Day 18, 19 & 20: Vacation Time... Finally!

Where do I even begin with trying to put this weekend into words? I'll start with this... I finally felt like I was on vacation and it was summer time! It was the absolute best time and I wished it wouldn't have ended.

As I said, we began our weekend excursion at 6:30 on Friday morning. It was a really early wakeup call, but I knew we'd be at the beach by the end of the day--so that thought got me up and going (actually, that thought and 2 cups of coffee)!

[This is Becca passed out on the bus... pretty much everyone assumed this position]

We had a two hour bus ride to our first stop -- Monte Cassino. Everyone basically passed out in the bus, so when our driver stopped in Monte Cassino, we were all a little bleery eye... Until we looked up and saw this huge, white, beautiful building. Now I didn't know anything about Monte Cassino--for all I know, it could have been a real gambling casino. So I was excited to hear our "Expert of the Day" explain that it was a monestary, most well known for it being the site of the Battle of Monte Casino in WW2 (I probably should have known this....) Cinzia had arranged for us to have a guided tour of the place, so we met our guide and began the tour. I didn't really know what a monestary was, but it didn't matter because it was GORGEOUS. I'm talking breath-taking beautiful! I felt like I was in a princess palace. Besides the enormous courtyard looking over the rolling, green hills of Italy, the Crypt of the church was my favorite part of the Monestary. It was decorated with all these mosaic designs in the ceilings and I could have stood there and looked at them for hours! It's intricate patterns and Byzantine style, deep, rich colors were unbelievable.

[This is the view we saw when we got off the bus! Beautiful]

[Monte Cassino]

[Us intently listening to our tour guide]

[The church part of the monastery. So intricate.. I can't imagine all the detailing it took to make this building look the way it does]

[The dome in the main part of the church. I loved the orange sun in the painting on the left]

[Mosaics on the ceiling of the tunnel that led us to the Crypt of the MonteCassino]

[The view from the center of the courtyard. We couldn't have asked for more gorgeous weather!]

After our tour, we all loaded back onto the bus and rode another hour and a half to our second destination--Pompeii. We watched a video of Pompeii in class on Monday, so we all knew about the devestating volcano eruption that wiped out the entire town in 79 A.D. What we weren't prepared for was the first stop on our guided tour of the excavated city.. The world famous remains of the city's brothel. It made my skin crawl when the tour guide was telling us about it.

[Do you see the shock on our face? The brothel is the building on the corner behind us..]

[One of the 5 rooms in the brothel...]

[One of the main streets in the city]

[The most photographed view in Pompeii... A picture taken inside the city's forum looking towards the volcano that devastated the town]

So after that disturbing experience, we went around the remains of Pompeii and he told us all about the people's Last Day in their shipping port town. The tour lasted about an hour and I think the coolest thing we saw were plaster body casts of people who were instantly killed by the suffocating gases emitted from the volcanoes. (I know this sounds creepy and gory, but hang in there with me) To explain so you get the picture, here's how they came to get the body casts: when the volcanic gases reached the city, they instantly suffocated and killed the people, and then the ashes that fell buried the people and perserved their bodies. When the bodies were uncovered in archelogical digs, they poured plaster around the ashes to keep the shape solid. And this is what they look like:

[This one is of a dog.. isn't that so sad?]

[And then at the lost stop in our tour, we had a total Auburn moment!! How crazy is that? We all totally felt like our "War Eagle -- War Eagle" should be a new commercial on the Jumbo-Tron during home football games! Goes to show, no matter how far away from Auburn you are, you can always find a friendly face somewhere--even in the ashes of Pompeii, Italy!]

Pompeii was our last "class" trip of the day, so we were all pretty excited to get on the bus and head for Positano. The drive there consisted of about 2 miles of straightaways and about 90 miles of turns along cliff-edge roads. I'm glad I don't get carsick because I might have lost it on that drive! I swear Enrico (our bus driver) almost drove off the cliff twenty times--I was holding my breath and closing my eyes. We arrived at Positano around 4:00 and at 4:05, while waiting on a taxi to take our luggage down to the hotel, it starts to rain. It had been threatening to rain all day, but I thought it was going to hold off. Wrongggg! We had to take steps all the way down to where our luggage was being dropped off. In case you don't know, Positano is basically a city on the side of a mountain, so the steps were steep and numerous. I'm talking, like when we got to the street with our lugagge, every single person was having uncontrolable calf trembles! Keep in mind that it's still pouring rain. So we all grab our luggage and head for the next flight of stairs down to Hotel Vittoria. Remember that were walking down steep stairs, so that means that the water is drainging downwards as well. So we practically walk down a river. Not the best day to wear jeans! Anyways, we are all dripping when we finally get to the hotel. Cinzia hands us a key and Stacy and I found out we are roommates for the weekend! We head to our room and how do we get there? You guessed it--stairs! I'm going to have killer calfs come Sunday. It's about 5 by now and dinner is at 7:45, so to pass the time a group of us heads to the little beach bar and then to the town of Positano to look around. This is when I realize where we are... Absolute bliss. This place is beautiful!! Positano is on the Mediterranean Sea and the water is turquoise blue. I am in love! All those steps and the work was worth it!! The town is cute also. So we shopped around long enough to pass time until we had to head back to the hotel to shower.

[Some of us at the bar on the beach. Thankful it stopped raining and thankful for the new discover of my favorite drink.. The Flabio!]

[The rocky beach of Positano. Where we will be lounging Friday morning!]

[Do you see how steep the town of Positano is? The houses are built like stadium seating in an arena--everyone must have a great view from their balconies!]

We had a group-sponsored dinner at 7:45 and it was so fun and so delicious! I was glad to finally be somewhere that had meat besides porchetta. For dinner we had shrimp scampi, veal with lemon sauce and some kind of chocolate pastry for dessert! Hungry now? So after dinner we had big plans fpr the group to go to the one bar in Positano, but that got halted by a major mojo-killer... We got stuck on the elevator. I guess Italian elevators are different and they actually follow the weight limit because we crammed in 11 girls and didn't even make it past the first floor before it came to a screeching halt. There was a mixture of emotions in that one small space--some panic, some laughter, some leadership. But all efforts were given from outside and inside the elevator to get us off. After some group bonding over our 20 minute catastrophe, we got off and the group decided to walk to our hotel instead. We got distracted on our walk and stopped at this little cafe/bar place in the main square. When we walked in they turned on the neon strobe lights, so we ordered us some drinks and enjoyed ourselves! We stayed here until a few of us were ready to head back. Well, we had been told by Cinzia that it wasn't a bad walk back, so we decided to take that route. Mistake!! Note to self: a walk in Positano means a consistent flight of stairs up a steep hill. The walk took us about 20 minutes and it was 98% stairs, 2% roads. I was dying by the time we found the hotel so I plopped right into my twin honeymoon-suite bed and got a good nights sleep!

[Total group-bonding moment for the 11 of us in the elevator]

[See the mixture of emotions?]

[Kate, Caitlyn and Brittany at the cute little cafe/bar we stopped at on Thursday night!]

[Peek and her cute little drink cup]

Friday morning came and we were keeping our fingers crossed for pretty weather. Much to our surprise, it was fairly pretty outside when we got done with breakfast (cappucino and croissant). So, after much debate, a few of us decided to stay in Positano and lay out on the "beach" (I can't really think a place is a beach unless it has sand. Just my opinion!). It was reallly good call by us because it was a picture perfect, beautiful morning! Laying out by the Mediterranean, reading (and finishing!) the Carrie Diaries and listening to my beach playlist on the iPod. Now you see why I thought I was finally on vacation. Sadly, clouds started to come around 1:30 so we headed over to the main square for lunch. We sat at a cute little place on the main walkway that overlooked the beach... Loving every minute of this! It started to rain a little after our lunch, so we walked around in town until it stopped. The rest of the afternoon consisted of the same things the morning did except it was cloudy and a bit chilly, so no sun.

[Laying out on the beach and thankful for the sun!]

We had all decided to eat dinner as a group again tonight (by the end of the trip I am going to get used to being stared at everywhere we go. A group of 20 loud girls can generate some glares and stares). At 7:45 (trying to blend in with the Italians by eating later) we all met and headed to the main square. We decided on this cute, nautical-themed restaurant (it reminded me of the main restaurant at the Bittet End), so the waitors made room for 20 and we sat down. Dinner was delicios again! I took advantage of the seafood in the town and had seafood risotto. It hit the spot, minus all the squid that I picked around... The name for squid obviously didn't make the cut in the Rick Steeves translation book.

We knew that Friday night we wanted to all go to the bar we've heard about from other groups--Music on the Rocks. But we have an awkward amount of time inbetween dinner and 12, so we head back to the hotel and hang out (much to the hotel staff and other guests despise). 11:30 rolls around and we trek it down to the place. We walk in and no one is really there yet, so we make a little dance party of our own! Soo much fun. It's always fun to dance when you don't know a soul there, and also, don't even know the language! So the 20 of us--and Cinzia!!!!-literally danced the night away. Let me note that this bar was the coolest place! It was literally carved into a rock that sits on the sea, so it's like a cave inside. The DJ sees us and plays an array of American pop music that we just JAM to! It starts getting a little more crowded and sometime bewteen 12:45 and 1:00, it becomes body to sweatty body in this little cave. I guess that's what happens when it's the only bar in a town! I think what I enjoyed the most wad people watching. Seeing these guido Italian men dancing while wearing their skinny jeans, white loafers and throw-back sweater is a sight to see! They just don't make them like that in Alabama... Thank goodness! It wad a tad like Jersey Shore, if that says anything. But nonetheless, it was so much fun and a total group-bonding night!

We've all planned to go to Capri on Saturday and after group vote, the majority of girls (including me) voted to bite the bullet, wake up excruciating early and take the 8:50 ferry. I was surprised to see everyone up and atem for breakfast the next morning at 8:15! Somehow we all managed to get on the ferry and we arrived in Capri at 9:30ish. It was, as expected, beautiful! What was even more beautiful? The shopping! It is Haute Couture heaven, so it was more like window shopping for SK...but still! After we broke into smaller groups, a few of us went shopping around for most of the morning and then headed to the "beach" for the majority of the afternoon. The "beach" was... Interesting. It was really like 20 square feet of gravel with body to body Europeans laying ontop of it. So, again, no sand was to be found (and p.s. European men dont believe in wearing anything except a Speedo...) Who wouldve thought the Gulf would have a leg up on Italy? If you can imagine, this wasn't the most comfortable sunning area, so Kate, Katie and I decided to go sit in a shaded area. So relaxing! It was the ideal way I wanted to spend my afternoon. After this, we mosied our way up to the top of Capri, looked around some more and then went down to the ferry. We got there a little early so we decided to just sit on the dock, and this could've been my favorite part of the day. It was so peaceful. It was hot, but there was a good breeze. Some marina guys were washing their pretty boats, so got to watch that. I'm talking relaxing! The rest of the beach-bum group showed up around 5:15 for the 5:35 ferry. After absolutely sweating out every drop of moisture in my body while waiting in line, we finally boarded the boat for Positano. The ride is a vague memory because the moment I sat down in my seat, I closed my eyes and fell asleep thanks to the gentle rocking of the sea. None of us were too gung-ho on getting a nice dinner, but we didn't think it was exactly polite to ask a local "can you point us in the direction of the cheapest restaurant that serves something besides pasta and bread?" So we looked around town and settled on a nice outside restaurant. The view was beautiful and they served us tap water (very rare and much appreciated), but we all still ended up ordering some version f a pasta dish. It was either that or octopus salad.... What would you have done? Every single person was exhausted from our day so we all headed back to the hotel. Stacy and I packed up and were in bed by 10:30, and I couldn't have been more excited to crack open the book and just lie there and read. I don't even remember reading my last chapter I was so tired. Goodnight for SK!

[The ferry boat to Capri]

[The view of Capri when we pulled in on the ferry]

[To get to the top of Capri, where all the shopping is, you had to take like a train/escalator thing up a steep hill -- better than stairs, best 1,40 Euro I've ever spent!!]

[The view from the top... why can't the Chigi Palace be here?]

[The famous rocks in Capri and maybe the most beautiful picture I've ever taken!!]

[The girls that bought their floppy hats!]

[Meg, me, Lindsey, Caitlin and Katelyn infront of the rocks in Capri]

[Snapshots along our walk towards the shops in the center of the town!]

[The beach area in Capri. Isn't cool how even in the picture you can see straight through the water (underneath the kayaks)?]

[What I was looking at from the ferry dock.. I wish I was still there!!]

[Sunset in Capri]

[Meg and Kasi were trying to take a senior-pic, wearing the same outfit and Anna Curl jumped in the middle]

[Our dinner table on the Saturday night!]

[So our table was definitely on a hill and so the table was tilted. I was sitting on the end and I found it hysterical when I poured my olive oil and it immediately shifted to the left side (downhill side) of my plate!]

[This is our hotel room for the weekend, Hotel Vittoria! How do you like the two twin beds pushed up against each other?]

Our trek (literally a trek) back to the bus started at 10:10 a.m. Everyone loaded up on breakfast (croissant and cappucino--not many options in Italy), grabbed their bag (thank goodness for my 14 Euro hiking backpack) and headed for the stairs. Keep in mind that of course the day we leave is gorgeous and as hot as Alabama, but no humidity. So the first short flight of stairs wasn't too terrible. It lead us to a road where a taxi was waiting on us to load our bags. Everyone gladly handed them over and thus began our workout to the top of Positano. Now, before you call us wimps and girly for having a car cart our bags for us, do you want to know what this walk was like? I can tell you exactly how many steps because I counted -- 460 steps. I'm going to think of that as a calorie a step, to make myself feel better. By the time we reached the top, you should have seen us. It was hysterical! We were drenched and dragging. So when Enrico pulled up with the bus we were so excited that we could've trampled him with 20 bear hugs. He loaded the bus, we piled on and set out for our 4 hour car drive back to Ariccia. It's funny how your perspective changes over time because when we all started talking on the bus, we were like "were headed 'home'" (not real home, mom. Don't be thinking that). But to our temporary home. So it is kind of nice that going back to the Palace is like a homey-thank-goodness feeling. It's comforting. But our night at the Palace is going to be one big blur because were going to be running around like little worker ants. On Sunday night I have to pack for our week in Tuscany and my weekend in London. I have to fill out two Survey Monkeys (online inteneraries that we have to fill out for Auburn whenever we are not sleeping in the Palace), blog and do my Expert of the Day! Oh my... So that is what tonight will look like in Italy. I know it will be busy and this week is seeming overwhelming, but I've never been more excited. If I had one word to describe how I'm feeling right now it's "anticipatory"... If that's even a word. But I'm so anxious for everything we are about to see and do this week! Once again I think about how lucky and blessed I am to have parents that allow me the opportunity to do this! I'll end on that happy note. I apologize for the long post but it's so hard for me to give breif explainations of my weekends. Hope everyone had a good weekend and youre enjoying your summertime! Ciao for now :)

P.S. I am not sure if I am taking my computer this weekend or not so depending on that, I may or may not post until next Sunday. I know, don't cry. But I'll try :)