South Trip - Pompeii, Almafi, Ravello and Naples

“…And we have a special treat for you today,” my professor David said when we pulled up to Pompeii, “Pompeii in the snow!” And yes, that’s exactly what we got. Pompeii in the snow. For about 10 minutes we walked around in the slushy/rainy/snow that was pouring down from the sky and we were certain that this was going to be the worst day in Pompeii…ever. And we were all really pissed. But then fortunately for us, the rain/snow stopped quickly and we were able enjoy (minus the extreme mess of mud) Pompeii. Two thoughts that I had about Pompeii before entering were quickly proved wrong. The First one: it’s actually huge. So much bigger than you are lead to believe it is. Two: It’s not in the middle of nowhere, it’s actually surrounded by snowy mountains. But it was a good exploration/adventure. Unfortunately they rope off/lock up several places so its hard to really get in and see some of the ruins besides a few houses here and there that they’ve opened up. However, Marco told us that the golden Italian rule was: If the gate is open or unlocked, you may enter. So after a slight frustration of not being able to see more things, we took this rule to heart. We disregarded a lot of the ropes and barricades and just made sure to be careful not to step on anything “important looking” such as tiles or frescoes. Thanks to this maneuver we were even able to climb up inside the amphitheater. The staircases were originally blocked off by big orange plastic gates, one of which had been torn down on one side and hadn’t been fixed. SOOO therefore, it was open to us! So, we got to climb to the top and get a pretty good view of the inside and of the neighboring structures. Then we climbed down the seating and got to go inside the lower chambers and eventually found a hole in the fence to climb back out of. However, my friend Eric was too tall and couldn’t fit through the hole and it just so happened that a gigantic tour group showed up around the time we were trying to crawl through this hole in what was obviously an “off-limits” area. But we eventually managed to escape without getting kicked out of Pompeii. And right as we boarded our bus, it began to rain/snow again. So I’d say we got really lucky.

From there we headed (on our gigantic charter bus) to the Almafi coast. To put this into perspective for you: we had to scale the mountains to get there. Well, actually Almafi is in the mountains. But, it’s also the coast. The mountains just kind of drop off into the ocean. No beaches or flat land to keep them separate. They just plummet straight into the ocean. Their houses/towns are built up on the sides of the mountains in a somewhat stair-step fashion with windy roads and hairpin turns. Now that you have that picture, please picture a 40-ft long charter bus driving along these stair-step roads and hairpin turns. This was the entire drive for about 2 hours the whole way to Almafi. I’m not scared of heights or usually things of this sort. However, I kept thinking to myself, “Oh my god, I’m going to die today.” I wanted to close my eyes and not think about it. But I didn’t, because this was also the most spectacular view I’ve ever seen of the ocean. When you are up in a mountain, looking out, the ocean appears SO much more vast than it does when you are just standing on the beach. It was really cloudy but about 4-5 miles out from the coast there were patches of clouds missing and it formed a sort of sun-spotted pattern on the ocean water. So, despite being absolutely terrified, the view was amazing and we eventually made it to Almafi (alive) and I felt like I could breathe again.

Almafi is beautiful, but very very small and for the most part, pretty quiet. Probably because it is the “off-season”. And don’t be fooled by the phrase “Almafi coast” or “southern Italy”. We thought that it would be a little warmer and some people even brought shorts with them. (Which I thought was a bit of a stretch). However, it’s FREEZING! The wind blowing in from the sea and the snowy mountaintops didn’t help the cause. But our hotel was pretty amazing and my roommate, Meg, and I were blessed with not just a balcony, but also a deck with a great view of Almafi and the sea, which we shared with some of the other girls from K-State. We found a small café in town and made friends with the owners (a husband and wife) and we actually went back the next day and they gave us free cookies! Plus, they made hot chocolate for us, and if you’ve never had hot chocolate from Italy/Europe before then you’d be impressed. It’s so thick that you can set your spoon on top of it and it won’t sink into the “liquid”. It’s extremely rich, but very good. We also bought lots of Limoncello while in Almafi. Limoncello is a liquor similar to a vodka, but it’s a neon yellowish green in color and its made from lemons and tastes like an extremely sugary lemonade. But its liquor and it’ll definitely kick you in the butt. But, Almafi is the birthplace of Limoncello and it was only fitting that we buy some. PS. You can tell that they cater to lemons in this region. Lemon tree farms are plastered along the sides of the mountains and are about as common as wheat fields in Kansas. For dinner, we made friends with the cute little old man that worked the front desk of our hotel and he told us that the best seafood restaurant in town was down the road quite a distance. (Not walkable). But, he called the restaurant and they sent a car to come pick us up for free! (There were 7 of us). It was good meal, and they even gave us some Limoncello and meloncello (which is awesome!) on the house as well as some appetizers. So far, I was really starting to like the hospitable people of Almafi! We had some things that were called “seaweed puffs” and they were awesome. I need to figure out where I can get some of these in the states!

The next morning, I opened the shutters to our balcony and was greeted by an immense, blinding, bright sunshine and the view of the white Almafi mountain homes and it caused me to actually break out into song: “It’s a beautiful morninggggggg….” (You know, the theme song to the bounce dryer sheet commercials). This caused Meg, who was still in bed, to start hysterically laughing. But, we headed up to Ravello for the day, to see the gardens. (Apparently its known for its gardens, which were, of course, villas that used to be owned by some of the wealthiest Italians back in the day.) But, Italian gardens are always great. They have a sense of organization and placement that make them very appealing and quaint. However, most of the gardens we visited were extremely muddy and nothing was in bloom. We went to see the rose gardens at one of the villas and all we got was some steams and dirt. O well. Ravello is a small itty-bitty town located on the very tiptop of the mountain peak behind Almafi. So, it, along with the neighboring mountain peaks, was covered in snow. It was quite a frigid little excursion, but we got some great views. One of the gardens/villas we visited was called Villa Cimbrone and had been transformed into a hotel for the rich and privileged. Off-season price = 1,000 Euros a night. I was told that both the Clinton’s and the Kennedy’s had stayed here. We got back to Almafi in time to catch the sunset, and we walked out to the end of the pier and got pictures.
The next day, we headed to Naples to go to the archeological museum, which is mostly a collection of pieces found in Pompeii and in Herculaneum. (Statues, frescoes, pots, jewelry, etc) And I found out that the Pompeii people were very … .interesting. The museum had a “secret room” in which is kept some paintings, statues and likewise that came from the Brothel that was in Pompeii. Let’s just say that they Pompeii people were extremely perverted and leave it at that. Riding out of Naples was interesting. There’s trash everywhere, graffiti everywhere, bums everywhere, and the buildings look like they’ve just been bombed. There was just nothing what-so-ever charming about anything I saw. So I wasn’t eager to say I would ever want to return to Naples, but I hear that over by the coast is much better. So that concluded our “south trip, and I slept the entire way home on the bus.