Another Big Weekend

This weekend was another big one. I traveled to the Bay of Naples on a class field trip. It was a lot of fun and we saw all the big sites. I took a lot of pictures and will try to get some posted for all of you in the next few days. We started out on Friday by taking a train to Naples. I was not all that impressed with the city of Naples its self. The city was dirty, smelled and looked old. Yes, everything here is old but most of it looks historic, but Naples looked run down 1930s old. It had lots of high rise condo buildings (high rise takes on a new meaning over hear, they were about 10 stories high), grafitti, and loud traffic.

While in Naples we visited an art museum that is located in an old palace. It had many interesting pieces of art from the 15 and 16 hundreds. Several of the rooms were left as they would have looked when the palace was being used as place a residence. We grabed some lunch and then went to an anthropological museum. It contained several pieces of art, sculpture, frescos, and other pieces that had be collected from sites such as pompii. Once we finsihed up there we all boarded our bus and wen to Sorento to check into the hotel.

The hotel was nice but the view and the area around it was even better. We were 1 block from the Mediteranian Sea, and surrounded by the beauty of a slower paced life out side of a major city. We ate dinner over looking the Med, Sea and spent the evening ahanging out in a pizza that over looked the sea as well.

Saturday we went to Pompei. I was amazed at how large it was and that is was not govered in ash and hardened lava. Once I took a moment to think about it, it made since. Of cource is wouldnt be covered with cooled lava and ash. The lava and ash are what protected it and what we see is what they found when they removed the ash. I did not know that Pompei was a such a large city though. It was apparently a tradign hub for souther Italy. Its proximity to the Med. Sea made it a vital trade center for the world.

After eating lunch at Pompei we all decided to go to the top of Mt. Vesuvious. We spent 9 Euro on a bus ticket to take us there and when when we arrived we had to pay another 5 Euro to climb to the top. The whole experiance is without a doubt a tourist trap, but it was ver interesting and worth it none the less. It was a very steep climb and we were all very tired by the time we made it back down to the bottom.

SOn sunday we visited a Palace that is know as the Little Versi because of its style and it gardens. It was a very interesting and beautiful palance, but haveing been to Versi I dont think they can even be compared. THese gardens were beautiful, but Versi was much prettier even when I was there in teh middle of March. (Perhaps I am becoming an travel snob, but whatever). The palace was very nice and a relaxing way to finish the tour.

This week should be pretty low key, but this weekend promisses to be another big adventure as we take a field trip to Orvieto. Dont ask me whywe are goign to Orvieto or why we are going because I dont know. I guess we will find out this weekend.