Dreaming in Green

It's going to be another long one, so if you get bored, just stop reading; I won't be offended.  As long as you don't tell me.  Deal?

One of the things that the IES Rome program offers in a three day field trip to another part of Italy.  We were given the options of Venice, Cinque Terre, or Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.  I immediately chose Pompeii without a second thought.

When I was learning how to read, every night before I went to bed I had to read an easy reader book to either my mom or my dad.  I remember having one about a rabbit family that I had memorized so I tried to "read" that one every night.  My mom caught on to that after about the third night I turned the page before I finished reading the sentence.  You didn't really need to know that.  Anyway, I also had one when I was about six or seven about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the citizens of Pompeii.  I can still picture one of the illustrations--it was painted in shades of browns and dull reds and depicted burning matter spewing from the peak, ash raining down everywhere, and people running away with their arms in the air, screaming, I imagine.  It was one of my favorites.  So I was pretty excited to see the real thing.

We got on the bus at 8:00 am (which meant that I got up at 6:00 am.  I think most real Italians don't even know that 6:00 am exists...) and had a 3 hour ride.  When we got to Pompeii, I was really excited in my nerdy way for the tour to start.  I'll be honest, I love a good tour guide.  This was not a good tour guide.  First of all, she sounded suspiciously Russian but said that she grew up in Naples.  She started the tour off by describing to us what a forum was and talked in her normal speaking voice.  She skipped over two of the most important aspects, the temple and the larger amphitheatre, and then she reprimanded me for touching a pillar with my pointer finger.  The thing has survived since before 79 AD and withstood a volcanic eruption.  I don't think resting my finger on it is going to cause it to crumble.  Either way, she was a total let down, so a few of us splintered off and took our own tour.  I was satisfied.  You'll also notice that I swapped out my red coat for a green jacket.

The column that I offended.  To the left was a training arena for gladiators.

Oh hey, ruins of Pompeii.

I also enjoy a good ironic gate.

Mt. Vesuvius in the background, looking all calm and picturesque.

The kid in the striped shirt was doing a news segment for his mom's video camera.  It was hilarious.

Happy in the temple ruins.  Does that make me morbid?

A preserved dog.

A crouching man, trying to protect himself from the doomsday ash.

Hi, I'm Hannah, and I could be a better tour guide.

After Pompeii, we headed back to the bus and made our way to Sorrento, the quaint town that we were staying in.  We were served dinner in the hotel restaurant, a three course meal (it was pre-arranged, we did no ordering, which was fine with me).  I had steak for dinner and I never ever have steak.  But I did!  And I liked it!  Lemons are very prominent in that region of Italy (it's where most of the limoncello is made), so our dessert was lemon overload.  A lemon whipped cream, a lemon custard-like cream over the top, limoncello around the outside, candied lemon peel on the side, and regular lemon slices as garnish.

A lemon mountain.

The next morning, we boarded our bus to head to Amalfi.  We knew it was going to be a good trip because we were going to be transported by a Syrenbus, whose motto is "Pleasure wheels."  How could it not be a good day?

I wonder who thought this was a good idea?

My good friend here, Gemma, is in a homestay.  I was chatting with her host mom, Anna, and told her that I had chosen to go on the field trip that included the Amalfi Coast. She told me to make sure that I sat on the right side of the bus in order to get the good view.  I am so glad we had that conversation, because the right side of the bus was definitely the place to be.  We were basically driving on cliffs--the road was as narrow as many in Rome, but we were in a huge bus on the side of a mountain.  A lot of people were freaking out, but frankly, it was a lot less scary than the time that my dad drove us up the side of Pike's Peak (sorry, Daddy!).  These drivers have serious talent (please see my post on the Etruscan tombs for proof).  We stopped at a kind of lookout point to take some pictures along the coast. 

Amalfi Coast.  Not bad for a bus picture.

Can I move into one of those houses?  Please?

So vibrant.

Such beautiful shades of blue.

And, of course, a Santa Maria.

 Each place that I have gone to in Italy has been beautiful (save for Naples and Palermo) in a unique way and makes me want to leave even less.  After we passed through Amalfi, we stopped in a teeny town named Positano (after Poseidon, the water god); both Amalfi and Positano are stunning.  The water is an honest shade of blue and the water feels soft.  The beach was made up of stones and when the waves rolled back, they made the most wonderful clackclackclackclack sound.  There were colorful rowboats pulled up onto shore and houses perched one on top of the other, smiling at the sea.

There were also some handsome Italian men in a few of these boats, in case you were wondering.

I'm thinking a farm in Tuscany and a beach house here.  Anyone want to donate to my Italian fund?

Then, we hopped into a boat (which was a bit of a feat--in the Italian style, we "docked" without an actual pier in sight) and sailed around to the Emerald Grotto.  This little grotto is know for the beautiful colors inside.  Stalactites hang from the ceiling and stalagmites poke upwards, growing at 1 cm every 40 years.  Sunlight enters the grotto through an opening near the ocean floor reflecting the most beautiful and unusual blues and greens.  We boarded little rowboats and went around the grotto (it's really not that big inside) and our guide thought that he spoke English, but no one had any idea what he was saying.  He kept saying "nativity" and apparently at some point, some people put a porcelain nativity scene in the water.  It's not the best picture, but it was wavy.

Before we got splashed.  Multiple times.

Sophia Loren has a house just a bit further down.  She has good taste in vacation spots.

Headed to the Grotto!

This has been edited in no way whatsoever. It's this brilliant blue spot in a dark cave. So incredible.

This seems like a good time to be reminded of Christ's birth....

 After we all saw the Emerald Grotto, we took the boat back to shore, got back on the Syrenbus, and headed to another small town, Ravello.  The only thing that we saw in Ravello was this ridiculous villa that has been sold for sinful amounts of money.  At one point, Richard Wagner spent time at this villa and wrote some of his music (Adam, I walked on the same ground as Richard Wagner!  Jealous?).

This is the view from the terrace.  Yes, please.

One of the gardens full of pansies.

A happy little gecko.

Postcard.

Postcard number two.

Finally on the third day, we boarded another Syrenbus and headed to Naples.  Oh, Naples, what a treat.  I always pictured Naples as another picturesque Italian city.  Nope.  It's a trash heap.  They've had a lot of Mafia problems and at one point the trash got so bad that the powers that be (the EU) threatened to step in, so they cleaned up their act (sorry, I couldn't resist), but only just enough.  It was also Palm Sunday, so everyone was carrying around olive branches.  Yes, olive branches, not palm branches.  There are palms all over here.  I love Italy.

This doesn't really do it justice.  It mounds over the sidewalks and into the streets.

A random castle.

Yes, this trash heap was, in fact, past eye level (about 5'3").

This facade was interesting.  It reminded me of studded belts "punks" wore in middle school.

...and the communist headquarters. It was next to a sweet little flower shop.

 As of today, April 20, I will be flying home in exactly one month, and I know that it is going to crash by.  You all still have 30 days to come visit me!
Happy Easter!

Spring Break Phase 2: Barcelona

So, when I came to Italy, my first instinct was to reply to questions in American/Mexican Spanish.  Now, I only had two years of Spanish in high school and they were kind of a joke (I won't get into details...), but suddenly, the Spanish that I had learned flowed back into my mind and tried to push its way out of my mouth.  After about a week it went away, but I figured that it would be helpful in Barcelona, even though they speak Spanish Spanish (crazy, right?).

Just kidding.  

Catalan is spoken in Barcelona.  On all of the menus there was a list of fare in both Spanish and Catalan.  The first morning that we were in Barcelona, we took a trip to the Picasso Museum (which had the worst layout I have ever experienced in a museum.  I have no formal training yet, and I can already tell you it was not designed well) and all of Picasso's biographical information was printed in Catalan, Spanish, and English.  Apparently, the rest of Spain isn't as fond of Barcelona as those of us who go there for Spring Break.  They don't find the Catalan business cute.

Barcelona was a world away from Palermo.  Barcelona seemed to me breezy and-if you'll allow me-groovy.  Not in the psychedelic way, but far more relaxed and easy.  The sky seemed to be a brighter blue, the buildings were farther apart, and there were far more palm trees.

One of my favorite things about Barcelona was this huge market called La Boqueria.  It had so much beautiful fruit that I wanted to buy pounds and pounds of it and let the juices dribble down my chin as I bit into a mango or feel the sparks on my tongue as I stuffed two orange segments into my mouth at once.  There were piles and pile of almonds, cashews, and pistachios.  Heaps of fish that I could tell by the red-slashed gills and bright eyes were just caught.  Brilliant cuts of meat with swirls of white fat.  Breads stacked upon each other, bellowing starchy goodness.
 

The entrance to the market.

Why doesn't anyone say "it's the best thing since sliced fruit"?  It's far harder to slice fruit than bread...

Chocolates, nuts, and dried fruit.

I think I need a string of peppers, actually....

Barcelona also has a beautiful beach and it was a convenient 20 minute walk from our hostel and don't most kids go to a beach for Spring Break?  Either way, we lounged away two afternoons on the sandy shore of the Mediterranean eating oranges, napping, and getting a little sunburnt.  

The Mediterranean and I are becoming attached to each other...

Didn't it snow in Michigan last week?

There were so many jet streams!

One morning, Gemma and I got up a bit earlier and hiked up half a mountain to see this beautiful park (are you sensing a theme in my life abroad?  Hiking up half mountains....it's how I can eat so much gelato I suppose.)  The trail up was lush with tons of greenery and cacti and the view from the top was awesome.

Part of Barcelona and the fun-looking gondolas.

Check out the new TOMS!  I stumbled across a TOMS store in Barcelona that was having a 50% off sale.

These hanging flowers smelled delicious and I felt like honey should be dripping from them.

We met in the airport.  We were meant to be traveling partners.

Peace.  Love.  Spanish Parks.

This hotel...

...had this view.

A quick quirk of Barcelona:

Gemma and I were wandering around the city with our friend Matt and we really had to go to the bathroom, so I suggested we stop in a train station that we came across--train stations have to have bathrooms, right?  They had a large bathroom that was entirely unremarkable except for the fact that there was one roll of toilet paper and it was located outside of any of the stalls.  I'm not sure what the purpose of doing it this way is, but I hope everyone realizes it before they need the toilet paper.

Grab a piece on your way in....

Another cool aspect of Barcelona are the Gaudi structures.  We saw a church that he had spent 40 years working on.  40 years!  That's two of my lifetimes!  Not to call anyone old--that's just a really long time to work on a project.  I get bored with a sewing project after a few hours.  It still isn't finished and the scaffolding takes away from the incredibility of it a bit, but it's still one of the most unique and captivating churches that I have seen.  It's different than most that I have seen because Gaudi's inspiration for this masterpiece came from skeletons.   The spires remind me of piles of wet sand and all of the characters in the crucifixion scene are overly angular and gaunt.  My favorite thing about this church though, is the fact that while there is a crucified Christ on the front, several meters above that is a golden Christ with his arms raised, resurrected.  I wish I saw more of that.  Anyone can be crucified.  Only one can stand above it with his arms raised.  

Does it remind anyone else of sand?

It's so eerie.  Christ is on the cross and there are weeping women and centurions.

There's the golden Christ.  I'm sorry I don't have a better picture.  It was just so tall!

This was lunch on my last day--papaya, pineapple, kiwi, and strawberries.  Not listed-a waffle with dark chocolate drizzled on top.

These sandals leave fun tan lines.

Oh, and we ate some delicious paella.  When in Barcelona!  (?)

Why yes, I did pull the head off.

My mom is visiting this weekend and then the weekend after that I have a field trip to Pompeii.  The daughter in me is excited for this weekend and the history nerd in me is geeking out about next weekend.  How are things on your side of the pond?

PS-I think I fixed the comments, so anyone should be able to comment now.