Pompeii, Sorrento, Positano and Naples

Getting back into the groove of things after break was a little difficult. The weather was gorgeous, so all I wanted to do was read a book on the beach! However, I am not nearly as busy any more now that "As if People Mattered" is over. I'm sad for it to end because I loved the class and learned a lot. However, having Tuesday and Thursday afternoons free opens up a lot of time in my schedule!
Last week, I was able to visit a few neighborhoods for class in my spare time. I went to Sapienza University and Parco Leonardo. Sapienza was interesting. It is a small campus, especially compared to the U of M, but it's charming. I went on a particularly sunny afternoon around lunch time, so it felt as though the entire campus was outside laying on the green, sitting on the benches, kicking soccer balls around, socializing, and doing homework. I felt as though I fit in there, as there seem to be quite a few international students at Sapienza, and they are all my age and wear backpacks around like I do. I'm not going to lie--sometimes walking around Rome, I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb. The architecture was fairly simple for the most part--lots of brick, a few modern buildings here and there, one dome. However, I came in from the back of campus. What I didn't realize until walking through and turning around was that the entrance is a completely stripped classicist fascist-looking architecture. Large white marble columns, tall grand steps and archways, all right angles, and large quotes lining the top. It was interesting to see the contrast between the simple campus and the grand entrance.
Parco Leonardo is its own category completely. It is located on the outskirts of Rome near the airport, and one can only reach it by car or train. Therefore, it is completely isolated, and it is a mall. The layout is very similar to American indoor malls with long hallways forming the primary axis, large department stores at either end, multiple levels, a food court, etc. The shops themselves were fairly Italian (and quite cute), but I felt as though I was taking a step back into America. What was different was what surrounded the mall. Right next to it was a large piazza/courtyard with some greenspace and housing complexes. Malls in America aren't usually surrounded by housing, but this one was. I believe the housing is for all the workers at the mall. They can meet all their needs right there: groceries, cafes, clothes, casino, movie theater, lake, (living?) wage. I can't say I would every want to live there. Visit? Yes. Live? No. There's something so artificial about the whole place, as though it is a little island from another planet that has landed on the outskirts of Rome. I like the idea of providing housing for the workers in the area, but I can't see it being enjoyable being so isolated from the rest of the city.
We visited Villa Pamphigli with Sean on Tuesday. We were supposed to go to the Vatican, but a few people from class were in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day, so Sean rescheduled. Villa Pamphigli was no disappointment, however. Only a portion of it has been opened for public viewing, but even the bit that we got to walk through was extremely grand. It reminded me of English Abbeys like Downton or German castles: extremely ornate displays of paintings, jewels, exquisite tapestries, sculptures, mirrors, and chandeliers, clear distinction between classes, and a room for every function. the Pamphiglis are still one of the richest families in the entire world, and they are one of the only families to remain in possession of the estate started by their ancestors. Descendants of the royal Pamphigli bloodline, from Pope Innocent to the present day, are still alive and living in some of the many villas owned by the family. Just seeing the house was a reminder of how uncomfortable living back in the 18th and 19th centuries must have been, even (and sometimes more so) for the wealthy.

Early Friday morning, our entire class left for Pompeii. I think most students from America know at least something about Pompeii--the fact that Mount Vesuvius erupted suddenly and practically "froze" the entire city in time. What most of us don't realize is just how much we can learn from this fact, and just how little we have learned in school.
Our first stop was actually right outside of Pompeii at a villa that once belonged to the wife of Nero called Oplontis. Apparently back then, husband and wife used to have their own separate residences in summer. This one is one of the most extravagant and well-preserved of all the villas from this time period (up until 79AD). Most of the wall frescoes in Pompeii houses have been removed and transported to museums in Naples, but at Oplontis they have almost all been preserved as they were. The frescoes are beautiful. They demonstrate that painters back then had already mastered the art of 3D projection and vibrant colors. Doorways pop out of the walls as though one could actually walk through them.

Next, we arrived at Pompeii. The city was much larger than I had expected, and it has been quite well preserved. However, the first kings to excavate the site were looking for riches and marble only, and took no care for the preservation of history, so much was lost during this period. It also took us a while to discover a method of preserving organic material. All organic material, including human bodies, were instantly disintegrated at the time of the eruption, so all that remained were holes in the ash. Eventually, archaeologists devised a method of pouring plaster into the molds left by these organic forms so that we would be able to see what they were. As Pia, our history professor, pointed out, it took them a long time to discover this, which is why there are so few human bodies preserved. Although most of the class were most intrigued by the bodies, it was fascinating to see how the streets and homes of ancient Pompeii were laid out. The streets were comprised of extremely large stones, not very conducive to walking or carriages, yet grooves in the stones show where the carriages must have run. Large raised stones at the intersections were spaced perfectly so that the wheels of carts could pass through, and they were used by pedestrians to stay out of the dirty streets. The houses were all laid out in basically the same fashion with a main entry hall opening into a large atrium centered by a cistern and a skylight through which water could be collected. All the other rooms branched out from there, many of them very elaborately decorated with frescoes and mosaics. Bedrooms were not very large or well-lit, but at the time they were a symbol of wealth.

Amphitheater

Large beautiful dogs that Rome the streets

Vinyards

Mt. Vesuvius!

A Pompeii Street

One of the earliest contraptions for separating olives from their pits for olive oil

Walls of one of the bedrooms

Pots

Steps for the crossing the streets

Fountains at every intersection that were once the only way for residents to collect water for their homes

Beautiful marble countertops in a kitchen

Well-preserved wall fresco

Wall fresco from a newly discovered house

 There were two outdoor amphitheaters. The first was too small and didn't have very good acoustics, so they built another larger one to the side. There were also many green fields used by the men for training and sport.

Large outdoor theater

Area for sports and training

Small theater

Ancient bakery

More bakeries

Vibrant colors

Pompeiian 'Welcome' mat

Beautiful mosaic on the ground of a wealthy family's villa

The yard

The brown line delineates what is original and untouched and what has been reconstructed from original material

 

 The forum was just as I had imagined it from pictures we have studied in class: one long axis bounded by what's left of the columns of large governmental and commercial structures.



The Pompeii Forum!

Shelves and shelves of beautiful amphore or ceramic jugs

Part of the bath house

Bath house

Bath house: every cubby hole for storing one's belongings was adorned with a differently clad man like this so one could remember where they left their stuff

 

 To finish our visit, we stopped by the "Villa of Mysteries," so named because of one particular dining room fresco. The fresco is mostly red, and it fills all three walls of the large dining room. The prominent figure in all of the paintings is a young girl. However, the mystery is in the meaning behind the paintings. No one can agree upon what exactly the girl is doing or what the significance of it is, but everyone agrees that it is a spectacular mural.

The dining room from the Villa of Mysteries

Giant lemons!

 After Pompeii, Pia went home to Rome on the bus, while the rest of us grabbed our bags and hopped a train to Sorrento to see the coast. The train-ride was long and bumpy, but along the way, we were already beginning to catch glimpses of the beautiful cliffs and hills around us. We stayed at Seven Hostel a little ways from the Sorrento city center. Because we were tired and it was already getting late by the time we arrived, we simply went out to dinner at a local restaurant and stayed in for the night, but not before planning our Saturday trip.

View from the roof of our hostel

We woke fairly early so we would have time to see a lot. After breakfast, we headed into Sorrento to explore. There isn't too much to see in Sorrento. However, the city is known for its lemons and limoncello production. Walking through the main street, we stumbled upon a chocolate shop with chocolate fountains in the window. The nice lady in the shop offered us plated of chocolate candies and cookies that were irresistible: chocolate covered espresso beans, chocolate covered lemon drops, lemon cream and chocolate cream-filled cookies. They were to die for. We were also told of a cake we had to try and a good bakery in the area, so we stopped for a snack. The lemon dessert was fantastic--super moist, filled with layers of limoncello-soaked sponge cake and lemon cream.

View from Sorrento city center

Chocolate fountain!

Famous lemon cake

Full on delicious pastries, we hopped on a bus that would take us to Positano, which we were told had some of the best views. The bus ride was both thrilling, frightening, and gorgeous at the same time. The bus driver maneuvered the tiny winding streets of the cliffs with seeming ease, although from where we sat, all we could see was a sharp cliff edge with only a small flimsy railing to keep us from going over. However, when I wasn't staring down into the hundred meter drop we faced, I was looking out at the beautiful coast and the colorful little houses clustered along the hillside. For a moment, I almost thought that I was back in Greece. When we finally got off the bus, we were lucky to be greeted by beautiful sunlight and an only slightly chilly sea breeze. We headed directly down to the beach because we were all craving the water. It was a bit chilly, but Sara, Sarah and I dove right in. After the initial shock and numbness went away, the water was actually quite comfortable, and we treaded water for a while, enjoying the heat of the sun, the coolness and brininess of the water, the spectacular view of the coast. The water is just the perfect shade of blue-green, a color that can only be described as "ocean blue." One never really knows what that term means until one has seen a coast as blue as this.

 

 We had lunch at a charming little restaurant overlooking the water, ran into some other people from our group, then headed back to the beach. Most of us fell asleep there, including me. I have to say, beach naps truly are refreshing. There's nothing like them. Before leaving, a few of us shopped around in town a bit, then we took the bus back to Sorrento for dinner. We had been recommended two seaside restaurants by the guy at our hostel, so we looked them up and headed in that direction. However, most of us desperately had to pee throughout the trek, we got turned around once or twice, and when we finally reached the coast, we discovered that both of the restaurants were closed. Great! Luckily, there was a place open right down the street that looked good, so we filed in and ate there. I had some delicious swordfish (swordfish is turning into one of my favorite dishes, and I've only had it three times!).

Lunch

Sunset

Dinner

 Sunday, we packed up and left for Naples. Unfortunately, it was raining, but we had looked up a few museums that we could spend time in to avoid the rain. The train ride was quite long, but along the way, a few musical performers hopped on to entertain. We didn't have a lot of time to spend, and it was lunch time by the time we arrived, so the first thing we did was...have pizza! One can't go to Napoli without trying the pizza, and it really was delicious. Mine had prosciutto, mushrooms, olives, and artichokes--amazing! The crust is thicker than that of pizzas in Rome. I can't say which I like better because they are both great in their own ways. What remains the same is the quality of ingredients. The restaurant we went to also cooked them in a wood fire oven, which of course adds another element of flavor. We also stopped at a bakery right next door to have pastries. I tried a chocolate eclaire-like pastry filled with chocolate pudding--num.

Napoli

The tall streets

 

Cakes at the bakery

Pizza!

Chocolate Eclaire

 After lunch, we were just in time for a tour of the underground. It was called the Borbani Tunnels, only excavated in 2005. First used for water collection and then as an escape route for King Bourbon, they are best known as a bomb shelter during WWII. I never realized how devastated Naples was by bombing during the war. It was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Europe. As a result, people spent a lot of time in these tunnels. We couldn't take pictures, but the tunnels were quite impressive, still filled with bathroom stalls, electric lines used for electricity back then, artifacts like cooking utensils, baby strollers, and perfume bottles, the alarm system they once used to warn people that the bombs were coming. It was somber, but fascinating, and we were happy to have found something unique to do in Napoli. For the rest of the day until our train left, we wandered towards the city center, dipping into random shops and interesting streets. Napoli is an interesting and surprising city. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much, and I definitely want to go back on a day or two when it's not raining. All the buildings are very tall and modern compared to other cities I've seen in Italy. I think this is most likely a result of the destruction caused by the bombing during WWII.

Cars that were stored in the tunnels after the war

Statue fragments

Lion on the hill

Wandering

We went back to Rome on one of the most comfortable train rides of my life. We had our own cart to ourselves with super comfy seats and headrests that came forward on either side so that it was easy (too easy) to sleep.

Ah, Rome. Home, sweet home.