A body preserved by volcanic ash from 72 AD at Pompeii

At the ruins of Pompeii

With my big lemon on the beach of Positano

Looking down on Positano

Tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain in Rome

Some of St. Peter's Basilica

Inside the Coliseum

Beaches of Cefalu in Sicily

On Easter Sunday, I took a train from Milan to Napoli to meet up with Lindsay, Nicole, Mike, and Ryan in Sorrento. Unfortunately, the regional trains weren't running due to the holiday, so once I arrived in Napoli, I had no way to get to Sorrento. However, there were 4 other American study abroad students on my train to Napoli, and they were randomly looking to get to Sorrento as well, so we split a 90-minute cab ride. It wasn't too expensive in the end.

After a full day of travel, I met up with the guys and we had a big Easter dinner at a small restaurant in Sorrento. Then, Lindsay and Nicole made an Easter egg hunt for us in their hotel room. They had bought all of this wine and chocolate for it...it was really funny.

The next day, we went to the ancient ruins of Pompeii, a civilization that was soaked in volcanic ash in 72 AD. So many artifacts are preserved really well there (including bodies). This was the only day we had crappy weather on the whole trip. After we spent about 5 hours there, we took the train into Napoli for dinner. The city is kind of scary: a lot of crime, trash, and people in poverty. We agreed that it was probably a good thing that we only spent an evening there.

On Tuesday, we went further down into the Amalfi coast to the beach towns of Positano and Amalfi. This was one of the most amazing parts of the trip, in my opinion. The bus ride there was crazy: there is one small road that makes a lot of hairpin turns around cliffs that hang at least 1000 feet over the ocean. The view was amazing. I ate the biggest lemon I had ever seen on the beach in Positano.

I can't even begin to describe the beauty of these towns. Before the 1950s, a lot of 20th century writers from America came here to write, including Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams. These places were sleepy fishing villages that became well known as artist hang outs. Now, while the tourism industry has increased, they have retained most of their natural beauty.

We left for Rome early on Wednesday morning. Since we had only three days here, we had to make the most out of the sightseeing. So, the next three days were packed. The first day we walked around a bit and saw the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. On Thursday, we had a "pious" day. We spent about 5 hours in the Vatican museum, which culminates in the Sistine Chapel. Then, we went to the top of the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica (the largest church on earth) and then looked around the inside of it. I am pretty sure it is the coolest church I have ever seen. Inside, they have the old Pope's body on display and also Michelangelo's Pieta behind bulletproof glass.

On Friday, we did the ancient Roman Forum on Palatine Hill and then we went into the Coliseum. It's hard to describe what it's like to see the exact spot where Julius Caesar was burned and where gladiators fought to the death. All in all, it was neat.

We had tickets for Friday night for a 12 hour boat to Sicily from Rome. For the cheap amount we paid, we all thought it was going to be basically a train on water. However, it was a cruise ship. A casino, two restaurants, cafes, lounges, everything: a good way to spend 12 hours.

We arrived in Palermo early on Saturday morning and found our way to the train station by a man with a horse and buggy. We took the train to the small resort town of Cefalu, where we spent the last three days of our vacation. The four of us met up with two other IES students, Anne and Amy, and the six of us got an apartment to rent for three days, right on the beach. We were able to cook there too, so it made the trip quite cheap.

The last three days were great. After the craziness of Rome, it was nice to have time to lay on the beach and walk around the town. Sicilians are so nice: they want to help you with everything. The pace there is even slower than it is in mainland Italy. All the stores close for 4 hours in the afternoon so everyone can take a nap or go to the beach. I am so glad I managed to get down there and see how they live.

Yesterday morning we flew from Palermo to Milan. It has been quite a long time since we have had school. Now is the time to dig into the major papers and projects. I think I am starting to get a little sick, so hopefully that will clear up soon.

On the terrace of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

A shot of the Grand Canal with the Chiesa Santa Maria Salute in the background

St. Mark's Cathedral

These are just a few pics from my second trip to Venice. It takes a long time to load these up so I will just have to show you more when I get back.

Holding my "winnings" outside of the world's most famous casino, The Monte Carlo (I'm not sure why this pic is so small)

The Royal Palace of Monaco

View of Nice's harbor from the Parc de Chateau


Wowsa. It's going to be a little tough recounting all of my spring break adventures from the last three weeks in the blog. I will give it a try though. I got to see a lot of amazing things, so it's hard to process in retrospect. Taking almost every form of transportation possible (including a horse and buggy in Palermo), I saw A LOT of Italy and even some of France. And I got one heckova tan.

I'll try to do this chronologically...



Nice, France was quite tropical. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. They have a great park there up on a cliff called the Parc de Chateau, and the Matisse museum was really cool. Even though it was only a 5 hour train ride from Milan, it was interesting to see how different the French are from Italians. They seem to be much less simpathetic to those who speak English and not French.

Monaco, about a twenty minute train ride from Nice, was an incredible daytrip. It was almost too perfect, slightly eerie even. It's basically a more tropical, classier Los Vegas. Everything in this principality on this huge cliff was man-made. And they name everything after Princess Grace Kelly. I have never before seen so many signs of money in one place.

Venice: the Sequel was really fun as well. Even though there were still tons of tourists here this time, too (probably because of the Easter holiday). Hitting the hardcore tourist circuit, the list of seen sights included:

St. Mark's Cathedral
Island of Murano
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection (INCREDIBLE modern art museum where Mac friend Lily is an intern)
Chiesa Santa Maria Salute
Doge's Palace

I still love Venice, despite the crowds. It's history is fascinating and the town is like no other in the world. And if you find the right side streets, it's unexplainably charming.

The Italian elections are today and tomorrow. It's getting pretty heated around here. It's definitely a good idea to have national elections over two days, though (especially on a Sunday), because more people can vote.

This week has been full of interesting events, but I don't really have time to write about them at the moment. Some highlights were seeing a Dario Fo play (a very famous Italian actor and playwright), hearing Schoenberg and Brahms at the Verdi symphony, and seeing Boy George dj at a club last night.

It's great to finally be on spring break, even though the whole semester still kind of seems like a vacation. Tomorrow I am heading to Nice, and then Thursday I'm off to Venice. I'm not sure I am going to be able to write much for the next couple weeks, just because of all of the traveling, but I promise I will write a ton when I get back. I will take a lot of pics, too!