Ciao! This week, many exciting things occurred, including a visit from a friend, and my solo traveling experience!
On Monday, one of my friends from America, Olivia, traveled form her Au Pair job in Munich to Sorrento. Once she arrived in Sant'Agnello, I became her personal tour guide, and walked her through Corso Italia, Piazzo Tasso, Marina Grande and Sant'Anna! Showing Olivia this tiny city I have come to love made me feel like a local, and also made me feel like I am acclimating well. I impressed her with my Italian usage: I speak Italian to every local I meet and refuse to respond in English, no matter how challenging it may be! I have found it to be very fulfilling and fun to speak Italian whenever I can, and many of the locals I have met truly appreciate my attempts to communicate in their native tongue.
On Tuesday, I was in class all day, and studied hard. I had a marine biology exam on Thursday and really wanted to do well. In the evening, I showed Olivia my favorite restaurants, and we settled on MoMo, where she got her first taste of authentic Italian pasta.
Wednesday was another tour guide day, and a relaxing one at that. Olivia and I visited one of the private beaches in Villa Communal, where we had to pay 20 euros to enter! This is one of the things I still struggle with in Italy: nothing is free here. You must pay for beaches, water, public bathrooms, and even grocery bags. I appreciate how inexpensive visiting here is, but it is difficult to remember to bring coins for the toilet sometimes.
On Thursday, my UF class visited Herculaneum and Oplontis. These ancient Roman sites are incredibly well preserved and feature beautiful frescos, houses, markets, and even human remains. My favorite site at Herculaneum was the elaborate fountain featured in the underground pool. My favorite site at Oplontis was the fresco's in the kitchen of a huge villa.
On Friday, I visited Rome! I used the circumvesuvia to get to Naples, and then a high speed train to Rome. On my first day there we went shopping and saw the Spanish steps. We relaxed in the hotel room after a long day of traveling. We stayed in Prati, a pretty residential area 5 minutes from the Vatican.
On Saturday is when we started to visit all the tourist attractions. We visited the Vatican, and spent a good part of the day there. My favorite part of the Vatican was the Sistine Chapel because I got to see my favorite piece of art, the Creation of Adam. We walked through luxury shops as well.
Sunday was my favorite day, and also the longest day. We started our morning with a lovely walk to to Gallery Borghese, and stayed for about 3 hours. I truly loved this gallery; all the colors were soft and delicate, and the walls were covered with glorious murals. I got to see Bernini's David as well. After, we visited the Colosseum. I was very overwhelmed with the size of this structure and stayed there for many hours, exploring the 2nd, 1st and ground level. After, I had the best dinner of my life at Il Duca, getting the truffle ravioli. After, we decided to try and finish our last bit of sightseeing as opposed to getting up early the next day, and so we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. Trevi was spectacular, especially at night. I had no idea how large the fountains was, and how grand the marble architecture was. After this we saw the Pantheon, which also amazing me with its enormity. We strolled around the building at midnight, and it felt much more intimate with less tourists around.
This weekend was my favorite weekend in Italy so far. I am so happy and grateful that I was able to make it and explore this amazing, historical city!
I started my fourth week in Italy by traveling back from Rome to Naples, and then to Sorrento. I took a high speed train to Naples and then the circumvesuviana to Sorrento. I got to try Italian McDonald's at the train station in Naples, where I had a "McCrunchy Bread", an English muffin with Nutella inside. It was pretty good!
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to give my UF class a tour of the physical geography of Sorrento and the Bay of Naples; both inside the classroom and not. I presented on the Baths of Regina Giovanna and Mt. Vesuvius, and then gave my classmates a tour of Villa Communal, where I explained that Sorrento has a limestone foundation build upon tufa, thanks to the eruption of Campi Flegrei 39,000 years ago. It felt nice to be able to teach my peers about this wonderful peninsula; I felt like I was learning and appreciating the natural beauty respectfully and not just being an ungrateful and destructive tourist.
On Wednesday, I had a relaxing day of tanning at my dorm and doing homework. I prepared for my marine biology final and started crafting my final presentation on whale sharks. At night, I got gelato from my favorite shop; Bougainvillea. My friends and I enjoyed our gelato at a lovely public park.
On Thursday, I had a very cool experience in my marine biology class. My professor and a couple of his coworkers went to tidal pools before class and brought back critters for us to examine. I got to hold a crab, hermit crab, chiton, snail, urchin and sea star! I also observed them under a microscope and studied some posidonia, a type of sea grass that is more synthetic than grass per square centimeter!
On Friday, a couple of my friends and I are going to Florence. I am currently sitting in a train to Florence as I write this, and I thought I could take this time to reflect on Italy as whole and how it changed me. I would give myself a 9/10 in terms of stepping out of my comfort zone here. I never said no to any excursions, including a self led one to a volcano, and multiple runs up mountains. I also only spoke Italian out, which makes me nervous because I typically am afraid of being judged for my accent, but I challenged myself by not speaking a word of English. I found this to be so rewarding, and many locals really appreciated my effort and even taught me some slang. I think my confidence greatly improved here; I feel comfortable navigating a foreign country and know everything will be more than okay, in fact, it will be enjoyable.
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