Coming to a town near you.: Erupting Volcanoes under the Capri Sun

Salve mi amici,
This past long weekend was spent with the entire class and professor. We went to the ruins of Pompei, the island of Capri, the ruins of Ercolano, and the city of Napoli.

Pompei: Disaster waiting to happen.
It is said that Mt. Vesuvius experiences a great eruption every 2000 years. The last huge eruption occurred in 79A.D. and wiped out the entire city of Pompeii (English spelling) with falling debris and ash. It's now 2008, so this next eruption can happen anytime, or so the professor told us right before entering the city. Comforting really. We had been to the Pompeii exhibit in San Diego and the one in Naples, now we were finally going to the actual scene of crime. The place was massive, incredible even, much more so than I had ever imagined. An entire city covered with ash and poisonous gases, killing all who stayed, burying them almost perfectly. We were lucky to have a Napoli native and anthropolgist show us around the site, giving us additional insight into the historical area. The forum, gymnasium, many villas and shops, etc. had all been excavated and preserved. I walked down the streets and through houses and imagined how daily life could have been for these ancient people. Casts of the final resting place for many Pompei-ians were found all over the grounds, in varying positions, most being in huddled fetal positions, no doubt trying to shield themselves from the fatal gases and debris coming from all sides. The most tragic cast I saw was one of a mother shielding her child in her arms. We had a long, full day at the ruins and were rather exhausted when we came back. Pompei is definitely a site one must visit if ever in the area, hopefully before the next great eruption of Vesuvius.

Capri Sun.
Okay, not really, the island was shrouded with clouds when we arrived in the morning, which wasn't a bad thing as it controlled the temperature for us. We hopped on a morning ferry and docked in the port of Capri after the half hour ride. We took a lift-type thing and were greeted by our professor's gregarious friend Maurizio. Maurizio has a house on the island and is very familiar with the trails that connect Capri to Anacapri and was willing to be our personal tour guide for the day. Now, the island of Capri is known to be a vacation getaway for the rich and famous from all over the world, not a field trip destination for a group of poor college students. However, with Maurizio's help, we got to see the island's true beauty, off the beaten path. We were treated to an expansive hike through the villas in the hills and to the top of the mountain between Capri and Anacapri. Amazing views all around, one can definitely see why the rich come here to get away from it all. To clarify, Capri is the tourist side of the island and Anacapri is the side where the locals live. We had lunch/dinner at a small trattoria (kitchen/restaurant) and were happily surprised when the professor decided to use our funds to pay for it. I had a wheat crouton and olive salad, which was a refreshing change from all the nutella sandwiches I've been having. After our meal, Maurizio decided to show us one last place before we had to head back to Sorrento. He led us up a path, through a filosofica garden and to the edge of the world. Or that's what it looked like anyway. This place was a small look out on top of sheer cliffs that looked directly out to the ocean. An ocean sight that was untouched by any landmasses, thus making it look like the end of the world. I will indeed post pictures when I can, but they won't be able to capture the full immensity of this place.

Ercolano: A Forgotten City.

Saturday morning began with an early train to the city of Herculaneum (Ercolano in Italian). This town was dirty and smelt of garbage and was supposedly not the best place to be at night, at least that's what our landlord's son told us. Why, then, did we want to visit this area? The volcanic eruption of 79A.D. that preserved Pompeii under layers of ash had covered Ercolano with molten lava. This place was thought to be lost until the 1700s when some kings decided to excavate the area. It was because of the cover of volcanic debris and extreme heat that the city was preserved so well, however, once excavated and exposed to air, the ruins have begun to deteriorate. So, the current focus for officials here is to preserve what they have already found. It was amazing to see how well these buildings and artifacts were preserved knowing that they were once covered with lava. They even found skeletal remains of about 55 people around the shore area, clustered there in an attempt to flee by boat. Ercolano was a smaller and wealthier town in comparison to the trading port town of Pompei, the main physical difference being the presence of a sewage system. But enough history, the place was immense, but not as much as Pompeii because it's still not all excavated. We stayed until the early afternoon, hopped back on the Circumvesuviana, and headed toward Napoli.

Napoli: My Chinese food Mecca.

Our small group of nine had been talking about food for three straight days. We were tired of bread, nutella, pasta, tomato sauce, sandwiches, and whatever crap we throw together in a sad attempt to make a balanced diet. A few of us had been craving Indian food, but upon walking down Corso Umberto (the main street in Napoli) we were disappointed to find no Indian food, we were about to give up and settle for another friggin pizza, but Eureka! I spotted a Chinese ristorante. Chang cheng jiu lou (translation: Great Wall Restaurant), I knew there was Chinese food in Naples, I just had to find it. Though it was not Indian food, I think we were just yearning for ethnic food. This place was better than the first Chinese restaurant we went to a few weeks back. The setting was nicer, cleaner plates and utensils, Chinese pop music playing quietly in the background.. Awesome. I shared some curry chicken and shrimp with bamboo shoots with Khadjia. We were greatly satisfied. I even had a sweet mantou for "dessert". I'm not too sure what was in it, but it was delicious. We visited the Castel Nuovo after, which we had skipped on the first time we were in Naples because of the 5 Euro entrance fee, but now we had our Artecards, which give us free entrance to most museums and monuments in the Campania area. We wandered around the 13th century fortress for lack of anything else to do, we were really just waiting for our boat back to Sorrent. We were tired from the full day of ruin walking. After awhile, we just sat down in the courtyard area to chill for a bit. Not long after sitting down, an Italian lady came up to me and asked if I was Japanese, before I could answer, she asked if I ate cats. I really hoped I was hearing wrong because it was all in Italian, but she gestured while saying "mangiare" which means eat and "gatti" the plural form of cat, and proceeded to bite the air in front of my face. All I could do was shake my head no, and before I could wrap my head around the situation, she walked off. I guess she really thought the Japanese ate cats, although she had a crazy look in her eyes...

That's how my third weekend on this program went, we don't have much planned for this next weekend, just a trip to Ravello for a music festival and maybe we'll splurge for a seafood dinner.

Pictures now, enjoy!