Sorrento and Pompei!

Ciao!

This weekend Alex and I headed down the coast to Sorrento on Saturday and the Pompei on Sunday!   Sorrento is a gorgeous town in the Amalfi Coast.  Very charming!  We tanned, naturally, and drank some lemoncello--a perfect Sorrento day.

Then on Sunday we went to Pompei. Pompei is one of the places that I have dreamed of visiting since I was a 3rd grader and only increased when I was an anthropology major at Cal. I remember reading the story of how the city was covered with ash in a matter of hours and sadly, yet luckily for the future, stuck in that exact moment in time.  The ruins proved to be amazing as were the castes of the poor people who were frozen by the ash.  It was almost unreal to imagine that we were walking down streets that had been used by people in 79 AD!  Wrap your head around that!!

Such a great day--well until we attempted to leave Napoli headed back to Rome.  It is still a mystery to us, but all trains were immobilized--for hours nothing was going in or out of the station. Finally, a fast train came cruising in the station and everyone starting running around yelling, in Italian of course, with Alex and I barely (ok, completely) not understanding a thing.  We managed to gather that somehow the only train leaving was a fast train, we grabbed our stuff, booked it for the train and jammed into the aisles like the rest of the train goers.  It was a packed ride, but we made it back to Rome--something that did not seem like it would be possible for awhile.

At moments like those, I just imagine how easy it would be to understand what was going on and be able to ask questions in a language I know--but alas, we survived and I think our spirit of adventure/survival has been strengthened!!

GIANT lemons!

Beautiful Italy...oh ya, and Switzerland, too...

Ciao!

Sorry for my long absence!  I have been out gallivanting around Italy with my family, who finally made it over to Rome--well, all except for Ryan, who hopefully will be coming soon!  My Mom and Christine joined Alex and I in Rome where I showed them all of my favorite places. They then headed off to Tuscany, while I went back to work--yes, my job is not thaaaaat relaxed. I then joined them in Lake Como and spent the next week wandering around northern Italy and Switzerland with them.  We then ended up in Genova where we saw the amazing Cinque Terre and the Italian Riviera town of Noli.

Italy never ceases to amaze me.  In the course of a week, we saw such different landscapes and ate such unique and delicious food. The only blip in the glory was our quick jaunt into Switzerland--ok ok, its not that bad.  But our first day in Ticino, we quickly found out that the Swiss Franc does not exactly have the most favorable conversion rate.  Somehow we ended up paying 10 euros for a bottle of water, and Switzerland's name could no longer be uttered with out an accompanying fist shake.  That being said, it was beautiful, too.


And here it is, a sampling of our adventures in pictures--as usual, does not nearly do it justice.

I was so sad to see my Mom and sister head home, but fortunately Alex is still in Italy and will be returning to Rome this weekend! 


More adventures to come!