vatican city, and italy: rome

Getting from Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria to Rome, Italy was easy but was annoying. First, a bus to Zell am See. Then a regional train to a small town. Then a two hour wait. Then a train that departed on time but arrived in Rome two hours late. Argh. The only good thing about being late was the bag of goodies they gave me in an effort to say sorry. Granted, the goodies came as we were getting off the train, which didn't help much in terms of my stress level while I was on the train.
I'm pretty sure that every time I've arrived or departed Italy by train, there has been a delay. Plus Italian train stations are not great. 

When I went to Egypt over the winter holidays I met a guy named Eric on my cruise on the Nile. He was currently living in Rome, so of course I had to visit. He met me at the train station and showed me how to get to his flat. I love public transport.

It was impossible not to notice the heat and humidity, which was far worse than what I'd had the past 10 days or so. Plus Rome is a big city with a gazillion people going every which way, with plenty of noise to match.

We got to the flat, which was directly across the street from the entrance to the Vatican Museums. Wow. It was great fun to watch people in the various queues. Basically, that was what I did for the rest of the day. The weather wore me out even though I wasn't really out in it. Eventually Eric and his flatmate Ramona (also American,) made a huge salad for dinner, and we watched a movie by streaming it from Eric's computer.

The next morning I got up and tried to figure out what I would do during the day. Eventually I was able to decide that I wanted to go to the Vatican Museums, then go for a walk with Eric and Ramona. I bought my ticket to the museums online, which made it so I didn't have to wait in the long queue.

The Vatican Museums are huge, and filled with art. Lots and lots of art. Much of it religious, but not all of it. Many of the ceilings were amazing. I'm not a huge art museum person, so I was definitely arted out by the time I was done. It took me nearly three hours to walk through everything, and I didn't even look that closely at much of it.

My favourite room hands down was the map room, which has a stunning ceiling. Plus when I walked through there I looked out the windows and realized that sometime I'd like to go back and take a garden tour.

I know it sounds crazy, but I don't love the Sistine Chapel. Yes, the artwork is amazing, but it isn't really my style. Plus, you see it at the end of your tour through the museums, so I was tired of art. Also, you're in there with what seemed like millions of your best friends, and no one is moving quickly. There are wide doorways through the rest of the museums, but getting into, through, and out of the Sistine chapel involves narrow doorways. Argh.
A Japanese company paid for the renovation of the ceiling years ago, and part of the deal is that they now hold the copyright, so you're not allowed to take photos.

That doesn't stop a lot of people, but it's really annoying that the reason for the photo prohibition isn't religious or respect, it's greed.

I loved the giant spiral ramp you go down to get out of the museums.

I walked back across the street to the flat, and ended up relaxing for a while because it rained on and off for several hours. Everytime we thought it would be good to start walking, it started raining and/or thundering again.

Eventually the rain stopped, and we went out. They showed me a great church, Santa Maria Theresa. Huge and Catholic. (Of course, this is Rome.) I loved it.

We saw a number of other churches, all slightly smaller but still beautiful. Even though I know heaps of people live in Rome, I still wonder how all of the churches survive. We also saw a few fountains, and went over a couple bridges.

Eventually it was time for us to split up for the evening. I'd made plans to meet up with Shanna, a girl I met when she stayed with me in Kyiv about a year earlier. She and I found each other in a piazza and chose a nearby cafe. It was awesome to catch up with her, and find out what was going on in her life. We also planned a future meet up in another country.

From there I walked home, and fell asleep pretty fast.

The next morning Ramona cooked oatmeal for breakfast for everyone, and I started walking around 1130. I walked along various streets, taking photos of all kinds of random things. It goes without saying that I stepped into a few churches.

One of the minor sights along the way was a pyramid. Apparently they're not just in Egypt, I had no idea. This one was only open for scheduled tours a few days a month, and it had to be scheduled ahead of time.

Eventually I got to my first sight of the day: St Paul's Cathedral is huge. Peter and Paul were the two apostles that made it to Rome, so it's fitting that they have two huge cathedrals named for them. I was surprised I hadn't heard of St Paul's previously, I'm glad Eric mentioned it.

To get into St Paul's I had to put my bag through an x-ray machine and walk through a metal detector. That was unexpected, to say the least.

I really liked this church too. The ceiling was amazing, and the sanctuary area was calming. I was surprised that it felt so calm, because it was big, and there were plenty of other visitors around.

The church itself is shaped like a T, with the main altar just before the spot where the two lines meet. On the back of the cross of the T are several smaller chapels. The long part of the T is actually three lines, created by columns. I don't think I'm doing a very good job of describing what I saw, oh well.

After taking a ridiculous number of photos, I left. I walked back toward the pyramid, and not long after turned onto another street. This took me up a hill, which left me huffing and puffing and sweating. Heat and humidity, I tell you.

Near the top of this hill I stepped into another church, which was being prepped for a wedding. Very cute.

I kept going, and noticed a queue of people, standing outside a gate. I had no idea what it was for, but I joined the queue. As each person stepped up to the gate, they bent down a little and looked through a keyhole.

The view through the keyhole is straight through the gardens of the Knights of Malta (or something along those lines,) and right to the dome of St Peter. I have to admit, it was pretty stunning.

Since the view is through a small keyhole I didn't bother trying to take a photo, though a few people did. My iphone would not have come close to doing it justice. I wonder if the gate is ever open to let people into the gardens?

After my view through the keyhole I kept walking, to another church. There were other visitors in this one, but it didn't look as if it is currently used as a place of worship.

The altar area was in decent shape, but the rest of the church was fairly empty.

The grounds of this church had a nice park, and since it is on the edge of a 'cliff' there were great views to the rest of the city. After looking through both the church and the park, I kept walking. The road led downhill, and eventually to circus massimo.

I should've read up ahead of time in order to know what this was, but judging from the long lines in the dirt I'm guessing racing of some sort took place here? (I should do some research.) There isn't much there now.

After this area I was starting to get hungry, so I had a sandwich and ice cream from a nearby shop. Amazing what a little food can do when you're tired.

More walking brought me to more ancient stuff. This is Rome after all, where you're bound to trip over something old if you're not paying attention. I took a couple photos, and kept following the road which curves and goes upward.

At the top of this bit I had the choice of two long-ish sets of stairs. One led to a monument in a platz in front of an official looking building, the other led to a church. Of course I went up both of them, sweating all the way.

Both were crowded with tourists, so they weren't much fun.

I don't know why I forgot ahead of time that this would be the busy season for Rome and tourism. I'm not sure the city ever has a quiet time of year, but there are soooo many visitors in June. Maybe it just seemed like too much to me because of the places from which I'd just come, which were so much quieter. Maybe it's because I've been living in Ukraine for six years, and there aren't nearly so many international tourists there. Everywhere I went in Rome it felt like I was with millions of people. Argh. I know I'm just contributing to the numbers by visiting at this time, but just because I am a tourist doesn't mean I like the rest of them.

These two areas at the top of sets of stairs were just behind the Altare della Patria which also had a giant set of stairs. I went down the church stairs, circled around, and went up the Altare della Patria stairs. It's huge.

As far as I could tell, one poor lady had the job of yelling at tourists not to sit on the steps. That would not be fun, and would be never ending.

From there I walked straight up via Corso, all the way to the other end, at the piazza del Popolo. The street has shops and churches, not much else. It's pedestrian mostly, but I was able to get through the crowds fairly quickly.

In the middle of the piazza del Popolo there is an Egyptian obelisk, complete with heiroglyphics carved into the stone. I could probably look up what it says. Ancient empires came together more often than people know.

Since this was Rome, of course there were churches here too. At my count there were three alone around this platz! I went into one, skipped another, and the third was closed for mass. The outside of one of them is currently being redone, so there is a giant sign advertising Samsung there at the moment, I think it looks awful.

From there I walked home, which was a relatively easy walk. I got to cross a bridge, and be hassled by touts who wanted me to buy a scarf to cover my legs in the Vatican Museums. (When they wouldn't stop picking on me I had to point out that I'd already been there.)

For dinner that night I had ice cream with strawberries. Yum. And we watched another movie being streamed from Eric's computer.

The next morning Eric and I were up really early, this is something he does regularly. We were out the door of the flat at 0410, to go for a walk before the city wakes up. Eric has walked many times and knows the streets to follow to get to many of the major sights, it was nice to just follow someone, and not have to dodge other tourists.

We started by skirting around the platz in front of St Peter's basilica, which is all lit up at night. It's also blocked off and guarded, so you don't get to wander through there in the middle of the night.

We kept going a bit further, to Castel San Angelo, which was also lit up. The bridge leading to/from the castle is fairly iconic, it's on a lot of postcards. It was lit up as well.

Our next area was the piazza Navona, which has a big church on one side, and an interesting fountain in the middle. Obviously the church was not open for visitors at that hour.

More walking brought us to a government building, protected by guards. It was blocked off with actual barriers, I wonder what it was. (I could look it up, I know.)

It wasn't far from the government building to the next sight, the Pantheon. It didn't look that big to me, but when Eric described it I understood the feat of engineering the building is, and how amazing it was to have been done so far back in time. The ancient empires were really fantastic in all they created and built without the benefit of modern technology and assistance.

From there we walked to the Trevi fountain. It's really big, you can't get the whole thing in your camera frame without getting pretty far back, which pretty much guarantees you'll get people in your photo.

We were there before dawn and I already counted two couples and two proper looking photographers, (judging by the size of their lenses and tripods.) Is there a time of year when you're less likely to run into someone else at that hour? The fountain was lit up, which was nice.

From the fountain we walked down via Corso, all the way to the Altare della Patria. Since there was very little traffic at that hour I was able to take a couple panoramic shots of the whole thing without anyone else in the photo, yay!

We veered off to the left of the stairs and followed that street through a whole bunch of ruins, the Roman Palatine. Some of the ruins are being rebuilt to look like what archaeologists think they looked like back then; I have really mixed feelings when this is done to something ancient. You can always tell when something has been rebuilt, but if you leave ruins alone they fall apart even more and eventually you have nothing left.

This road leads straight to the Colosseum. When you think of Rome, the Colosseum is probably one of the first thing that pops into your mind. Gladiators fighting to the death, massive crowds of people cheering them on, etc... The architecture and engineering for this massive building is really impressive.

At this point Eric and I got on the subway, but we split up because I got off a few stops earlier than he did. I wanted to see the Spanish steps, he wasn't much interested. I got off at my stop, and followed the signage to the steps.

When I saw someone was already there I was a bit disappointed, but immediately I realized it was a couple having wedding photos taken, which I could see straightaway were beautiful. I snuck one photo of the back of the bride, looking up the steps. I definitely didn't mind waiting for them.

They left pretty quickly, and then I did have the steps to myself. It was actually a bit of a surprise to have them to myself, since it was now dawn. Somehow I expected a few others to be there as well. Fortunately one other couple came along, and we took photos of each other on the steps. I guess sometimes other tourists aren't so bad, just not in big numbers!!

It was an easy walk home from there, where Ramona again made oatmeal for all of us. We watched a movie, then went out shopping as a trio. It was my last day in Rome, and they needed food. We stopped at a store that sells fresh pasta, which was amazing. Each day they have something different, you never know what you'll get until you arrive at the store.

As we were walking along I asked Eric and Ramona if they'd noticed the gold coloured markers on the sidewalks. Since I'd seen these in Austria and Germany I knew what they were, and what they meant. They are called stolpersteine (I think,) and are put in front of buildings from which people were deported during World War II.

The markers have a name, as well as other known information, like the date of deportation, where they were sent, if they died, and if so, when. Never forget, never again.

We also visited a local market for fresh veggies, which was fun. In the early evening Eric and Ramona made the meal, which I loved. How stereotypical that I was having fresh pasta as my last meal in Rome?

After eating I went for one last walk. I'd hoped to get to one last church, but it ended up being too far. Not too far for me to walk, but too far in the time I had to do the walk. Oh well. I headed back to the flat, showered and packed up, then headed to the airport.

I wouldn't mind coming back to Rome, but I want to do it at a different time of year. 

italy: pozzuoli

It had been since months since I'd seen ken, I was excited to book flights to go back to Italy. Ken picked me up at the airport, the drive home was only 20 minutes.
The next morning I woke up to terrible weather. The weather stayed awful the entire day. Raining on and office, sometimes in a total downpour.
There were tourist sights I wanted to see in Naples, but the weather was terrible so I didn't go anywhere. The only photos I took were around the flat, and the views from the flat. Beautiful.
I got to watch my beloved Indiana Hoosiers play football through live streaming on the computer. They lost, argh. This was the first time I've watched them in I don't know how long, it was great to see the game live.
Sunday morning, not too long after breakfast, I had to go back to the airport. This weekend trip was way too short.

On the way back to kyiv I flew Turkish airlines, I was excited. Flying this airline meant I got to transfer in Istanbul airport, which meant I got to have a chai latte from caffe Nero. YAY! YUM!

italy: sorrento

the first time i saw sorrento was in july, 2014...but that wasn't a proper visit, it was just a drive through...we drove through the city on the way to one of its ports, to rent boats and be out on the water all day...i knew back then that i wanted to see more of the city...
sorrento is basically the capital of the amalfi coast, a UNESCO listed area of italy...the coast is full of small, beautiful towns...sorrento is the starting point to get to many of them...sorrento isn't as well known as the rest of the coast, or as picturesque, but i still wanted to see what i could...

i took public transport all the way...it's an easy trip; pozzuoli to plaza garibaldi in naples, then plaza garibaldi to sorrento on the circumvesuviana line...(the circumvesuviana line also goes by pompei and herculaneum)...
i exited the train station and walked down to the closest street and turned right...immediately i noticed the city was still decorated for the holidays, even though it was already 8 january...(i wonder when it is all taken down)...a snowman, a couple bears, each made from strings of lights...lights at intervals across streets at traffic light height...

after less than a kilometer of walking down the street, i realized i was going the wrong way...there was nothing of interest (for me anywho)...so i turned around and walked back, on the other side of the street...
going the other way quickly brought me to a cute area of town...a plaza (i prefer the german word platz, but this is italy, so i suppose i should use plaza) with a couple churches, several cafes, and entrances to several smaller streets...i walked past a number of shops clearly aimed at visitors, as well as restaurants, etc...i've long been aware there are a lot of different types of pasta, but it's still interesting to see so many available in one place...

at this point i realized i'd gotten going a couple hours too late in the morning...i'd arrived just after noon, when just about everything was closing down for the afternoon siesta...i found a small cafe for a quick lunch, but not much else was open at that point...even the churches were closed for this siesta...how annoying!! italy has heaps of economic problems, and every time i visit i get frustrated by this afternoon siesta...i know it's part of the culture, but couldn't money, services, and just about everything else be generated during these 2-3 hours?
everything being closed meant i had to kill time...i wandered a couple streets, then heard a couple speaking english...i said hello, and meant to keep going, but ended up being drawn into an hour long conversation! they were traveling for a couple weeks, originally from minnesota...

we talked about all sorts of topics, from family, to travel plans, to thoughts about world economies, etc...i love these types of conversations :)
after ending that conversation i kept walking, this time out what i think is the south end of the city...the road goes up a hill, around a headland...from a whole bunch of points along this road, there are fantastic views up the coast...(when i was buying postcards later i was doubly glad i'd walked this road, as many of the postcards have this same view)

the reason i walked this way was to see a specific sight i'd found listed on tripadvisor (but not listed in lonely planet!!)...called bagni della regina giovanna...a beach of sorts...i found the path to get me there after a bit of searching, as the signs weren't terribly clear...as sorrento is on the coast, it's subject to the whims of the water...nature has taken it's course to make a beautiful spot of this 'beach'...
it's actually a hole that has been whittled out of the rock, all done through an archway in one side of the rock...(this probably doesn't make sense, but i can't figure out the right words to describe what i saw)...

there is a tiny little beach, which i didn't get to walk on because the tide was up...the water that comes in this 'lagoon' is blue and beautiful...since it was winter, there was no one swimming in the water...i'm curious how strong the currents are during summer, does anyone ever get sucked through the arch in the stone?
i first walked around the edges of the area, looking out over the water...awesome...then i found the path and stairs to get down into the 'lagoon'...the steps are steep, and very irregular, i liked them though i couldn't say why exactly...

as it had rained recently and the whole area was damp, the steps were quite slippery and i slipped more than once...thank goodness i didn't fall or i would've fallen the whole way down and ended up with big bruises...i made it down to the rocks on the beach, and climbed around those in search of a nice photo...(almost fell off those as well!)
after enjoying the incredible beauty of the bagni, i walked back into the city centre, in time for the churches to be open...they were pretty, but not stunning...still, i'm glad i saw them...
after the churches i headed back to the train station, and caught the next train back to naples...

italy: pozzuoli for new years

i've never been a big fan of new years eve...i don't really know why, but that's the way it is...in order to avoid the holiday, i've traveled over new years eve for the last bunch of years...i think the last time i was in the states for new years was 2009/2010...years before then, and since then have involved a whole heap of countries...this year, i started out thinking i would be in berlin, but i ended up in pozzuoli...(right next to naples)...
i'd told ken i had never been wowed by the holiday, that i wasn't a big fan, so of course he determined to change the way i think...i dont know if what i saw is typical of all over italy, but it's definitely normal for southern italy/naples...i assume there are fire codes, and laws regarding the use/purchase of fireworks, but none of them were observed...none...
EVERYONE SETS OFF FIREWORKS...ken's flat is up on a hill, so i got to see everything...
starting about 5 minutes before midnight, fireworks started exploding...ALL OVER THE CITY...i could turn more than 180 degrees and see fireworks exploding everywhere...it was awesome...i don't know if my video really shows it, but i was very impressed :)
some of the fireworks are small...but more often, they were big...really big...
these videos are only a bit over a minute, but it all went on for around 45 minutes!!

italy: ischia

I went back to Italy for a long weekend in mid October...after the single digit temperatures in kyiv, i was boiling as I left the airport in Naples...
The next day, ken and I walked from his flat to the ferry, which took us to the island of ischia...the ferry ride was about an hour? We sat in the shade, I wasn't in the mood to end up with weird tan lines from a sunburn...
We found a taxi who took us to the hotel ken had booked, he had heard about it from a friend...the hotel is one the end of a small peninsula, very lovely...upon checking in, the hotel guy have us a quick tour and explained what we needed to know...

The island of ischia is known for it's thermal springs, this hotel has taken advantage...they have a couple thermal pools, with a man made tunnel/cave connecting everything...there is also a steam sauna, very small...one of the rooms has it's own natural jacuzzi!! There is a spa offering everything a spa normally offers, though we didn't take advantage...
there is a cafe of sorts, with appetizers available, they get all the food from their own land!!!! We had bruschetta, and a caprese salad...the mozzarella was AMAZING! We could've had dinner in the restaurant, but neither of us was that hungry...it's the kind of restaurant that has a daily menu, for a set price per person per day...the night we were there the main course was rabbit...

After floating around in the pools (perfect temperature!!!) for a while we cleaned up, then headed to the bar for snacks...not hungry enough for dinner, we did want something to chew on :)
The next morning I woke up super early...I went out on the balcony, and got to experience a beautiful sunrise...I'm not big on sunrises or sunsets (I've seen a bunch of beautiful sunrises and sunsets) but this was somehow awesome...I made sure to wake ken up too, and though he was sleepy, he found it beautiful too...
We floated around in the pools a bit more before cleaning up for breakfast...so relaxing in those pools, I could've taken a nap afterward...a very nice spread, and our table was on the edge of the cliff...beautiful :)

Our taxi took us back to the same port at which we'd arrived...after having hot chocolate at a cafe (coffee for ken) and a salad at another cafe, we discovered we were at the wrong port to catch a ferry back to where we wanted to go! Fortunately, we found a cabbie to make the drive, and life was good...
I would love to go back to ischia for a couple more nights...either take a car over on the ferry, or hire scooters on the island to explore everywhere...plus I want more time in those thermal pools...and I bet there are good hiking trails :)

italy: salerno, paestum, and naples

my host was traveling out of country the next day, so i moved into naples...i'd made a reservation at a guesthouse, and though i arrived too early to check in, i was able to leave my bags for the day...

from there i went to the train station and caught a train to salerno...when i checked one ticket machine, it said the next train wasn't for two hours, but i figured out that was the next express fancy train...the next regional train was only 40 minutes later...not only was this train sooner, it was a LOT cheaper...why do people wait longer for a more expensive train? especially when the earlier train is only 30 minutes?!?!

when i first arrived in salerno, i walked along the seafront for a while...it was pretty, and quiet...i felt totally at peace...the boats were all waiting in their docks, the bay curves around so you can see the hills behind the city...

eventually i moved into the old city area, where the streets are small, it's easy to get lost in the maze of streets...i found the duomo, which isn't nearly as well known as it should be...it's HUGE, and airy, the mosaic decoration inside is awesome...you're not supposed to take photos, but i snuck one when i was in the crypt...stunning...

outside the church is a nice courtyard with a plant decoration in the middle...it was built by the normans in the 11^th century, and dedicated to san matteo...so quiet, so awesome...i wish i could've climbed up the bell tower, i bet the view is awesome...

i took the train back to naples, checked into the guesthouse, then started walking again...i found the via de tribunale, one of the main tourist drags of the city...somehow, it wasn't as busy as i remember it being in december...maybe i was walking at a different time of day, or there really arent as many tourists at the beginning of july...

i found the starting point of one of the underground tours of naples...the tour took everyone through 1 km of the underground aqueduct, built by the romans waaaay back in the day...the area was also used as shelter during the bombing of WWII...some of the tunnels were quite tight, others were much more wide open...as usually happens with being undergound, it was pretty chilly, i wanted long sleeves...

back on street level the tour also took us to where a roman amphitheatre used to be located...by the time the ruins were located, many families had already built homes above...it's wierd to see windows going right into old roman arches...i think the law says the families can't be kicked out, so the ruins will never be fully excavated...

i had a big bowl of mussels for dinner...yum!

The next day i got up very slowly...another carb loaded breakfast included with my room...how do people never want anything but various types of bread for breakfast?

eventually i got back to salerno, and from there took a bus to the ruins of paestum...the bus dropped me at the train station of paestum, which appears to be located in the middle of nowhere...i had to walk a kilometer or two down the road to get to the ruins, it was easy enough...

the ruins of paestum are unesco listed, i expected them to be covered with tourists...they weren't, probably because it takes a couple hours to get there from naples...there are three large temples, all surrounded by fences, but the rest of the ruins aren't protected, and it's difficult to tell what they are...

there are a few signs describing what the ruins in various areas used to be, for the most part i just wandered around...i really liked the mosaic decor on the floors of what used to be upper middle class homes...i reckon the areas not protected will continue falling apart until it isn't possible to see anything identifiable...there is also a museum across the street from the ruins, but i didn't go inside...

back in naples i had mussels for dinner again...two servings this time...YUM! The restaurant tried to charge me for a breadbasket, which i wouldn't have minded if i had actually received the breadbasket...but i didn't, so i wasn't going to pay that charge...

it's a normal part of a restaurant bill in italy to be charged for the breadbasket they put on your table, whether or not you eat the bread...i don't mind that since it's tradition, but i'm not paying for it if i don't even get it...

that night i paid for my guesthouse since i was leaving quite early the next morning...they tried to charge me 10 euros extra, until i showed my booking confirmation...too bad i had to leave before breakfast...the airport bus got me to the airport quite quickly, since there is no traffic at 0615 in the morning :)

italy: pozzuoli and vesuvio

My first train from rimini took me to bologne, where i almost ran through the train station to get my second train...the bologne train station is undergoing some renovation, and the tracks are on three levels...when i had to transfer there on my way to rimini i figured some of it out, but i still found it confusing, and not very efficient when you have to book it from one level to another...my second train went from bologne to napoli, where my friend ken picked me up at the station...yay for door to door service...

on the way home we picked up food for dinner and our excursion the next day...dinner that night was steak on the grill, YUM...a simple, but great meal, looking out over a beautiful bay, during sunset...i don't think it gets any better :)

the next morning we had to get up early to get ready for the day...ken's friend came over to drop off food for the bbq later that evening...the three of us drove to a meeting spot to get everyone corralled, then the convoy drove to sorrento, through the town to the port...

i don't know who had arranged everything, but someone had rented three boats for the whole group to take out for the day...the plan was to spend the day going around the island of capri, celebrating the birthday of the US...

it was a fabulous day...beautiful weather, beautiful people, lots of patriotic clothing...

at one point we saw a superyacht with the stars and stripes, so someone looked up the boat...the limitless is owned by the guy who owns victoria's secret (among others)...it was a BIG BOAT...i'm sure the limitless was greeted by every american in the area who saw the flag :)

during the day the boats stopped a few times to play in the water, jump off rocks, etc...so much fun...id forgotten how much fun it is to play in water, i haven't done it in ages...i put suncream on a couple times, so my sunburn wasn't nearly as bad as i expected...yay :)

after returning home ken started prepping everything for a 4^th of july bbq he was hosting...the first guest to arrive was a french chick, carrying a french flag...i yelled 'allez les bleus' which surprised her, as most of her friends in the area do not speak french or know much about the country...she had the flag because france and germany were playing in another round of the world cup...(a few minutes after she arrived and we put up the flag, a house across the way put up the german flag...i loved the trash talk)

over the rest of the evening people arrived, ate food, talked with each other, took photos, etc...a great time was had by all...i ended up crashing before everyone left, i was so tired...

the next day we took it easy...waking up late, breakfast, watching tv, generally relaxing...i laid out on the balcony, forgetting that my back had already had enough sun...ooops...

the next morning was sunday, and i was wide awake at 0614...we had breakfast, and eventually got on the road...i sortof played tour guide, the guidebook gave vague directions as to how to get to vesuvius...remember when mom and i visited naples in december and i said that during my next visit i wanted to hike vesuvius? That's what we did...

we took an accidental detour, since the highway signs were not terribly clear as to where to exit...after the whole thing was over, we came to the conclusion we'd come up the opposite side of the mountain from what we intended to do...anywho, after driving through a few neighborhoods, we found the mountain, or more specifically, a parkplatz...

from there our options were limited to one: take a 'bus' a good portion of the way up, then walk from there...the path for walking was really loose, i'm glad i was wearing closed toe shoes...it was an easy walk, taking about 15 minutes i think? The views over the side were awesome...

when we got to the top we heard a brief by one of the park rangers...she told us about a few of the worst eruptions of vesuvius, as well as how it is expected to behave in the future...because of the most recent eruption it is no longer possible to walk all the way around the rim, but you can get pretty close...looking down into the middle, you don't see anything liquid...it's hard to imagine how this volcano has caused so much destruction over history...

on the way back, we missed the bus going down, so after hanging out for a while, we started walking...the weather was awesome, why not?

Maybe halfway down another bus came along and made us climb aboard...argh...we'd enjoyed as much walking as we'd been able to do...

back in pozzuoli we found a small hole in the wall cafe for lunch...YUM...it seemed to be family owned, and ken was convinced it had mafia connections...i don't know about that, but the food was fantastic...seafood pasta, YUM...this is the kind of place i want to make 'mine'...i want to come back regularly, so the owners get to know me well, and i never have to worry about ordering a specific meal :)

our late afternoon activity was going to the sulfatora...it's a wide area with natural steam vents...you can wander just about anywhere you want to go, there is almost nothing blocked off...(i kept thinking that in the states everything would be blocked off, you wouldn't be able to get anywhere close)...some of the vents had a very strong sulfur smell, others were just plain hot...i loved the colours of the minerals...

after we got home a couple friends came over for dinner, then we watched a movie called lawless...i love long holiday weekends with good people :)

the next morning we were up to go on another boat...the renting had been done from another port, so we didn't have to drive so far, or go so early...the boating crew this day was smaller, only 6 of us total, on one boat...

this time the boat was driven around the island of ischia...another beautiful island...there are hot springs in a few places around the island, we stopped a few times...one spot was small, and located near a former brothel...(from waaaaaaaaaay back when)...the other springs area was a lot bigger, and filled with people...i soaked up more sun than i needed, but it was worth it...another day when i looked around and knew i get to have an amazing life...

we loved the seafood pasta restaurant so much we wanted to go back...unfortunately it was closed on mondays...argh...

the next day my host went back to work, i enjoyed relaxing around the house for a while before walking into pozzuoli...i like this town, a lot!

Pozzuoli is where you can find the 3^rd largest roman arena in italy...there are also ruins of a temple in another area of town...plus the little port is beautiful, and still used by locals...i saw fisherman fixing their nets, sitting under umbrellas...

i saw several beautiful churches, none of them big...one of the churches i saw entirely by accident, as there was a tour group inside when i walked by, otherwise it would've been closed and locked...

i didn't get to see the cathedral in town, the guys in the information office told me it was closed except on weekends...

it was hot while i was wandering around, but the heat didn't really hit me until i was climbing up the hill to go home...at that point i just wanted to sit down and wait a few hours until my host drove by me on the way home so i could hop in the car...hot hot hot!

When he did get home we wanted to go to a chicken place for dinner, but it was closed for random cleaning...so we went back to the seafood pasta place...yahoooo!

We had a few others with us, and the family remembered us...(more likely, they remembered my friend, cause he is a big guy)...another fantastic meal, this one served family style...seafood pasta, spaghetti bolognese, wine, meat, etc...i felt pregnant when we left, hee hee...

germany kicked brazil's ass that night in football...

the next morning i woke up with an awful headache, and went back to sleep as soon as my host left for work...a few hours later i felt better, got dressed and headed out to see the arena...(it was closed the day before)...it was fun to wander around, there weren't too many other visitors...i wish it was possible to wander around the upper layers as much as the underground areas...

i laid out again that afternoon...since the house is on a hill, there was an awesome breeze, so i never felt hot even though the sun was strong...

i was sad to leave pozzuoli the next day :(