Quando piove...

When It Rains...
It Pours
(the translation in Italian of "when it rains" might be a bit off; I'm not good with pronouns...in English or in Italian)
Campania Region...Herculaneum, Salerno, Paestum, Sorrento

Thursday I had the same classes as Tuesday.  Biggest highlight: I understood way more in my Italian class, well at least enough to know I have a paper due this week and what it is about.  But really, I actually understood the discussions and was able to piece together what I didn't.  So, that is making my future in that class look ever so slightly brighter.  In the morning I was able to meet up with my good friend, Lauren, from McAuley in Piazza Navona.  She's studying at a different university in Rome.  It was nice to see a familiar and friendly face!

Herculaneum (Ercolano)
This weekend we had an orientation trip.  Every student at JFRC went (so about 200).  We left pretty early on Friday, and we drove to Herculaneum.  It was raining.  And cold. Things I forgot in Chicago: raincoat, rainboots, umbrella.  I did purchase an umbrella for a few euro, and seeing as each day it rained harder than the last, it was probably the best 4 euro I'll ever spend.  Herculaneum is a discovered town like Pompeii.  It was covered in the same eruption as Pompeii in 79 AD.  However, Herculaneum wasn't discovered until recently (some time in the 1900s).  It is also in much better shape than Pompeii.  Only 1/3 of the city is uncovered, because there are no funds left to escavate the rest of it.  Our tour guide explained that Herculaneum was where the wealthier would vacation...however, there were still poor and middle class houses (ususally above the shops they owned and worked at).  My favorite part were the baths.  Romans had elaborate public baths; although, they only showered once every nine days.  They would go from warm to hot to cold to warm again.  They believed it strengthened them and was good for their heart (which is actually true).  The baths looked like saunas, but the tiled floors with decorations were my favorite.  I also really like the wine shop and the "fast food" of their time shops. 



Wine Shop in Herculaneum

 Basically the fast food shops were shops where they had multiple stone jugs that kept food warm, and Romans would buy it while they were out. 

The little circles are stone jars where the food was kept nice and warm!

The Boathouse was also very cool.  When they found human remains, upon discovering Herculaneum, they were found in the boathouse.  Originally, they thought that the Herculanians had escaped the volcano, but they all hid in the boathouse.  There were about 300 sets of remains found.

This is the boathouse; the gross looking dirt use to be the beach.  For those of you, if any, from crew that are reading this doesn't this boathouse looks like a better facility than MRC?  no slippery ramp!

We arrived in Salerno in enough time to walk around a bit before dinner at the hotel we were staying at.  The town is very cute.  We didn't get to see too much, because we were only there in the evenings.  We went into a lot of cute shops (we were right off the shopping strip).  Everything was cheaper than in Rome, and Italy's country wide sale was still going on!  We had a lot of fun.  Salerno had these gorgeous lights up on all their little streets.  One street had the solar system done in lights, another some of the constellations, and yet another just these floral arrangements.
The next morning was another early one.  We headed (in the downpour) to another outside tour.  We went to Paestum.  Paestum was only discovered in the 1800s, yet it is the most preserved temple.  The temple is nearly 3000 years old, and still standing....much more so than the Parthenon in Greece. There was also a small amphitheater, and some other remains.  Paestum was originally a Greek city (hence the temple).  There is  also a museum that has amazing artifacts.  Our tour guide was hard to understand in her broken English, but she still was able to convey the important things to us.  Rather than explaining everything I saw, (which would take up too much of your time, and I don't want to overwrite on this) I'll just put some pictures and give you a brief description of some of the the personal highlights.  My favorite is the tomb of the diver...so please read that caption!

This is the temple.  It's amazing what great shape it is in. Once I figure out Picasa, I can show you more of the pictures I took, but it takes a long time to upload onto blogger, so I'm only picking a few to include.




Only my dad will get this picture, but when I see roosters I think of him.  This was on a tomb in the museum.



The tomb of the diver, is not of an actual diver.  There was no such thing as competive diving thousands of years ago (about 5th century BC); it was not a sport.  The diver represents the man's transition from living to death.  All of the artwork in tombs is on the interior, while the exterior is just plain cement.

Armor found in Paestum....thousands of years old! Look at how small it is...imagine fighting someone of that size!  Even the helmets are small. You can also see a weapon on the bottom.


We had a delicious lunch after that (the white wine was very good), and I was glad to have Turkey.  I was still a vegetarian on Thanksgiving, so I missed out on that, but I had my fill of it on Saturday.
After Paestum, we went back to the hotel in Salerno, and again walked around the town. Our hotel over looked the Bay of Naples, (the Tyrrhenian Sea) and we went and stood in it! (picture to come, but I have to steal it from a friend's camera)  I'm so thankful for that turkey lunch, because for dinner they gave us these fried mashed potato balls with fried dry chicken.  No one ate any of it, as I can only imagine that any gross food chain back home would have tasted better.
Sunday we left for  Sorrento.  Sorrento, although we saw it in the pouring rain, was a very quaint town.  I absolutely loved it.  We walked around a bit, and stumbled upon the prettiest church I've seen so far.  It was called Santa Maria delle Grazie.  I don't know how else to describe it, but maybe a picture will give you an idea of it's beauty.

Santa Maria delle Grazie in Sorrento

Another Interesting fact about Sorrento is that there are multiple statues of St. Anthony around the town. St. Anthony was born in Solerno, but moved to and died in Sorrento. 

St. Anthony in Sorrento.

Also, Limoncella was created and perfected in Sorrento, and there were many little limoncella stores.  One of the owners offered us samples.  I preferred the cream one to the regular, because it wasn't as strong.

me in sorrento.  Please disregard the bloated cheeks, the multiple layers that make me look like Mrs. Clause, and the dirty look...it was the end of a rough weekend. 

After a weekend of rain, as enjoyable as it was, I was ready to be back at JFRC, get into some warm, dry clothes, and wrap myself in a blanket.  Well, we all know the luck that I have.  Our bus got a flat tire on the way home.  Our 3 hour bus ride turned into a 6 hour ride.  I was sick, and it wasn't exactly my idea of fun.  Some of the faculty at Loyola tried to entertain us though, which I give them props for, and told us stories as we waited for the bus drivers to fix the tire.  That tire popping was the scariest sound of my life.  I thought we hit something.  We did eventually make it back to JFRC.

Random Facts
1.  There is way too much PDA in Italy.  I don't care how in love you are.  I don't need to watch anyone (and by anyone I mean people of ALL ages) making out in restaurants, in the middle of streets, etc.  It may seem romantic to you, but it sure isn't for the half of a million onlookers.
2. Potatoes are not just for the Irish.  They have served potatoes at every single meal.  As if Italians don't get enough carbs from their bread and pasta, they must add the potatoes.  (The potatoes are very good, though).
3.  I miss breakfast.  Every morning after crew, I would make myself a nice bowl of oatmeal or an omelet, and that would fill me up, and not make me stuff my face the rest of the day.  Breakfast doesn't exist here, unless, big surprise, you eat more carbs: croissants or breakfast cookies.  I've been stealing yogurt from the cafeteria to try and eliminate this problem