Naples Pompei Mount Vesuvius and Policemen.

Dear Followers,

Happy Palm Sunday! On request by my dear friend, Heidi Janelle Schultz, I will try to make this entry not be a novel. However, I can’t guarantee that will happen because when I type, I let my fingers go and I also LOVE to give detail… so just bare with me! I know you will enjoy it!

Wednesday 3/24/10. We woke up super early to leave for a six hour bus ride to the city of Napoli. When we got there, we first went to the Regge of Cazerta (Royal Palace and Park of Luigi Bambitelli). It took 93 years to complete and it was HUGE! It is known as one of the most geometrical parks in Europe. We saw a fountain that is considered the most famous fountain, which was dedicated to Diana, the goddess of hunting because that was King Ferrand’s favorite thing to do. (He is the one who saw the completion of the park.) This park has the most GORGEOUS trees, plants, and flowers I have seen. Many think about it a “magical” place and there are so many different waterfalls. To the Greeks, water = life, tree = death and life= knowlege= light.

After visiting the park for awhile, we headed to our hotel. We thought our hotel was going to be really sketchy because it was in a really bad area but it turns out, that is just Naples. Naples is a very dirty city and it reminded me of El Salvador a lot. Our hotel, Hotel Joyfull (yes, with two L’s) was a 3-Star Hotel and SUPER NICE!! It was probably the nicest hotel we have stayed in out of the four places we have gone.

Thursday 3/25/10. The feast of Catherine of Siena and it would have been Grandma Lancaster’s 89th birthday. We woke up and went inside the city of Naples. We saw the original door that broke the walls to the outside of the city and which takes you into the heart of Naples. This city is dedicated to St. Gennaro. We learned a tiny bit about the history and culture of Naples. Basically, it is the cheapest place in Italy to live which is good and bad. Many people live on top of each other and crowd lots of people into small apartments and houses. Some homes have two rooms with seven people living there. The way

to get to know the people of Naples is to be nice to their children because sometimes it is hard to find enough money or things to feed their families. We then went to Pilazzo de Espanol, which has been used in many famous movies especially with famous actress Sophia Loren. We then went down this street to a workshop and saw hand crafted scenes of what Naples would have been like in the 17th century. It was really beautiful and looked so real life. We then went to the House of Toto, who was the first and most famous actor/comedian of Naples. Next, we went to the San Galdiono Cathedral. San Galdiono was from Africa and he was the 15th Bishop of Naples and helped create a monastery there. It has catacombs underneath, which is where they would put dead bodies because the lasw back in the day was that bodies were not granted in the city. We saw the oldest fresco of the Virgin Mary in there and learned that the Dominicans are in charge now. After hanging around Naples, we went to POMPEI!!! We met up with our tourguide, Guido Barone (YES, GUIDO!) and he reminded me a lot of our cultural teacher, Francesco. We learned that Pompei was the city that got covered in molten lava by a volcano and it took 180 seconds to happen. This town is seriously from over 2000 years ago. They tried to begin rebuilding it back in the 1700s but it is not completed at all. It was covered 120 feet hight with lava and it’s sad because it used to be a very rich city. We saw Apollo’s home from 600 B.C. (OVER 2600 years old!) It is the oldest building in Pompei and was built by the Romans. There were many remains found that we saw: a dog, pregnant woman, many vases that used to be of vibrant colors, and many other people and bones. To preserve and bury the bodies better, they would cut off the skulls of the people. Afterwards, Guido gave us a Limoncello tasting which was SOO DELICIOUS! Pompei is known for their lemons so this was legit stuff. We got to try regular, white lemon, chocolate lemon, and mango. SO GOOD! After that, we went back to our hotel and had a nice relaxing evening with a good dinner and good company of everyone.

Friday 3/26/10. We went to the Cathedral of Naples, of St. Gennaro (also known as the Cathedral of the People). It was built in 1200 on two churches, the Greek and Latin. The King from France helped build it and in 1600 it was covered in marble, wood, gold and many colors. The ceiling shows the history of the life of Christ and the columns have all the saints who came from Naples on them. This Cathedral holds the bones and blood of St. Gennaro. The cool thing is that three times a year (September 16, December 16 and the first Saturday in May) his blood becomes liquid for a week (that was one of his miracles) and then it becomes hard after a week. The dome in the Cathedral tells the story of paradise. Near the door and all around the side chapel is the story of St. Gennaro’s life and miracles in paintings. He died at the age of 33, after being beheaded for trying to save Christian persecutions. Afterwards we went to the Capella del Pio Monte della Misericorda (another Church) and saw a famous Carivaggio painting. We then walked to Scaturrhio, a bakery that

has the most famous pastries in Naples. They were called Sfolatas and they are filled croissants with a citris and cinnamon filling. They were SOO GOOD and so CHEAP! Finally to end our trip in Naples, we had lunch at this great pizzeria and then we went to Mount Vesuvius. This is a volcanic mountain that last erupted in 1944 and is still active. They do not know when it will errupt next because there is too much space in between where the pressure and something is… but you can still see the steam except for in the summer. It is 70 degrees Celsius at the bottom of this volcano. Naples was NOT covered by any volcanic activity, but the one next to Mount Vesuvius is the one that exploded on Pompei. Basically, we hiked to the very top of this volcano. It was beautiful and you could see all the cities in the Campania region as well as the Mediterranean Sea from it. It was also a hot and sunny day, which made it even better. My calves sure do look good after hiking up and down it! After leaving Mount Vesuvius, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our sack dinners and were heading back to Florence when our bus driver took a wrong turn and got the bus stuck in a street. Sal, Alex, and Jennifer (the Dean of the Program) had to get out and go up to the top of the hill to stop traffic (which is nearly unheard of because traffic in Naples is INSANE). The bus driver, with the help of many people watching us from their homes and businesses, backed the bus up the hill and turned around. While doing this, the rest of us on the bus were all watching and documenting it. Three policemen then got involved (which is also unheard of because police in Naples do not do anything) and for about fifteen minutes they were speaking to our bus driver and ended up giving him a ticket for €38 because he stopped traffic. Ooops… our poor bus driver. If that were me, after getting a ticket and driving 35 American students around up a huge mountain and back down, I would need a drink. We then drove a long long ways back and made it back to the Villa around 1:30 a.m. (2 hours later than expected.) Yesterday, Saturday 3/27/10. I went on a 8 mile walk/hike with Molly, Robert, Katie O’Connor, Katie Reynolds, Sarah Lippert, and Kristy to Fiesole and back. It is another town about 6 km from Settingano but it was a very beautiful town and it had the ideal lookouts ever. We even found this Dominican church/monastery and prayed in it. I then went with Katie, Katie, and Kristy to Yellowbar for dinner and had the ideal brashetta, wine, spaghetti carbanara and dessert ever!

I would like to give a shout out to Amanda Wilczak because this day is her 21st birthday! One month from this day I will be on my way back to America! ONE MONTH! I pray you all have a great Easter week and know I am thinking of you all. I am going to try and go to Bologna one day to visit the tomb of St. Dominic. Easter is my most absolute favorite holiday and I am sad that I am missing my nephew’s first Easter, so I am going to visit his patron saint in his honor! I LOVE YOU DOM!

Until next time,

Jolly.

More Source:

Pompeii — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts
Rick Steves Europe: Naples and Pompeii
Vesuvius's big daddy supervolcano Campi Flegrei near Naples ...
Naples travel guide - Wikitravel

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Submited at Sunday, March 28th, 2010 at 2:00 pm on Europe by alliana
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