Southern Italy

I got back Friday night from a whirlwind tour of southern Italy. Above is the sunrise at 7:30 in the morning in Rome the day we left.First we stopped in a fascist town, Sabaudia. It was fairly small, but the modernist quality of the buildings was a nice change from classical Rome. We only had an hour, but I was able to get in a few sketches of the church, and then wander a bit towards the lake/bay and then it was back on the bus.


Our next stop was Cuma, which is basically a giant hill with a lot of old ruined temples on it. We ate lunch, while being looked at longingly by some wild dogs, and then made our way into the site. There were some awesome caves, and a lot of incomplete ruins, but the view from the top was beautiful. Down on the beach we were able to see people practicing chariot racing. Then it was back on the bus and onward to Pompeii. Below I took a picture of my favorite sign, its hilarious.



We got to Pompeii at night, and stayed in a funky hotel. The hotel provided us with a big dinner, which was decent. The next day we walked over to Pompeii. The site was rather stunning, there were so many complete buildings. We saw an old amphitheatre and tons of old houses. Bridget, Brianne and I searched out the old brothel which had some dirty frescoes. Supposedly you would come in and point to the fresco you wanted and it would be done. Also I thought I'd throw in a view of Vesuvius.



After Pompeii in the morning we headed to Amalfi, it was a harrowing ride down the coast, the roads were really small and we were in a big bus. I was getting some motion sickness from all the turns, so I just tried to sleep. We got to Amalfi and checked into the hotel, we had the most awesome room. Mostly it was the view that was awesome.


The first night we went out to a nice dinner, I decided to eat Italian style and got two courses, I started with gnocchi and ended with some calamari, it was delicious. Then we got some gelato, and then it was back to the hotel to change into my swimsuit. We went down to the water and did a night swim, the water was so nice and it was calm so I was able to float for a while and look at the sky. The next morning we were served breakfast in our room and we ate out on our balcony.


After breakfast we walked up to Ravello, it was about 1000 steps. Which may not sound like much but we scaled a mountain and then had to climb down it a little and then climb another mountain. Man there were tons of steps. The views were incredible though.



In Ravello we checked out the Duomo and then two villas. The Villa Cimbroni is known for its view over the water, and the property goes right to the edge of the cliff. That's Sicily in the background, you can kind of see it.


We sketched there for a few hours and then made our way back down to Amalfi, the walk down was much easier. We went back to the same restaurant for dinner and I had the best clams I've ever tasted they were soooo good.
The next day we were supposed to go to Paestum, which has some complete Greek temples, unfortunately there was a museum workers strike so we couldn't go. So we hung out in Amalfi for the morning and left at 12 for Rome.


nuns: 134 priest: 69