Best Weekend Yet!

This past weekend was an amazing weekend, easily the best experience so far on this trip, that only spring break will beat.

Bright and early Friday morning the buses left headed for Pompei and I ended up dozing off most of the drive. We had a lunch break before going into the historic town of Pompei so I left my camera on the bus, thinking we were getting back on the bus, which is why I don't have any Pompei photos yet. But I did borrow a camera so I'll be getting those pictures soon. Anyways, it was so awesome to see the ruins of Pompei. It's amazing all of the digging archeologists have done to uncover the ruins and there is still much to do! Pompei was a huge city, about 300,000 I believe. They even had fast food back then! They also were the first, it is believed based on carbon-dating and all that time stuff, to build an arena for gladiatorial games. The arena in Pompei looks similar to the Colosseum, but smaller. We got to walk inside it and that was so awesome. Just about as cool as walking field level in Autzen Stadium. Super cool to experience. Afterwards we made our way to the hotel and this was the view upon arrival.


The weekend forecast prior to leaving Roma did not leave much hope for the Saturday trip to Capri, but the weather was the best it had been yet! So the trip to Capri was on! (Much better than the bad-weather-alternative, a museum.) The boat ride was an hour and it felt like a plane on the inside. Upon arriving at the island, I knew it was going to be a great day. Right away, a bunch of us student piled onto a sightseeing boat and we got an hour and a half tour around the whole island. Looking up at the 1,000 foot tall cliffs jutting up out of the water was amazing. And then the water color was a gorgeous aquamarine and so clear! I took so many pictures and my camera battery died as a result. Here are pictures that I was able to take though!






After the sea-level tour, I got lunch with some friends and then we made our way up to Anacapri, one of the towns on the island. In Anacapri, you can take a chairlift up to the top of the island, which pretty much everyone did. The view from the top of the island was absolutely incredible! I was just in complete awe of the work that God's hand has created. As much as I love Tahoe and greatly enjoyed Whistler last spring, I think Capri was probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen. So beautiful and amazing. Since my camera died, here are some pictures taken by some friends.





After taking the chairlift back down, there was a huge line to take the bus back down the mountain. However, as customary in Italia, the bus never came. Buses going to the other part of the island rolled by non-stop yet the bus to the marina never came. Eventually, since time was running out until we had to be back to the marina to catch the hydrofoil back, a bunch of us decided to take the 770+ stair descent down the mountain.


Basically running for the majority of it, it took about 20 minutes to descend the mountain. My quads and knees were burning by the end of it, but it was still awesome to do! And everyone made it onto the hydrofoil in time. (By the way, Dad might enjoy this the most, but this is the wake created by the hydrofoil.)


Sunday was a museum visit in Napoli. Napoli had a much different feel to it. Personally, the piazza I ate lunch in felt almost how I would imagine Russia feeling like. I was also surprised by how dirty and run-down the town was. Here's a picture I took from the museum showing the city.


The museum was really cool. It's an archeological museum, compromised of some history of Napoli, but mostly of artifacts from Pompei. Ancient Romans were so incredible and inventive. In one of the following pictures you'll see a scale representation of Pompei (the rectangle is a section yet to be excavated), and you'll also see a real Gladiator helmet.






After the museum, the buses took us to Mount Vesuvius. The road up the mountain reminded me of highway 4 by Ebbott's pass and really made me want to go driving in the mountains. I'm not quite sure how the buses even made it up the mountain. Once we stopped, we had about a 15-20 minute hike up the mountain, but so worth it! It was a bit hazy that day so the pictures of the panorama did not come out as well as I would have hoped but it was still awesome nonetheless. The crater was so deep, much deeper than I was expecting! I didn't take any volcanic rocks, though. I didn't think of it until later.




The weekend was so awesome!! It was a much needed vacation from life in Rome and a great experience to see the beauty of God's creation and to just relax. It will be hard to beat getaway, but spring break I'm sure will.

In other news, I have booked trips to Salzburg, Austria as well as Silverstone, England. I'll be in Salzburg from the 15th to the 18th of April and then I'll be travelling to Silverstone for the FIA GT Championship race there the first weekend of May.

Hope y'all enjoyed the post. Sorry it was so long!

Love you all! Can't wait to see you!