The Coast and then...school!

The view from the Atrani beach:

Day One:
This last Tuesday, Sara, Sam, John, Gaby, and two of our friends Heather and Stefany took the 6:45AM train from Santa Maria Novella...our destination: the Amalfi Coast, and Ischia for Sara's 21st birthday. We switched trains in both Naples and Salerno, then took a bus to the coast. All the films and photos that I've seen capture the coast beautifully...there are the tiny buildings seemingly stacked up on each other, rising from the cliffs. It was wonderful to catch the scent of the sea again, hear the waves, and see palm trees. It was a little drizzly and overcast, but the place is still gorgeous. Because it is the off-season, our hostel was pretty much empty - there may have been two or three other occupied rooms, but we barely saw anyone. But we got to pick rooms in the front! Our first dinner was at a restaurant called "Le Due Palme." We all got an eggplant dish and mussels (the best ones I've ever had) for primi piatti, and then pizza for the main course. (We continued to eat a lot of pizza during our stay in Southern Italy ... I don't know if I can bring myself to eat the pizza in Florence afterwards!) The southern Italians also have a different way of speaking - they slur their words, and pay less attention to grammar rules. The first time I heard it on the train, I couldn't understand what they were saying.

Day Two:
Our hostel's free breakfast was so sweet! The cappucini have small smiley faces in them (see my facebook album for a photo). The second day we began our hike to Ravello. I have never known a place like this existed! Everything was green, moist, and almost tropical. There were moments when I was reminded of Hawaii or even the mountains of Japan, but instead of temples I saw the stacked Italian homes and churches. We passed by the private olive and lemon groves, and strange abandoned homes. There was a ceramics studio on the road up to Ravello where the lady, Giona, makes all her own ceramics (which the coast is famous for) and sells them. We finally made it to Ravello after maybe three hours. It is a cute town, although the items are a little overpriced (they take advantage of the tourists). We went into a church that housed the centuries-old (at least 400 years old) blood of Ravello's patron martyr.
That night for dinner we walked from Atrani to Amalfi along the cliffside, which is high above the rocky ocean below. In Amalfi we tried a restaurant called Tari, where I had a homemade pasta dish with squid, clams, and mussels. After dinner we walked out onto the pier and watched the waves and lightning, and getting sprayed by the Mediterrenean. We decided to head back to Atrani...and this is when we almost died! It was raining a little when we started back, but then the rain started going sideways. I closed my umbrella because it would have just snapped. When we got to the cliffside, the wind started picking up and I was forced to run because of the wind. I fell down, skinning my knee a little and ripping my jeans. I was huddled there with Stefany, Gaby, Sara, and Sam (I think) a few feet in front of me. There were motorcycles falling around us, and I remember being crouched on the ground there, thinking "I'm just going to stay here until it stops!" Luckily, Heather and John came back, dragged us through the wind and rain away from the edge of the cliff, where the wind was lighter. Exhausted and soaked through, we dragged our feet back to Atrani where we hung our clothes out on the clothesline, and took hot showers. For a while I was too much in shock to sleep!

Day Three:
We went to Amalfi to explore the town and see the Cathedral of Amalfi, which is beautiful. There was the Cloister of Paradise, filled with palm trees, and housed the remains of Amalfi's saints. Then the Basilica of the Crucifix, which holds some of Amalfi's treasures, such as jeweled crosses, crowns, and relics. The Cathedral of Amalfi also has the remains of the disciple Andrew in the Crypt of St. Andrew. Finally, there was the Cathedral, and there was a Eucharist in progress when I entered, so I got to see the priest speaking and hear the organs. We also visited the Museo delle Carte - the first paper mill in Europe, in use since the 1100s. After Amalfi we took a bus up to Positano. It is amazing taking the bus along the coast - it's so beautiful but it's also very scary - the street is so narrow so the driver has to honk a few times before turning any corners. Positano was a beautiful town, probably a destination more for people with money than for students. But the beach there was beautiful, and the water was warm, so we waded in. Because everything was so expensive, we went back to Atrani for dinner at a pizza kitchen right on the beach. I had a seafood pizza!

Day Four:
Sara's 21st birthday! We took the bus to Naples (a very dirty and crowded city...kind of like L.A. except maybe a little dirtier) and then a ferry to the island of Ischia, in the Bay of Naples. When we met the hostel owner, he offered us an apartment (instead of a room) which was basically a beach house with two terraces - one of which was over the water. When the hostel owner found out that it was Sara's birthday, he offered to open up his family's restaurant for us. It was really nice to have the restaurant to ourselves (along with a Canadian and Australian who came from the hostel) and I had a whipped egg and parmesan in chicken broth soup and tomato, mussels, & pecorino on giant tube sized-pasta. It was really nice - they brought out small chocolate cakes with a candle and we all sang "felice cumpleanno" for Sara.
(I had my first soft persimmon in Ischia - it was like jelly and delicious! I never knew I liked persimmons before this.)

Day Five:
We were originally going to leave on this day, but after seeing the beach house we couldn't help but stay another night, so we wouldn't feel rushed. We had heard about a thermal beach, so we went to the grocery store, picked up some things for sandwiches and lunch, and took a bus and short hike down to the Sargento beach. There wasn't any sand - just rocks, but we could climb on top of them and sit in the sun. (It was actually pretty sunny there and I got a little bit burnt!) The hot springs water came out of a small ledge under the shallow water. The cooler water from the waves perfectly balanced out the boiling water from the thermals. There was a man who was sitting there the whole time, and he was selling these jars of a mud skin treatment. We bought some for 2 Euros each and painted ourselves with it. After letting it dry, we rinsed off in the hot springs - and my skin did feel much softer!
...It was definitely very strange coming back to Florence, and finding myself thinking, "I'm glad to be home."

Check out my Facebook albums of the trip:
Uno . Due . Tre

This week was also my first full week of class at the Accademia. My painting class is very confusing - apparently it's hard for even the Italian students to understand the teacher, Professore Bisi. Hopefully it will get easier to communicate! I am also taking Anatomy, which consists of two 1 hour lectures and 2 hours of life drawing during the week. The teacher, Gennari, speaks a little English so it's a bit easier. My last class at the Accademia is Etching (Tecniche delle Incisione) with Viggiano, who has been teaching for about 40 years, I think, and was the head of the Accademia for several years as well. He doesn't speak English, but is able to communicate to us and is very helpful! It's exciting to finally go to an Italian school and meet people from Italy and from around the world.