through the Augustine Gardens, and then back up the hill to the town. It was a slow, relaxing walk down and then back up, with many stops to take photos and just enjoy where we were.

I could have spent another couple of days exploring Capri and would have loved to have gotten to Anacapri, but with the ferries running on a tight schedule we had to head back to Naples sooner than I think any of us really wanted to, even though we were there for a good 11 hours or so.

Sunday in Napoli:

Oh Naples, what an interesting little city. Our hostel was very nice, and the concierge was very helpful in showing us where to go and what we should see, and maybe it was just that we were spoiled by Capri, but other than the food, I wasn’t all that impressed by Naples. Don’t get me wrong, it had its moments, like when I played soccer with a 4 year old local boy in Piazza del Plebiscito, which was full of local kids kicking around soccer balls and playing. It’s easy to see why countries like Italy have such incredible soccer players, since they all use their feet to kick a ball by the time they can walk, instead of always trying to throw it or just pick it up. I’ve wanted to kick a soccer ball around with locals since I got to Italy, and this was my chance to. The little boy I kicked around with was about the same skill level as me (kidding, but in 4 years he’ll be the next Pele), and we ran around kicking the ball back and forth until we were both exhausted.

Afterwards we walked around Naples a bit more, found a really good pizza place (go figure) and then headed back to the hostel to grab our bags and head our separate ways, Becky and her friends back to London town, and myself back to Roma.

The Final Countdown:

10 days. That’s what I have left in Rome. Even as I type it I can’t believe it. It’s like the feeling you have the last week of summer, as you are getting ready to go back to school, back to college, and back to the real world. In this case I’m actually going home to summer, not school, but it is really something I can’t quite grasp yet. I need to stop sleeping so I can fit as much in as I possibly can for the next 240 hours.

Pictures from the Weekend:

One last trip in Italy...

So this is my final open weekend in Rome, so I will be making a final trip within Italy for it.
Traveling Italy has been incredible. If there is one country you can travel to multiple cities and never get bored, it is, from my experience, Italy. I’ve been to so many different small cities and each one has its own unique feel and culture to it. Being that Italy was and has always been very much segregated by region, they still hold their own regional cultural values and traditions in high regard. It’s definitely a pride thing for the Italians.

It seems that many people agree with the above statement. For their spring break, Becky and her friends decided to travel Italy, visiting Rome first, then going north to Florence with a couple side trips up there, and now down to Naples, with side trips to Capri and Pompei. I’ve decided to join them on their journey south.

This is my first time going south, and I have to say I’m quite excited for it. I’ve heard so many cool things about Capri and Pompei, and of course Naples has its own unique qualities.
I’ll be getting on a train tomorrow to head down to Naples, where we will stay. It’s only an hour and ten minute ride from Rome, which is nice to be able to get somewhere so quickly and not have to deal with the airport security and all of the minor hassles that come with flying.

Seeing as it is my final trip, I’ll be sure to take tons of pictures (just reminded myself to charge my camera battery, that would be pretty terrible if I didn’t), and will of course be back online Sunday night or Monday to blog about the entire thing, as I have with all my other trips.
I’ll leave you now with a gallery of pictures I call, “My days with the Pope” which are a compilation of the three different days over the past three weeks that I saw the Pope (2 Angelus’, one Audience) and also my visit to the Vatican Museum, and another visit to St. Peter’s.