Napoli

Admittedly, I was a little nervous going into this trip not really knowing anyone, but I can honestly say that it turned out to be one of the best, if not the best trip of my life. I went through the Erasmus organization that plans events for exchange students all across Europe, and I really wish that I had started going to Erasmus events outside of clubs much earlier. I had a great time, met a TON of new people, and saw probably my favorite city in Italy so far- all for under 200 euros for 4 days. It really turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made. I had fun from the time we left until the time we pulled into Bologna, straight through.

I left on Wednesday night around 11:30, and my roommates were being pretty loud at the time. I actually passed the police on my way down as they were heading up to my apartment, but from what I heard everything turned out ok. I guess our neighbors had finally had it with our apartment, and I can't really blame them. I'm actually pretty glad that its going to be a lot quieter around here at night.

The bus to Napoli left a little past midnight, and when I got on there were about 4 different languages being spoken, but no English. I really thought it was going to be a long trip at that point and that it would be tough to meet any new people, but I ended up sitting next to a Brazilian kid named Joao who had actually lived in America for a little bit, so the bus ride turned out fine. I barely slept, though, maybe only for 3 out of the 9 hours that we were on the bus, but what are you gonna do? We got into Napoli around 9, checked into the hostel in a hurry, and then started touring the city right away. The first thing I noticed about Napoli was how dirty it was. Trash was piled up everywhere, and people were driving like maniacs. It's really unbelievably different than anything we have in the States, but at the same time its a beautiful place. You can see Mount Vesuvius in the distance, and the whole city is situated on a hill right on the water. One of the first things we saw was a group of fishermen selling their catch to the locals right alongshore, and it was the first time I've ever seen a live octopus. I didn't end up trying any, and now I don't know that I will...they're a pretty creepy looking animal. Afterward, we checked out an old castle, called Castello del'Uovo, which was built right on top of the water. There were some great views of the city and Vesuvius, and I started to meet some more people even though until then I had pretty much just been keeping to myself. I can't say enough how nice all of these kids were. Maybe it was just because we were all in the same boat studying in Bologna, or maybe its just how Europeans are-I can't really say. What I can say though is that I still have yet to meet someone throughout my whole time in Europe who was anything less than friendly. By the end, I realized that I actually have a lot more in common with these kids from all different countries than I do with most of the Dickinson kids studying here. We headed into the main square of Naples and I got some fast food type pizza that actually turned out to be pretty good. I made the choice early to save time and money on food and enjoy the sites instead, which you just have to do sometimes for a better experience overall. I do regret not eating any seafood or a ton of Naples pizza (it's where pizza was invented), but that's life I guess. After lunch, we walked through a pretty cool mall that was outside but had a giant awning for a roof, then up to a big castle with one of the best views I've ever seen. To get up there we had to take a lift which I imagine is pretty similar to Pittsburgh's, although I've never been. You could see the entire city, and it was so high that huge boats looked tiny. We had to wait about 2 hours for it to open- typical Italy- but I got to know more people in the meantime and I needed a break so it worked out. I could have stayed up at the castle all day, but we left and walked to the main church of Naples, and took in the sights of the Spanish quarter- a little taste of life in Naples. It was really and truly crazy. The people there definitely have a few screws loose. The streets were PACKED, but people kept trying to drive through anyway. Horns were going off everywhere, and it was just pure chaos. I kept making the joke that of course the people of Napoli were crazy- they built their city under a live volcano- that's right Vesuvius is still active. Unreal. It was pretty late, so we headed back toward the train. In Italy you learn pretty quickly that paying for transportation is basically optional if they don't make you use a ticket right away to get into the station, so we all stamped our old tickets and hopped on the train. We were riding along for a couple of stops with no problems, but after a while out of the corner of my eye I saw a man in a green suit in the back, followed by a bunch of Spanish Eramsus kids getting up and moving to the front. Bear in mind that there were about 100 of us on the train, and literally nobody paid. It became a mad dash to get to the front of the train so he couldn't check our tickets because they can actually take you to jail if you don't pay, even though its usually just a pretty big fine. I tried to stay in the middle of the crowd- harder to check the ticket- but I almost got snagged. The inspector-guy ended up leaving the train and trying to come in a door up front because it was pretty obvious that we were all trying to avoid him. He ran on the train yelling out "Bigliette! Tickets!" and pointed right at me, but I pulled the old "I don't speak Italian" card and ran to the back. Nobody ended up getting caught, so I'd say we did a pretty good job. We got our rooms when we got back to the hostel, and I ended up staying with a really great group of guys. There were two kids from Portugal, both named Andre, that I really hit it off with, two Germans, one named Sebastian and the other Marc, and finally an Argentinan kid named Humberto. Gomes, Andre, Marc, and Sebastian all spoke English pretty fluently so I ended up spending the most time with them. Marc kind of had his own thing going on, but I really hit it off with the other three, and we're even going to meet up in Bologna now. It was cool to be staying with people from so many different walks of life and areas of study- the whole weekend ended up being one big cultural exchange basically. There were people from Russia, Romania, Australia, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, Italy of course, and probably a lot more but that's all I can remember off the top of my head. All 150 of us on the trip were supposed to get the "real" Napoli pizza at a place right next to our hostel, which had a great location by the way. We were right outside the main center, and actually right next to Virgil's tomb according to a sign, but I never got the chance to see the actual tomb. We also had a view of Vesuvius and the waterfront, which was truly beautiful. Anyway, the pizza place was PACKED, and we knew they were overwhelmed because people weren't even finished when they came and took the dishes. The pizza was good- very simple- just a bit of sauce and cheese with a leaf of basil on top, but I've actually had better in Bologna, I knew they had rushed it though, and I doubt I would be saying the same thing if I had gone on my own on a normal night when they could have a chance at the restaurant to keep the pizza in the oven as long as the needed to. Regardless, now I can say I've had the original pizza, so its just another feather in my cap from my time here in Italy. Afterward, we go a couple of beers at a small shop next door, and spent the night just hanging out on the deck of the hostel playing foosball and speaking in everyone's common language of Italian.

The next morning we grabbed some breakfast at the hostel and left at 9 for Vesuvius. I have to give some respect to the bus driver, who did an amazing job driving us up these tight windy roads for about 40 minutes to the top. I thought we were going to hit something for sure about 8 different times, but we never did. I forgot to mention that the bus was a double-decker to boot, so the guy really did a heck of a job. Even though the bus got us pretty close to the top it was still a steep 45 minute climb to the very top. We had a tour guide speaking in Italian, so I did miss some things, but what I did pick up is that Vesuvius is still active. It erupted in the 40s, and don't quote me on this but I think the 70s as well. She said the next eruption is going to be an explosive one that is going to blow material 30 km in the air- I believe...I can't be sure though because my Italian is still kind of shaky. For some reason, there were Americans absolutely everywhere. A Spanish kid wanted me to help him meet some American girls so I ended up talking to a group of kids from Duquesne, however that's spelled, and it made me realize how great of an experience I'm getting. I'm a different kind of dude, I realize that, so my way of thinking doesn't really lend itself to being the "typical American tourist" in the first place, but I literally had a girl ask me if we were in Naples at the top of Mount Vesuvius. I'm glad I'm not studying in Florence or Rome- I might have gotten into a fistfight by now. After that, we headed to Pompeii. Right by the ancient ruins, there were these vendors selling lemons that were literally the size of my head. I bought a huge orange that was about half that size for a euro, and that ended up being lunch. After about an hour, we headed into the ruins which were unbelievably well preserved. In Rome, its sometimes hard to picture the daily life in your head because a lot of things are really broken down, but in Pompeii a lot of the original paint is still on the walls. Our guide was pretty funny, at least from what I could understand in Italian. I'm finding that I can understand a lot more than I can actually say- but I'm definitely better off than if I stayed in the States just going to class. There were a lot of cool things in Pompeii, but I'm pretty sure we got the custom college kid tour that grandma won't get because I saw at least 10 drawings of penises and a whorehouse. There was even a carving in the street of a penis that pointed the Pompeiians to the whorehouse. The guide made sure we saw that, of course. There was also a cool arena, and a smaller one where they had concerts that they also used to decide whether a gladiator should live or die. Gladiator fights weren't just limited to Rome, as I'm coming to learn. The city was so well preserved because it was buried under so much ash all these years. They actually didn't discover it until fairly recently, but it is true that you can see bodies that were preserved by the ash, and there will be a few pictures of that on Facebook. Of course, you get a great view of Mount Vesuvius in the background. Apparently the reason that people don't stay away from the volcano is because the soil it produces makes the area very fertile, or something along those lines. Crazy Italians, that's all I have to say. After Pompeii, we went to a grocery store, then headed back to the hostel for dinner, which was a little pasta and meat- not bad for how little I paid. That night, there was a party in the parking lot with sangria. Everyone got to know each other a lot better. The only other American on the whole trip was a girl from North Carolina who goes to Providence, and we ended up teaching all the European kids how to play flip cup. It was pretty funny, but I think they ended up liking it. Our friends downstairs in Bologna love to play beer pong- they always ask us to play. I was really surprised at how accepting of Americans people were, but this weekend I really ended up shedding any remaining stereotypes that I was still holding on to. I've really learned to accept all different kinds of lifestyles because at the end of the day people are just people. Everyone wants and needs the same basic things so what does it matter who you hang out with, how you speak, or how you dress? We all come from the same place and end up in the same place. It's better to accept people because of what you have in common rather than focus on differences. Life's too short to label people, and if you waste your time doing that you can really miss out. I've really changed my opinion on a lot of things over here, so in a way I guess I can say that this trip has changed me as a person. After a little too much sangria, mostly thanks to an Australian girl's song about "Brother Mike drinking piss all night," I got to bed at about 1:30- then woke up 5 hours later.

Capri- I don't know if there are even words to describe it. I'm basically wasting everyone's time by trying but at the very least I'll be able to remember that even for just one day in my life I saw something so beautiful that words literally can't describe it. It's a small island with huge white cliffs, a nice little town in the center- this really is a waste as I'm typing it. The pictures can't even do it justice. The bluest water I've ever seen. We hiked around looking for the beach for about 2 hours, but the hike was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. We were on top of these giant cliffs on a really dangerous trail. I kept pretending to puke over the side of the cliff because it was just too much beauty to handle, and making the joke that if we hiked a little too far we'd run into God. If God moved from heaven to Capri in a couple of years I wouldn't be shocked. There was a dead rat on one of the trails, and we joked that he rounded a corner, saw the cliffs and the water, and got so overwhelmed that he died. That might have actually been the way that he went. We got a little lost, but ended up finding the beach, which was pretty much just concrete built on top of rocks- it didn't matter though, it was one of the greatest places I've ever seen. It took me a while to jump in, and the water was so cold that it took my breath away but I was determined to swim in the Mediterranean (it was actually in the Tyrrhenian Sea, which is a subdvision, but who's counting). My skin was literally burning, but it was still cool because we were floating in water that was at least 25-30 feet deep. It wasn't hard to float, though, because the water was really a lot more salty than I'm used to. After the beach, we went on a boat tour around the island. It was really cool. We saw goats climbing on the rocks, plenty of natural coves, grottos, arcs, and Georgio Armani's summer home. When we finally got back I ended up crushing a jar of Nutella on the street- so if I ever make it back to Capri I have to do that for good luck, I think. We took the boat to Napoli, which took about an hour, then it was a similar dinner at the hostel, and back outside with a few beers to enjoy our last night together. We ended up playing French and Spanish drinking games, then foosball- which I actually learned how to play and ended up beating the European kids who had crushed me so bad on the first night. We stayed up probably later than we should have, but I figured I was having so much fun that I can just sleep when I'm dead.

(P.S. I took a break from writing this to get some groceries, and when I came back there was an e-mail about a wall that fell in Capri a couple of hours that we left on a popular tourist street. They're afraid of landslides too- see how lucky I've gotten since I came to Europe?)

On Sunday, we packed everything up in the morning and headed out of the hostel. Everyone was bone tired, but we still had a great day. We went to the original palace of the Kingdom of Italy, which was built in the 1860's I'm pretty sure, right after the unification. The palace was okay- I can't believe I'm saying this because in January I would have been freaking out, but I kind of feel like once you see a palace you've seen them all. I'm also a little tired of seeing churches- the Vatican ruined every other church for me. Right now I'm more interested in seeing nature. There was plenty of that at the palace, and it had a huge garden that was probably about two or three times the size of the summer palace in Vienna. There was this really cool waterfall at the very end of the garden, but it was so far away that at first we thought it was a huge monument or staircase. It ended up taking us about 40 minutes just to walk from one end of the garden to the other, and it was a nice way to unwind from the trip and get ready to head back to Bologna.

The bus ride back itself was actually really fun, and the 9 hours definitely flew by. We watched a nice little Italian movie called My Name is Tannino, which I actually saw before as one of the first things I did in Bologna. If you get the chance to watch it, I'd recommend it because number 1- there's gratuitous amounts of Rachel McAdams, and secondly its a great movie for insight on how Europeans stereotype Americans. It was really funny to see it from the other side- and of course I lied to everyone on the bus and told them the movie was spot-on accurate. Afterward, we played some crazy European drinking game that was kind of like B.S. but with wine, and the entire back of the bus had a summer-camp style singing contest, which turned out to be hilarious. They made me sing American songs by myself, of course. We finally got into Bologna around 11 o'clock, and I headed out with Gomes and Andre for a late night pizza. I actually ended up going out with them the next night to a bar with most of the kids from the trip so overall I made some great new friends, saw my new favorite city in Italy, and really right now I'm having an absolute blast. I really don't want to leave here in a month and a half (I can't believe how fast its going by) and I'm thinking very seriously about returning for a graduate degree and to become fluent in Italian- there's no way that won't be useful in my life (kidding). All jokes aside, I'm just absolutely crushing stereotypes of people over here, and I'm really learning to just judge people one at a time- or to just not judge anyone at all. Everyone's been so friendly here, and I love the Italian culture. I really think I'm Italian at heart because I'm late everywhere I go, and that's generally accepted. What drives Petey nuts at home (me calling to hang out and then showing up 2 hours later) is what everyone does- which is fantastic. My ADD is really being nurtured here. Anyway, so far so good for spring break. I had a great day in the gardens and its off to London tomorrow- my first flight in Europe believe it or not. I'll show em how a Yank drinks a pint! Just kidding MOM. (Had her fooled for a second there, but no really I'm going to ingest alcoholic beverages at some point with Shteng so expect a Hangover-esque themed blog next week.







Still kidding Mom. LOVE YOU!