una notte a napoli, con i cieli e il mare

When we were heading down towards Southern Italy for our final field trip, everything looked exactly like the Southern California landscape - the same hills and the same scenery. We stopped in the ruins of Hadrian's Villa near Rome. Another similarity between Socal and Southern Italy is the sunny weather. It was great because most of the sites we visited were outdoors, so we were able to go outside in nature without coats and scarves. As usual on our field trips, the first night we enjoyed a prepaid group dinner. At the Pizzeria Canta Napoli, we were served three different types of pizza: the traditional pizza margherita, pizza marinara, and pizza con prosciutto and mushrooms. For dessert there was a ricotta and rosewater torta. The pizza that night was the most delicious I've ever had! (The pizza marinara was my favorite). The crust was perfect - crisp on the outside and soft and warm on the inside!
Day Two, we went to Paestum, a site with ancient Greek temples said to be better preserved than the ones in Greece. The weather continued to be beautiful, and I tried some of the mozzarella di bufala, which is made from the milk of the water buffalo which live there. We went to the Museo Capodimonte, a huge place which has a collection spanning from 1500s Titians to 1900s and 2000s with Andy Warhol and Anselm Kiefer. (Unfortunately the modern art section was closed). BUT we got to see some Titians, Caraccis, and Caravaggio's "Flagellation of Christ." For dinner, pizza again, this time at Brandi, the pizzeria known for inventing the pizza margherita for Queen Margherita of Italy.Day Three, we walked a LOT. But it was outside and in the infamous cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii and later the Villa of Mysteries next to Pompeii. It was crazy to hear the stories of that day in 79 AD when Vesuvius erupted and completely covered these two thriving cities in ash and to walk through the ancient streets and homes and see the graffitti and plaster casts of the victims. That was the day that our bus broke down and could not take us back to the hotel. We had to take the train but it wasn't that bad because we were able to walk through the city of Naples. It reminds me a lot of a big U.S. city like LA - it is dangerous and dirtier than Florence - but it's also bigger, and the personality is interesting. The Napolitans are so much nicer too!

Our last day we went to the National Archeological Museum of Naples. It was like being hit in the head by my art history class. (In a good way). I saw the famous "Merchant and his Wife" and the Roman copy of the Doriforos (when I first learned about contrapposto.) On our long drive back to Tuscany, we stopped in a site called Cuma, founded by the Greeks in 79 AD, and where Daedaleus was said to have landed. We walked around to the temples dedicated to Apollo and Jupiter, and then to the Sybil Cave, which is the gate to hell in the Aeneid. This is where the Sybil would foresee the future. Cuma was a nice end to a fun weekend - it was high on a hill by the sea, so we had a beautiful view of the ocean.Now that we're back, it's a lot of school stuff! Luckily, Elisse and her friend Gladys are coming to visit on Saturday so they will distract me from being too studious. LOL. Also, I need to start making plans for Spring Break!!! ahemGREECEahem

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