ITALY TRIP EASTER 2007
Back from Italy :D Warning, image-heavy post:
Tuesday
Flight from Gatwick some time after 7 am (-____-) Arrived in Naples and went off to see the boiling mud pools. They're at 130 degrees Centigrade. Or Fahrenheit. Either way, they're very hot. And steaming:
Kim! =D
And it smelled of sulphur, so that was pretty disgusting.
View of Vesuvius out of the coach window :D
The hotel was in Sorrento, which is a little, typical-looking Southern Italian town. It was kinda pretty, and reminded me of Portugal a fair bit.
They're not KKK, but the monks' outfits for this Christian religious ceremony. Still, it gave me a shock when I saw this picture... (>____>)
Wednesday
Visited the ruins of Pompeii in the morning. (for those who don't know, Pompeii is an ancient Roman town that was destroyed when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, and the ruins were buried and preserved by ash.) It was quite incredible =D
The Coliseum
Me, Flo, Wonu, Lydia and Kim outside the Coliseum :D
The guy's head at the front was our tour guide =D He put an 'a' on the end of every word - 'Thisa isa tha Romana pavilliona whicha...' XDD It was so groovy.
My favourite part of Pompeii, rather morbidly, was the bodies. The preserved remains are really famous, and I've seen the photos of them so many times, it's crazy seeing them for real:
Then in the afternoon we went to climb Mt Vesuvius. Well, we drove most of the way then walked the last km or so. It took over an hour though, and was boiling hot. Fun though.
View from Vesuvius
The crater of Vesuvius. No lava in sight, but a fair amount of smoke x_____X;
Thursday
Visited the island of Capri by boat, and went on a boat tour around the island. It was absolutely beautiful, but I couldn't take photos while on the boat or I would have gotten seasick. But after that we went up to the highest point of Capri on a chair-lift, from where there were some spectacular views of the island:
We went out in the evening for drinks at this place called the 'American Bar', and which was basically just us and these greasy French boys, who were slightly gross. There was very bad karaoke, and the Lower Sixth drank and smoked a lot. In Italy, they don't bother ID-ing, so basically anyone over 15 or so can get hold of alcohol. I'd like to say it was fun, but it really wasn't, so Kim and I retired to a quieter open-air bar for a drink instead.
Friday
Went to see the ruins of Herculaneum, which were a bit like Pompeii. It was another boiling day, but the ruins were interesting, more so for being located under the modern town, so the ruins suddenly end, and the modern houses start 60 foot up the mud shelf. Amy's group heard an American tourist saying 'Why is everything ruined? I want to see something new.' XDDD I love other tourists.
Flo and Kim being dorks :DD
Flo making a friend XDD
Flo on top of a sacred altar. How sacrilegous. We met an interesting sandwich-eating man here XD
FROGS!!! XD of which there were about 3298423467 billion
A preserved boat
Then we went to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli to see some of the items and mosaics they retrived from Herculaneum and Pompeii, which was interesting for me as a Latin student because I recognised a lot of the mosaics =D They're on the front of my Latin translation books...
(pictures are kinda blurry because we weren't allowed flash)
An amazing statue of Hermes. I actually really liked this one... I want to someday buy it and have it in my house :DD
These were really frightening (0_____0) They're so life-like, and the eyes gave me the creeps...
Apparently we British stole the companion vase to this, and it's now in the British museum. The tour guide lady didn't sound too happy about it...
After that we went for an underground tour of Naples, seeing the old Greek and Roman waterways, the WWII bomb shelters and even going through these really narrow (50cm wide) cave passages to see this ancient Roman bath. It was actually a lot more interesting than any of us expected.
And in the eveneing, we went out for the nicest pizza ever. Which was good, because the hotel's food was pretty awful...
Saturday
In the morning, we went out for a drive along the Amalfi coastline. It was incredibly beautiful - we were literally next to the sea the whole time, going along the front of the coast, and we caused at least two cars to crash into the wall trying to avoid us in our massive coach. We also saw a school of dolphins jumping around in the sea :D But I couldn't get any photos because of trying to avoid car-sickness, so I'm waiting on Flo and Kim for that. Anyways, we stopped off in the town of Amalfi, and saw the cathedral:
The tomb of St Andrew, Jesus' first disciple.
And that afternoon, we flew back into Gatwick, and I arrived home. It was a great trip, but next time I go to Italy, I'd like to visit Rome I think =D
And tomorrow, it's back to school o(>_______<)o
Tuesday
Flight from Gatwick some time after 7 am (-____-) Arrived in Naples and went off to see the boiling mud pools. They're at 130 degrees Centigrade. Or Fahrenheit. Either way, they're very hot. And steaming:
Kim! =D
And it smelled of sulphur, so that was pretty disgusting.
View of Vesuvius out of the coach window :D
The hotel was in Sorrento, which is a little, typical-looking Southern Italian town. It was kinda pretty, and reminded me of Portugal a fair bit.
They're not KKK, but the monks' outfits for this Christian religious ceremony. Still, it gave me a shock when I saw this picture... (>____>)
Wednesday
Visited the ruins of Pompeii in the morning. (for those who don't know, Pompeii is an ancient Roman town that was destroyed when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, and the ruins were buried and preserved by ash.) It was quite incredible =D
The Coliseum
Me, Flo, Wonu, Lydia and Kim outside the Coliseum :D
The guy's head at the front was our tour guide =D He put an 'a' on the end of every word - 'Thisa isa tha Romana pavilliona whicha...' XDD It was so groovy.
My favourite part of Pompeii, rather morbidly, was the bodies. The preserved remains are really famous, and I've seen the photos of them so many times, it's crazy seeing them for real:
Then in the afternoon we went to climb Mt Vesuvius. Well, we drove most of the way then walked the last km or so. It took over an hour though, and was boiling hot. Fun though.
View from Vesuvius
The crater of Vesuvius. No lava in sight, but a fair amount of smoke x_____X;
Thursday
Visited the island of Capri by boat, and went on a boat tour around the island. It was absolutely beautiful, but I couldn't take photos while on the boat or I would have gotten seasick. But after that we went up to the highest point of Capri on a chair-lift, from where there were some spectacular views of the island:
We went out in the evening for drinks at this place called the 'American Bar', and which was basically just us and these greasy French boys, who were slightly gross. There was very bad karaoke, and the Lower Sixth drank and smoked a lot. In Italy, they don't bother ID-ing, so basically anyone over 15 or so can get hold of alcohol. I'd like to say it was fun, but it really wasn't, so Kim and I retired to a quieter open-air bar for a drink instead.
Friday
Went to see the ruins of Herculaneum, which were a bit like Pompeii. It was another boiling day, but the ruins were interesting, more so for being located under the modern town, so the ruins suddenly end, and the modern houses start 60 foot up the mud shelf. Amy's group heard an American tourist saying 'Why is everything ruined? I want to see something new.' XDDD I love other tourists.
Flo and Kim being dorks :DD
Flo making a friend XDD
Flo on top of a sacred altar. How sacrilegous. We met an interesting sandwich-eating man here XD
FROGS!!! XD of which there were about 3298423467 billion
A preserved boat
Then we went to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli to see some of the items and mosaics they retrived from Herculaneum and Pompeii, which was interesting for me as a Latin student because I recognised a lot of the mosaics =D They're on the front of my Latin translation books...
(pictures are kinda blurry because we weren't allowed flash)
An amazing statue of Hermes. I actually really liked this one... I want to someday buy it and have it in my house :DD
These were really frightening (0_____0) They're so life-like, and the eyes gave me the creeps...
Apparently we British stole the companion vase to this, and it's now in the British museum. The tour guide lady didn't sound too happy about it...
After that we went for an underground tour of Naples, seeing the old Greek and Roman waterways, the WWII bomb shelters and even going through these really narrow (50cm wide) cave passages to see this ancient Roman bath. It was actually a lot more interesting than any of us expected.
And in the eveneing, we went out for the nicest pizza ever. Which was good, because the hotel's food was pretty awful...
Saturday
In the morning, we went out for a drive along the Amalfi coastline. It was incredibly beautiful - we were literally next to the sea the whole time, going along the front of the coast, and we caused at least two cars to crash into the wall trying to avoid us in our massive coach. We also saw a school of dolphins jumping around in the sea :D But I couldn't get any photos because of trying to avoid car-sickness, so I'm waiting on Flo and Kim for that. Anyways, we stopped off in the town of Amalfi, and saw the cathedral:
The tomb of St Andrew, Jesus' first disciple.
And that afternoon, we flew back into Gatwick, and I arrived home. It was a great trip, but next time I go to Italy, I'd like to visit Rome I think =D
And tomorrow, it's back to school o(>_______<)o