Of Adventures and Pizza — Italy, Weeks 8-11

That evening we checked into our hotel, which had an extremely scenic overview of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius from across the bay. I went to get some food with some of the kids, and ended up having the best pizza I’ve had since coming to Italy, probably the best of my life.

On Saturday, we took a bus to Naples and then a hydrofoil ferry to the Isle de Capri. What heaven this island is! Given two bus tickets by AIFS for the day, we took a bus up to the city of Capri, enjoyed the view from there (higher than the port we docked at), and then took another bus up to Anacapri, a smaller town at a higher elevation and on the other side of the island.

Later, we slowly made our way down the island, and enjoyed finding the various stairs that provided shortcuts both through the woods and through the suburbs of Capri. Even the hydrofoil back was exhilarating as we literally caught air at one point during the return journey.

Sunday was another early morning, with us checking out of the hotel and heading to Naples to see a museum of artifacts, statues and paintings, some removed from Pompeii, some brought from Rome as part of the Farneze collection. Oddly enough, the Farneze’s were once a powerful ruling family of Italy, whose Rome palace has now become shops and apartments, one of which is mine.

Afterwards, we ate lunch and boarded the buses to drive back to Pompeii to climb Mt. Vesuvius. The view from the top was worth the cold hike and a splendid cap to a surreal weekend.

The next week of school consisted of midterms, which only meant that spring break had finally sprung. That Thursday I busted out of Rome, ready to city hop the rest of Italy. Early in the morning, I packed and caught a taxi to the airport for my flight to my first destination: Sicily. I had booked a hotel in Cinici, a town near the airport and close to my primary interest on the island, Terrasini. My great-grandparents had both been born there and my grandma had never gotten a chance to see the town. So I hiked there, since it was too early in the morning to check in.

Terrasini is nothing but a small coastal fishing town, but it was quiet, slow and very relaxing. I climbed around on the rocks and cliffs on the shore before finding a secluded ledge where I put my head on my backpack and took a long overdue nap by the ocean. My second day in Sicily I stayed fairly lazy. I wandered around Cinici part of the day and even ended up back in Terrasini for a few last looks. I flew back to Rome that evening and reached my apartment very late at night.

A few hours of sleep later, I was up and getting ready for my next early morning flight, this time to Milan. Stepping off the bus from the airport to the central station, I was amazed at the modernity of the city. It stood in stark contrast to the classical architecture of Italy’s other major cities. My father later informed me that this was due to the fact that Milan was bombed heavily during World War II.

I was able to check into my hotel when I arrived, so I dropped off my bag and headed toward the city center. I walked through the Galleria, a mall of designer fashions, Prada, LV, D&G, etc. However, in the center was a McDonalds.

On the other side was the impressive and magnificent Duomo of Milan. Its neo-gothic design set it apart from the mostly baroque cathedrals that dotted Italy’s towns. The interior was no less impressive, with giant columns that stretched toward Heaven itself. Later that day, I wandered over to the old fort, now an array of museums, with an expansive park behind it. My feet (and the rest of me) were tired by the evening, so I called it a night.

Today, I overslept the early train to Venice because I completely forgot about Daylight Savings Time beginning over here. I boarded a later train and found that this was truly the way to travel.

Once in Venice, I found my way the section of the island I had memorized the weekend we came here two months ago. To my surprise, the hotel I had booked was literally right next to the one we stayed at in January. I walked around the city, revisiting San Marco square and several other places I’d already seen. The weather was beautiful, but the city was crowded.

The next morning, I took the train back to Milan and wandered around there a while before my flight. I used some maps that my father had given me to find his old school buildings and apartment. I even had coffee at a coffee shop that he frequented across the street from his school.