Pompeii and Naples

This past weekend I have had the fortune to experience many exciting things... to start on 11/11/11 I made the most epic wish at the Trevi Fountain right at 11:11pm... I hope it comes true!

On Saturday we made the three hour journey to Pompeii! We arrived at the site and got a special tour by an Archaeologist who explained many details about the ancient life of Pompeii and also described the extensive process of uncovering these ruins- they are only 3/8th uncovered!

Some interesting things about Pompeii are the city is set up like traditional Greeks with three main East to West road intersected by many North to South roads. It also had no class section of the city so the rich and the poor (little poor that they had) lived together. The streets had stepping stones so that when it rained you could still cross but when the Pope (John Paul the 3rd) came to visit they had to take out a stepping stone so that they could get his chariot through and they have never replaced it. Also when Mt. Vesuvius erupted there were several waves of ash and pummus stone before the three waves of lava covered the city. Sadly there have been 400 people uncovered from structural damage- the buildings falling on top of them, while roughly 650 people died from the lava. The town was covered and forgotten until 1599.

For that night we went to Serento- an amazingly cute town by Naples. It was awesome, we booked a four star hotel and that night we had a dinner provided (chicken, beans, potatoes, roman cake) and we walked the city. The main road had a orange and lemon orchard off to the right that we got to tour and sample some of Rome's delicacy- limonchello, which is a lemon liqour and very good. The street was already decked out in christmas decorations and had us all in the christmans spirit!

Coming into Sorento

The next day we went to Naples where we visited the National Archaeological Museum filled with artifacts of Pompei- things such as mosaics, medicinal tools, and sculptures (many of the fallic form..) After the museum we had a walking tour of the town- this included trying to maneuver down the most famous street called Via San Gregorio. This street has many carefully crafted nativity scenes complete with water wheels and moving figurines- I really was tempted to get one but the complexity of bringing it back to the states deterred me!

After that I had to go get some pizza.... especially since it was invented in Naples so Judy, Gretchen, and I went to this cute little restaurant that our tour guide recommended where I ATE A WHOLE PIZZA TO MYSELF! Granted I could have been done half way through but we all made a pact to eat every last bite and that is what we did.... (I got margarita, Judy got eggplant with mushrooms and mozzarella, while Gretchen got a ricotta filled calzone pizza). 

The day concluded with shopping the busy streets of Naples and then a 3 hour long bus ride back to Rome. Since it was a birthday of one of the girls in our group we all decided to go out to our trusty spot the Irish pub called Scholars- for some karaoke and a good time! The night ended well with us all being tired but able to attend our history class that next afternoon. 

This weekend Cait and I are looking into going up to Pisa and Assisi and then traveling down to the southern tip of Italy to enjoy the coast if we can but we will have to see!

I hope everyone is enjoying the anticipation for waiting for my brother's baby....! I know that I am :)