Italy

Ah, the long delayed Italy post. I meant to get this up sooner but finals and getting ready for leaving took priority. Here it is finally- the extremely long and detailed tale of two girls living la dolce vita :-)

Italy Begins…
Oh Italy! In hindsight, all I can say to this country is: well done! Ashley and I left Italy with huge grins and recounting our trip in high-pitched, excited voices. We swear it was the best food we’ve ever had and the nicest, most generous people we have ever met in our lives. The funny thing is while we were there, the slogan for Olive Garden kept playing in my head, “When you’re here, you’re family!” because that’s what Italy felt like to us- like we were part of the family. It was a great vacation and some of our best times during our European exploration. We left the Saturday morning after we got back from Paris and stayed there until early Sunday. Sat-Wed were spent in Rome and then Wed-Fri was spent along the Amalfi Coast. Saturday night we came back to Rome and then left from there Sunday morning. One fun week in charming Italy.


Bella Roma!!!
We caught our plane from Marseille ridiciculously early in the morning that Saturday. Which means that we got a bus from Aix to Marseille even ridiculously earlier. Ashley had spent the night before that trip like she usually does before we go somewhere (since I live in the centre ville it just makes sense) and we hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. The plane ride took only an hour and soon we were in the Rome, the Eternal City. We had to take a shuttle bus from the airport which is 35ish minutes outside of town into Rome. There were a lot of people who needed to get on the bus and we missed the first one. We waited a few minutes and got on the second one. Haha actually- it wasn’t that easy. I had a rolling suitcase and Ashley didn’t so she got on the bus and I put my suitecase underneath with the luggage. Well there was a huge line and places were going fast. I look up and see Ashley looking worried and pointing to the line as in “Quick!! Hurry!!” I thought about being separated from my traveling partner and how horrible that would be for both of us and turned my “city power mode” on. I say “city power mode” because this is how I get when Ash and I are in large cities. I was like this especially in Paris. City power mode is when you have to be pushy to be able to move. There were a few moments on the Paris metro where Ash, who is too polite and sweet to push through, almost didn’t make it off at the desired stop. So often I would go first and grab her hand if necessary. Haha so anyways, I see Ashley’s desperate look and I look up and return it. In my eggagerated story version I hear the theme to “Chariots of Fire” start to play and in slow motion push my way to the front. (Dun dun dun dun dun… dun…) I thrusted my ticket in front of the driver and pushed my way on the bus and to Ashley where we both crack up at what had just happened. Problem averted. Haha but it was a frantic few seconds where in my mind I was like, “NOOOOOO! AAAAAASSSSSHHLLEEEEY!!” and then I had to barrel my way through people to get to her. Lol. Funny.

After we were both safely on the bus, we rode it to the train station which was not far from our hostel. We found our hostel with little problem. We asked a few Romans along the way, who happily helped us. It was a beautiful day- pretty hot. We found the hostel and was shown our room by a guy from Boston. He ended up serving us breakfast everyday and would talk to us about the States, Italy, current events and give us advice where to go in Rome. Because we were exhausted, we crawled into bed and passed out. We deserved it- it was our vacation. We woke up about 6:00PM. We showered and started walking around Rome looking for grub. We were hearing “ciao bella!!” from passing drivers and were getting the notorious staredown from Italian guys. We finally found a restaurant that looked good. The food was great! We laughed because like Dorothy told Toto, we weren’t in Kansas anymore- or France. The portions were huge compared to the ones in we were used to in France. For once we had ordered something we couldn’t finish. The male waiters in the place kept flirting with us, and one gave us free refills on our wine. One wrote Ashley love notes in French, asking her out. We laughed each time a new note was delivered to our table. Sadly for the guy, he was ultimately turned down but we did admire his pluck. When I asked where the bathroom was, one waiter offered me his arm and personally escorted me there. I tried not to laugh. After dinner we walked around a bit and then went back to the hostel and went to bed.

The next day was Sunday so we woke up, figured out what crowded bus to take, and got to the Vatican in time to catch mass. It was crazy walking into the outdoor courtyard of the Vatican and hearing the mass said by the pope. Talk about surreal. We were a far way away but we could see him from where we stood and there was a TV screen not far from us, broadcasting the mass. After mass was finished we waited and saw him drive past on the little pope mobile. As the moment where he passed neared, all the people around us started clumping and pushing to get a good view of him. It was a cool moment.

Cool moment, but hot day. After we left the Vatican we started shedding layers. Our Boston breakfast friend had told us that there was a big flea market going on, so we decided to check it out. True Kreienkamp method, no? The funny thing is we started to take a bus and had to ask the bus driver how to get where we were going. He stopped the bus almost immediately and told us the best was to walk along the river. An old Italian woman heard what where we were trying to go and helped point us in the right direction. We had limited time before the market closed so Ashley and I hoofed it. We powered along the stinky river passing bridge after bridge. I was in charge of the map, and I kept trying to make sure we were going in the right direction. At one point, looking at the map, I asked Ashley the name of the bridge we were standing by. She replied, “I think this bridge is called Roma.” Haha. I stopped, gave her a look and had to explain to her that Roma was the Italian spelling of Rome. Oh Ash… (haha she’s probably going to kill me for posting this but it was a hilarious moment that we laughed about later) We scurried along and found the market in time. We shopped for a while, made some purchases and then headed back to our hostel, this time taking a bus. A crowded bus. At one point, I literally got knocked over by someone and Ash looked over just in time to see me kneeling on someone’s luggage. At a later time, she had the following to say about the incident:
“ I know! I looked down and saw you on the ground! And I thought to myself, (said in a perplexed voice) ‘Kelly never chooses to be on the ground…’”

hahaha. Classic.

After a while, we headed back out and went to see the Trevi Fountain. We were told that if you throw one coin in your are allowed to come back to Rome, two and you will fall in love with an Italian, three and you will marry your Italian. Some of us got wish happy and threw four in. I’m not sure what that means for me. There are some cute pictures of us throwing our coins in the fountain- check them out in the Rome albums. After the Trevi fountain, we got some gelato (mmmmm) and walked around a bit. We found a narrow road that ended in a ton of steps. Naturally we climbed these steps and saw a large building, and a cool view of Rome. We saw two guards standing at the door of the official looking building and a couple of policemen standing around. Pulling a dad, I walked over, smiled at them and asked them what the building was. It was the Quirinale, or as the kind police officer explained to me, the White House of Italy. We took some pictures and continued our walk. We next stumbled upon the Foro Traiano, Colonna Traianna and the Mercati Traianei which were old ruins- the forum, an important column and a market area. We also saw the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuelle II (sorry all of these are in Italian- we wrote them down in our journals based off our map which was in Italian) which was one of the most impressive monuments we saw. My first, uncontrollable reaction? “Awesome!!! It has fire!!!” haha, yea, some of us never grow out of our 1st grade selves. Ashley and I both laughed at how easily impressed I was. After that, we walked around some more. We walked past the Santa Maria in Aracoeli with all of its steps and were excited by what we first believed to be the lit up Colosseum.
As we discovered as we looked at the map and later walked up closer, it was not the Colosseum but rather the Teatro Marcello (the theater). From a distance it does resemble the Colosseum. Haha random side note: as I was documenting our trip in my journal at the hostel, we had the following conversation concerning the Colosseum. See if you can guess what she was asking me.

Ashley: “They don’t…”
Me: “No. No, they don’t…”
Ashley: (laughs) “Yea, that’d be really illegal.”

Hahaha, we had just discussed how they had gladiator fights in the Colosseum. Ash wanted to know if they still had them. Haha oh goodness. Anyways…

The next day we took a tour of the Colosseum. We payed for a combined tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum by a group of student tour guides. I guess they had to have so many hours of working before they could be officially hired. The tour guides were great! Although they had a thick Italian accent, they gave us tons of information about both sites. It was fun walking around the Colosseum and getting all of the history. It was a crazy hot day though and we were baking as we stood there listening to him. We took a lunch break after the Colosseum and got some more great pizza and gelato before heading back for the Forum tour. We were taken to the Palatine hill where legend has it Remus and Romulus were nursed by the wolf and upon which, the two later founded Rome. We also saw remains of the Flavian palace as well as the birthplace of Augustus. It was cool and we learned a lot of history for our tour guide. One interesting fact? Senators used to eat for 10 hours at a time. How, you ask. By making themselves vomit so they could eat more. Grossssssss. Haha I cracked a joke to the tour guide about how I knew that Italians liked to eat, but shoot! Haha sadly, the joke was not bilingual and he did not laugh. The tour ended overlooking the remains of the Roman Forum. I took a lot of pictures. We later walked among them- very impressive.

Then we decided to try to go to Santa Maria in Cosmedin to see the famous Mouth of Truth. It’s the statue where you put your hand in the mouth. If you lie, it eats your hand. Due to our faulty map, this proved harder than expected and then it started raining. Grrr! But thanks to friendly Italians, we were navigated around the city and wound up in front of it. Sadly, we got there a few minutes too late and it was closed. We still got pictures of it, even though they aren’t pictures of us losing limbs while we lie to the old statue.

Then, because we are dedicated travelers, we decided to try to go see the Pantheon (for you Tommy). Let me remind you, it was raining. We were hopeful the drizzle would cease. We were wrong. It increased and we trudged through the wet streets of Rome looking for the Pantheon. We walked quite a bit. We got our pictures of it, looked around and then got some dinner close by and dried off. Mmmm… good lasagna. After our meal, we headed back to our hostel because I had to register for next semester’s classes that night.

We tried to hurry the next morning because we wanted to get to the Vatican before the crowds. We were not successful and had to wait in a long but fairly quick moving line to get inside. Well sorta. Once we got through the line, we realized we were not in line for the museum as originally desired, but rather in line for the basilica. We had heard that you could get into the basilica from the museum so we decided to walk around to the other part of the Vatican and get in the even longer line. It was quite the wait, and the wait continued once we were inside. However, we were patient and finally got through. The true excitement for us in the museum was the chance to see the Sistine Chapel. Although the lovely tapestries and intricate ceiling paintings of the other rooms were interesting, we were on a mission- to see Michelangelo’s masterpiece. We went room from room, wondering if it was going to be on the next ceiling. We kept seeing signs for it and yet, the Vatican always kept us guessing. Well done popes. Room to room, we saw a lot of beautiful art. It was quite exhausting though, and we could see how people could get lost in the enormous museum for a while. Finally, we came to the room. It was a crowded room and everyone was staring up. It was really neat to see it in person- it was beautiful. They had guards on duty who would say “NO PICTURES” every few minutes but everyone was snapping away anyways. Some left their flash on. I did take an illegal picture, but I did mine sans flash. I’m sneaky like that. We marveled at the ceiling and then proceeded onto the basilica itself. It was beautiful and we took a lot of pictures. The coolest part was knowing that there were holy relics stored there- the tomb of St. Peter, the skull of St. Andrew, part of the cross, and St. Veronica’s veil. It was very cool to be able to be in one of the most sacred places of the Catholic world.

We left the Vatican and headed to Castel Sant’Angelo, which was the tomb of the emperor Hadrian. Its this strange looking round building. We wandered around for a while and took in some views from the top walls of it. There were some beautiful rooms inside with intricate detailing on the walls.

The next day we went and saw the Spanish steps. Again, faulty map caused some setbacks, but eventually we got there. It was a really pretty day and the stairs were lovely, lined with flower boxes. When we got there, we realized we were actually already standing at the road at the top of the stairs. Ashley voted that we just climb the few that remained to the church that sat atop the stairs. I mandated that we go back down and climb them all up. She gave me a dirty look, I laughed and then dragged her down all of the stairs. We took a picture then I raced her back up Rocky-style. Lol it was funny. Then, we realized we needed to be down at the bottom to get to the next monument on our list. Ashley again glared at me as down we went, step by step. We then walked to the “Piazza del Poplo” which Wikipedia informs me was once a travelers first view of Rome upon entering the city. It also used to be the sight of public executions. It was pretty and we took some pictures and sat by the fountain. Then we rushed off to take the metro to San Giovanni Laterano which is one of the holy basilicas in Rome and close by where there are steps that Jesus walked on during the Passion. You can go up these steps on your knees and they were the site that Ashley and I originally jetted off to see. We sadly arrived during the afternoon period where it was closed. We were bummed. We explored the basilica and were amazed- it was absolutely beautiful. I thought it seriously challenged St. Peters for impressiveness. It is the cathedral of Rome. Here’s Wikipedia’s info:

The Basilica of St John Lateran — in Italian, the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano — is the cathedral church of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat of the Pope, as Bishop of Rome. Officially named Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris ("Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior"), it is the oldest and ranks first (being the cathedral of Rome) among the four major basilicas of Rome, and holds the title of ecumenical mother church (mother church of the whole inhabited world) among Catholics.

It houses 6 papal tombs and also the holy relics including part of the table that Jesus made His last supper on and also the heads of Saints Peter and Paul. The alter is made from the wood of the table that St. Peter had communion on. Also there is a stone from Jesus’ scourging. It was an awesome church to see- I’m glad we decided to go.

After exploring, we headed back to the hostel. We ate at the family restaurant downstairs and then headed to take a train to Napoli. We were seated in a car with a nun, a married couple and a man. I had a big bag and there was limited space. Our car-mates quickly moved to help me and the man helped me store my bag overhead. We started talking to them. Language barrier was hard. The husband knew some English, as did the woman but the nun and the other guy didn’t. We spoke French to the wife because she was fluent. They were eager to talk to us. Like most Italians we had encountered, they had family in America and quickly asked us if we had ever been to Ft. Lauderdale. They wanted to know what we thought of Italy and where we were going next. He was a Florentine native and was quick to tell us that it was the best city in Italy. They expressed regret that we were only there for such a short time. They quickly gave us their info to contact them if we ever went to Florence and wanted tour guides. We told them we were Almafi Coast bound. After they assured us of its wonderful beauty, they started telling us history. They told us that many famous people- even Americans- had vacationed there. Jackie O and Eisenhower had spent time there. Haha- then he quickly turned to Ashley and asked her if she knew about Eisenhower. Ash said “Oh yea- he was a president” and then shot me a frantic that’s right, right? look. Lol funny. I had fun watching Ashley be in the hot seat as a proud Italian asked her questions. They then told us that their son was 25 and working in America. The man was particularly taken with Ashley and asked for her information for his son. Ashley wasn’t really paying attention and happily answered “ok” to the man’s asking for her email address. The best part came a few minutes later, while Ashley was gazing out the window. I turned and saw the man pull out his camera phone and very obviously hold it so it was directed at Ashley and –click- his son was sent a picture of his future American bride. HAHA!! Ash gave me a look and I couldn’t stifle the laughter. I seriously had to turn my head and try to stop shaking from my silent laughter. The wife didn’t seem to notice and I kept sending Ashley sly smiles reminding her of it during our entire trip. They departed, gave us kisses and wished us a good vacation. We were passing stops and I started getting nervous that we were going to miss ours. I asked the nun and another guy who had gotten on which stop Napoli would be. They assured me it would be the last stop and then the guy advised us to take of our jewelry before we got to the station. The nun departed and told us bye and we talked with the guy for a while. I had to use the bathroom so I went to the back of the train where the bathroom was. There were a ton of people waiting to get off at the next stop. Confused which door was which, I tried asking them where the bathroom was. They nodded at me and spoke to me in rapid-fire Italian. Eventually a door was pointed out to me. The door wouldn’t open- was it empty? I tried asking them and they tried responding. Haha I had no idea what they were saying to me. They knew it too and smiled at me. I walked back to my seat, slightly defeated and completely amused. I tried explaining what empty was to the man sitting in our car in order to learn the word and say it to the people. The man didn’t understand. Ashley and I tried to demonstrate with the empty bottle of fruit juice we had. It was no use. I waited until some of the people had cleared out and then walked back and tried again. Door wouldn’t open. Lol there were still some people there from the first time, and smiling, they watched me try again. After looking like a fool for a few more minutes, I accepted that I would have to wait. I laughed and shrugged to the people watching me and returned once more to my seat.

We arrived in Napoli and then took an hour train to Sant Agnello, where we were staying. As we got in, we heard an older English couple talking to an older American couple about Pompeii. The Americans were just arriving and the English couple, quite tan, had obviously been there a while. I jumped into the conversation and tried to get some tips. The American couple was excited to hear that we were studying abroad- they had children who studied abroad and loved it. The little group of us chatted for the hour ride to Sant Agnello and by the time we got off had become our friends. They too wished us a fun vacation and, in a parental tone of voice, advised us to stay away from those Italian boys.

We lugged our suitcases around Sant Agnello, trying to follow the directions we had been given by the hostel. Not sure if we were going the right way, we asked a local woman who kindly pointed us in the right direction. We continued on a little ways further, and then, wondering if we were still correct, stopped. A little old man was walking our way so we decided to ask him for directions too. He too was more than willing to help and told us that we were on the right direction and pointed to where we should go. Even a little girl on rollerblades stopped when she saw us talking to the old man and asked if we needed any help. Ah, Italian hospitality! We eventually saw our hostel and the amazing view that accompanied it. We were on vacation!! It was beautiful. Our hotel was a once a monastery and was picturesque with its white walls and blue accents. We unpacked a bit and then went to a lookout point where there was a café and an amazing view of the sea. We had a drink and watched the sunset, just soaking up the scenery. There was a lovely scent to the Almafi Coast. It could have been because of the lemon trees that it’s well known for- very sweet aroma. After sitting there for a while, we went to a family restaurant and had some pizza. We headed back to the room, snuggled in and watched Italian Harry Potter until we fell asleep.

The next day we woke up fairly early and hurried off to see Pompeii. It was a short train ride. It was another beautiful day and we were excited to be there. Pompeii was cool. I must admit, after having an archeology class and seeing other sites, the experience was slightly dulled for me. However, it was cool to see an entire city so well preserved. We had headsets to listen to but they went into way too much detail and we would have been there ages, so we would sneak up to other tour groups and listen to them, or listen to a few seconds of the headset before moving to the next room. We scampered around the remains for a few hours and then took the train back to Sant Agnello. We were pumped to go get some sun, so we asked the front desk where the most beautiful stretch of laying out area was. She told us the name of her favorite spot and told us it was a little hard to get to. Undaunted, we took her quick notes on how to get there and then went to find a bus to catch. We again had to rely on locals. One woman told us where to catch the bus and where to buy a ticket (after we sat at the wrong stop for a few minutes) and then the bus driver told us when to get off and pointed us in the right direction towards a huge hill. We walked down the hill, got to a path and then asked two girls coming up the path if we were on the right way. We were. Down, down, down we walked on the very long path. About halfway down, I am in desperate need for a bathroom. We passed some men working on the pavement of the path near a house. In true Italian style, they all smiled at us. We walked past and then I see what appears to be a Bed and Breakfast. I decided that I’m in desperate need- I will plead with them to let me use their facitilites. No luck, no one answered. I turned back to the group of men and decide I will ask them if there is a bathroom further down the path. I go back, they all smile and say hello and I ask them if anyone speaks English. One of the men did and I asked him my question. He told me that there weren’t bathrooms down there anymore because there was some work being done. The men looked like they were all part of the same family- there was one old man and a few of what appeared to be his sons. The older man asked what I had said, and then began walking towards a gate and motioned us to follow- his son told us that we could use theirs. Again, I love Italians. It was a beautiful house, with a huge Lemon tree grove and little cabins. I assume that it was a hostel of sorts. There were a few girls lounging out and he asked them if they could show us a bathroom. They let us into one of the cabins. It was so sweet! We thanked them profusely and then continued on our way. We followed the trail down and finally could see the sea. The path led to a wooden bridge over the water that continued over some rocks. Then the bridge connected to a open air restaurant type thing that was being worked on. We then had to climb big rocks to get to the flatter rocks where people were laying out. Hahaha- we were not prepared for this. Both wearing flip flops, we seriously wondered if it could be done. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. We scaled the rocks and finally settled down into our spot. It was a beautiful view- the sea and the rocky coves were around us. I was slightly bummed it wasn’t more beachlike so I could swim. I walked down to where the rocks met the water and bent down to feel the water. Soon, a British woman came over to me and told me that an Italian fisherman had walked over to her and told her to tell me that there were a lot of rocks in the water and that I would get hurt if I tried to swim there. I thanked her and walked back. The fisherman walked over to us a few minutes later. He was without a doubt one of the most colorful people we have met during our travels. A short smilely man, holding a fishing pole, he came over and tried to talk to us in his broken English. He was about 25ish probably. He asked us where we were from, how we liked Italy, etc. The language barrier was really difficult this time- sometimes we had to rely on miming or using very basic words to express ourselves. As the conversation went on, he asked us if we liked the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He then asked us to sing it. The man was a bit eccentric. Ashley laughed and prodded me on to sing. I wanted to kill her. Soon the two of them were chanting my name so I reluctantly sang a Beatles song to get them to stop. Eventually we got him to leave and we layed out a little longer before heading back. Along our route to get to the beach, we stopped in Sorrento. A quaint, adorable, slightly touristy town, Sorrento is one of the hotspots along the Almafi Coast. It reminded me of a town in Michigan. We decided to stay in Sorrento for dinner. We walked around looking for a restaurant. We walked past a cute one and all the waiters were standing attentively in their black vests and crisp white shirts, waiting for customers. We smiled at them and they all said “bueno serra” and one of the men, who turned out to be the owner beckoned us forward. He extended his arm to me and said, “Please, let me show you our food inside.” We giggled and walked inside and saw an incredible array of food. We told him it looked very good and that we would most likely be back. He seemed to like me and he asked me my name. He told me his, told me he was the owner and gave me his card. He told us he hoped to see us back. Ash and I walked around the block, decided to avoid the inevitable and walked back to the restaurant. I smiled, shrugged and said “We’re back” and he happily told us to sit wherever we wanted. It was a nice night so we sat outside. Ashley left to go tidy up in the bathroom and while I was waiting a waiter brought us two glasses of champagne, curtsey of the owner. We laughed and thanked the owner who did a slight nod of the head. We ordered our food and then it was my turn to freshen up. When I got back to the table, I saw bread and some yummy looking antipasta waiting for us. Confused, I looked at Ashley who laughed and told me it also was a gift from the owner. Our food was later brought out- I got a delicious apple salad. We complimented and thanked the owner for the food, and then ordered dessert. The owner insisted we go inside to what was essentially a patisserie inside (there was so much stuff!!) and we decided to get some of the amazing cake in front of us. The waiter was very kind and suggested that we order two kinds and that he could make a one serving sampler. We liked this idea- I chose the two that looked good to me and Ash chose three. We go back to our seats and the cake is brought out. They were not portions- they were whole pieces of cake. Hahaha. We cracked up- the owner was once again spoiling us. Then the waiter came out and gave us two tiny glasses of lemoncello- the lemon liquor Sorrento is famous for, again kindly donated by the owner. We giggled some more, again thanked the owner and enjoyed the evening some more before finally saying goodnight. We gave him the bisous, said goodnight to the waiters who had been so nice to us all night and walked away, shaking our heads at how amazing Italy had been to us. We shopped and then eventually took a bus back. We hopped on the wrong bus though, and had to wait a few minutes before the bus route switched back in the other direction. The bus driver was nice- a young guy. We were the only ones on the bus so he talked to us for a while and asked us about our stay. We had fun talking to him and then the bus continued on its route, going towards Sant Agnello. As we drove back through Sorrento we passed the restaurant we had eaten at, and to our delight, all of the our new friends (a majority of the waiting staff) saw us and waved to us as we passed. As Ashley and I walked home from the bus station, we were absolutely giddy at how wonderful the night had been.

The next day we went to Positano. It was BEAUTIFUL! Absolutely charming. It’s a village nestled into the cliffs between the sea and the sky. We had to take a bus there. The bus ride is harrowing. The Almafli Coast has some crazy roads that run along the cliffs. Luckily Ash and I were on the wrong side of the bus to see the dangerous drop. We had to walk down into town. The roads just wound back and forth down until you reached the beach. Before we got to the beach, we enjoyed a beverage under a vined terrace. Very cute. We spent the day on the beach. It was slightly pebbly but enjoyable all the same. I got in the water- Ashley thought I was insane. I thank Michigan vacations and cousins who challenged me to cold water withstanding competitions for preparing me for the chill of the Mediterranean. After spending hours on the beach, we walked around for a while before finding a place to eat. We dined along the beach at a cute place named the Three Sisters. We were again spoiled by our kind waiter- we were given more free lemoncello and, upon hearing that we had already tried lemoncello, a free melon liquor which was very good as well. The food was good and we enjoyed yet another Italian evening. We climbed up the top of the hill where the bus stop was and gazed at the beautiful lit up Positano. I tried to take some pictures- they’ll be posted soon. We got back to Sant Agnello, hung out for a bit at the hotel, heard some live music and followed it to what turned out to be a relatively empty local bar across the sleep. Hung out there for a while, watched the band and then went home to sleep.

The next day we packed up, checked out of the hotel and headed to this dock type thing near our hostel where there was sea access. There were really nice chairs to lay out on, steps down to the water and a restaurant type thing close by. We had to literally walk down through the cliff to get to it. It had a scary cave-like atmosphere as we followed the path down into it. We basked in the sun and I got to swim a lot in the water. It was great. We tried to stay there as long as possible, then we collected our things, dashed back to the hostel to change and grab our bags and then take a train to Naples then take a train to Rome. We got back into Rome and checked into the hostel again and then headed out. We meandered, walking past the Trevi fountain again, past the Pantheon again and eventually got to Piazza Navone which was our destination for the evening. We ate a good meal, enjoyed the activity of the square and said our goodbyes to Rome. The next morning we woke up very early, caught a bus and then caught our plane back to Aix.

We truly loved Rome. I smile each time Dean Martin’s “Volare” plays on my iTunes now. I can’t wait to someday return. I threw my coin in the Trevi fountain so I know it will happen- I just hope its soon. ☺